Jessica White Interview

Q: Let me start with asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
A. I’m a hobbit. I love nature, but don’t like venturing far from home. I enjoy reading and word games. I collect books, blue and green glass, and llamas. I’m a first-generation Texan married to a sixth-generation Texan, but we recently moved to Oklahoma City for my husband’s career. We have two daughters, a dog, a cat and cohouse with another couple and their cat and five ferrets. It’s never a dull day in our hobbit hole we lovingly call Yuimaru (a place of gathering).

Q: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
A. Books have always been my haven, but boredom in middle school gave me the motivation to try my hand at writing a story. Twenty years later, I found those thirty-five pages as a mother of two finishing a degree in K-12 education. I delved into the story of the last children to live in the house I’d described in those pages. Two years later, I finished my Bachelor’s and thanks to the amazing community at 10 Minute Novelists who beta-read, edited, and taught me the ropes of indie publishing, I put out my first book. By then, God had revealed this was my vocation and was opening doors in the writing world I didn’t even know existed.

Q: Could you give us the highlights of your professional writing career including how you got your first writing break?
A. I joined 10 Minute Novelists in 2013. Through them, I learned from writers, editors, and agents and heard about American Christian Fiction Writers. As a member of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of ACFW, I found Lena Nelson Dooley’s weekly critique group. With her encouragement, I broke away from my historicals and wrote a romantic suspense. I took it to a conference to practice pitching. I knew the book had the potential to market well based on its premise, but I’d only been writing for three years. I was surprised when I was asked to send a proposal, got an agent contract within a month, and a publishing contract for Song in the Dark a year later.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release Song in the Dark?
A: This book explores what it means to overcome our darkest struggles. Harpist Jenna Fields grew up with a narcissistic parent whose love was conditionally based on her performance and how she made her mother look. We discover the self-destructive coping mechanisms she’s relied on to take back control and how often these victims end up attracting predatory partners.

It also tells the story of homicide detective Dean Blackburn who feels tainted by death. He doesn’t see himself as a rescuer but as the one who seeks justice for the dead. He struggles to accept there is a place for light and hope in his life. When he sees Jenna’s goodness isn’t because she’s never faced the world’s ugliness, but despite it, he determines to help her break free of her mother’s gilded cage.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for Song in the Dark?
A: One night after critique group, I shared how I was rereading the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson Series to my daughters, and how I wished there were adult books based on the Greek mythology. I’ve always been fascinated with the personalities and layers of symbolism, but I wasn’t sure how I’d pull it off in Christian fiction. My writing partner challenged me to pray about it and within a few days, I’d created a dozen modern interpretations of the Olympian gods. As I prayed over them, as I do all my characters, God assured me He could love and redeem even them.

I started with my favorite, Hades, because he always gets a bad rap as god of the underworld. But he was the only one faithful to his wife; the one who sought justice and order while his brothers Zeus and Poseidon were throwing temper tantrums and sleeping around. He was the literal black sheep of his family, and thus the last name “Blackburn” cemented in my mind. The rest filled in as I wrote.

Q: What is the main thing you hope readers remember from this story?
A: I hope this story leaves readers feeling that darkness isn’t a place to avoid journeying through. The Lord is there, and in our darkest moments we often see Him the clearest. Also, true freedom isn’t always found in getting rid of the problem, but by creating safe boundaries and focusing on what we can control while leaving the rest to Him.

Q: What inspires you to write?
A. I’ve always had an intimate relationship with God and a strong sense of intuition. I see pain behind people’s smiles, their fears behind their laughter. I see the homeless, the latchkey kid, the people others pretend don’t exist. And I often hear the Holy Spirit revealing how God sees them, grieves with them, walks with them even when they are unaware. Their stories need to be told, not as victims (which unfortunately is how they are often victimized again) but as overcomers and beloved of God.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I’m working on another standalone based on Artemis mixed with the myth of Theseus and the Labyrinth.

Former Army sergeant Naomi Delos runs a group home in New York City for high-risk girls. When one who suffers from selective mutism goes missing and the police insist she’s just run away, Naomi puts her scouting skills to work and calls on the help of a search-and-rescue team. But in a city of millions, she doesn’t expect her Army teammate who risked his life to save hers to answer the call.

Levi Goldberg refuses to let the woman who changed the course of his life to disappear again. With the help of his bloodhound, they follow clues and messages hidden in the girl’s poetry to rescue the teen before she’s lost in the human trafficking ring known as the Labyrinth.

Q: When you’re not writing what do you like to do?
A. I’m an avid reader and lifelong learner. I love teaching at my girls’ self-directed school (right now that’s mythologies from around the world). I also love to organize. Doesn’t matter if it’s straightening a closet or organizing a critique group, there is something about putting order to chaos or making dreams realities that draws me near to God and brings me joy.