Laura Jackson Interview and Giveaway

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome my good friend, and debut author, Laura Jackson to my blog today.

Laura has taught 7th grade Language Arts for several years. In fact, she was finishing up college and started teaching 7th grade when I first met her. She is currently an elementary school librarian.

Laura and I have known each other for at least 10 years, probably longer. We met on a Robin Jones Gunn message board called God Lover's Online. As we chatted via messenger, we realized how close we live to each other. And while it's true that Houston is a large city and we do live on different sides, we discovered that it's not too hard to meet up in the middle and hang out. We typically get together once or twice a year to hang out. I'll be the first to say that when I got the text, followed by a phone call, from Laura when she was offered a book contract, I was thrilled for her.

And I'm thrilled to be able to welcome her here today for an interview. So without further ado, here is Laura.

Dawn: Laura, thank you for joining us here today.

Laura: I'm happy to be here. Thanks for hosting me.

Dawn: Well let's get started shall we?  What made you decide to write a novel?

Laura: 

I missed writing after I quit teaching language arts. When my dad was battling cancer, I would sit with him so that my mom could go to church. He’d often sleep the whole time, and so I decided to start a book, wanting a happy ending since we weren’t going to get one with my dad’s health. (But, his going to be with the Lord is the happiest ending for any of us.)

Dawn: I'm sorry to hear about your dad. I lost mine when I was little. 

I know you did NANO. How did you stay disciplined while working full time?

Laura:

I have no clue! I had the idea of Ellie in my head, and the story just flowed fast. I was off for a week for Thanksgiving, so I did a lot of writing then.

Dawn: Tell about your journey to publication.

Laura:

I wrote Worth the Wait in November and December. In January and February, I had it edited by an author and an editor.

In March, I began to send it off to agents. Some replied with a no, some didn’t reply at all, and one told me to edit some more and re-send it.

During that waiting time, I also sent it to a few small publishers that didn’t require agents.

Two publishers asked to see the whole novel, and HopeSprings Books offered me a contract in May. Then, the fun began.

And by fun, I mean countless rounds of editing! Editing was/is harder than writing the first draft.

Dawn: What authors have influenced your writing?

Laura:

Too many to count as far as the writing!

Betsy St. Amant has been an encouragement to me throughout the whole process and offered me a lot of sage advice.

Erynn Mangum and Kristin Billerbeck have the best blogs and are the models I follow for interacting with readers….keeping it focused on the personal and not pushing the sales constantly.

Dawn: Who are your favorites?

Laura: 

Ally Carter, Jenny B. Jones, and Sarah Dessen for YA.

Kristin Billerbeck and Erynn Mangum for chick lit.

Irene Hannon, Dani Pettrey, and Lynette Eason for romantic suspense.

I could go on and on.

 

Dawn: Why did you target the young adult market?

Laura:

I tried writing a Love Inspired type of book when my dad was sick. It was horrible. So, I thought about it…what did I love to read? YA was the first thing that popped in my head, and I decided to try it. It worked.

Dawn: What's next?

Laura:

Lindsey’s story. She’s the mean girl in Worth the Wait. She’s a hateful heifer. I wanted to figure out why she was that way, so I’m writing and actually starting to like her. :)

Thank you Laura for stopping by. I know I'll be looking forward to Lindsey's story. Maybe you can redeem her. :)

Readers - Laura is offering a print copy of Worth the Wait to one lucky winner. This is open to US residents only. Just follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter giveaway below to enter. The drawing begins at 10:00 AM CST today. (so come back then to enter) There are two options that are leaving a blog post comment. These are the two posts that comments are requested on - Worth the Wait Review - Interview with Laura. Not following the instructions on each option can result in being disqualified from the drawing. Ends on Feb 14, 2014 at 11:59 pm. A winner will be chose on the 15th and notified by email. Please ensure that the email address entered into the rafflecopter giveaway is valid. The winner will have until Monday Feb 17, 2014 at 7:00 pm CST to respond with a mailing address or another winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Worth the Wait - A Review

About the book
Published - February 4, 2014 Hope Springs Books
Series - Waltham Academy Book 1
Author - Laura Jackson
Format - paper, 220 pages
Buy from Amazon


Ellie Lansing is excited to start her senior year. She's a cheerleader, dating a wonderful guy, looking forward to the mission trip, and has a supportive family. Yes everything in life is going perfect. Perfect that is until she discovers her long-time boyfriend has cheated on her. Perfect that is until her mother's diagnosed with breast cancer. All of a sudden her perfect life has crumbled around her. Ellie struggles to pick up the pieces while trying to figure out exactly who she is in the midst of it all. Will she find herself or will she be lost adrift of all that is happening in her life?

This is Laura Jackson's debut novel. I was thrilled when the publisher contacted me to review this book. Like any other debut, I try to read it without overly high expectations because I never really know what I will get. Will I get a story that grabs me and causes me to react to the characters? Or will I get a story that feels like I'm be tortured to read? It does seem to me, lately, that the last several debuts I've read have fallen into the second category. I'm very pleased to say that Worth the Wait fell into the first category.

While I was reading it, I did find that Ellie was too perfect. Even when her life was completely turned upside down, she still seemed too perfect. That said, I loved watching Ellie grow and realize just exactly who she was and who God wanted her to be. I thought that Dylan was a first class jerk and that Ellie deserved better than him. I kept rooting for Ellie's best friend's twin brother, Josh, to be the guy that Ellie would finally notice.

I found that the author perfectly described life in a private Christian high school. I could "hear" in my mind as I read the cattiness of several of the characters, the gossip that ran rampant, and the wanting to fit in and be popular. Truly it wasn't much different than a public school. But where the biggest difference was, was in the way the characters reacted to situations. There was one party where one of the girls starts to feel really guilty about how she had been treating the main character and sends a rescue text or phone call to Josh. And while I can see several people being disappointed in how this book ends, I was really fine with it. Mainly because I felt that Ellie needed to figure out who she is.

Overall, I really loved this book. It's been a while since I've read  a truly young adult book, and I found this one to be delightful.  I will definitely keep an eye out for others by this author.

I received a pdf copy of the book from the publisher to review as well as to help promote the author's book. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Recommended to fans of Robin Jones Gunn's Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen, and Katie Weldon series, Meg Cabot's books, young adults, Jenny B Jones, Krista McGee

Rating - 5 stars - I loved it!

Note - Stop back by beginning on Wednesday February 5 for an interview with Laura Jackson and a chance to win her book.