The PERFECT Autumn Vibes Reading List For 2024
3 months ago
'The Month of Men' BLOG TOUR: An exclusive interview with Jennifer Echols!
As part of The Month of Men blog tour, today, I bring to you an interview with the wonderful Jennifer Echols. You lucky USers have read her books before us but now Echols's Forget You and Going too Far have finally been released in the UK along with Such a Rush to be released in a month or so.
Exciting right? Enough talk, here's the interview!
Tell me five things that you love about writing books aimed at New Adults?
Wow, only five? I'll try. 1) The characters are on the cusp of adulthood, but are often still controlled by their parents physically or mentally or both, and that makes for some fascinating tension. 2) Characters that age begin to be put in stressful situations, positions of great responsibility, that they might not be mature enough to handle. More tension! 3) The decisions characters make at this age really are going to affect the rest of their lives. That's a lot of pressure. 4) It's no wonder that people, no matter what their age, look to their late teens and early twenties as the time of their lives. This age group is full of creativity and energy, which makes it lots of fun to read about. 5) Mix all that together, add a nail-biting romance, and you've got a great book! What's not to love?
Which character, from any of your books, has been the most entertaining to write?
Leah from Such a Rush was a real challenge. I love a challenge! She has grown up in poverty, without a steady parent or role model for most of her life, but she possesses a great deal of self-worth and dignity. I had to explore very deep to figure out where her perspective on life comes from, but I honestly think this book is some of my best work—and I got there with the help of a fantastic editor.
How do you make sure the element of love is different and fresh in each of your books?
I centre each plot around a romance because that's what I enjoy reading. But the romance evolves naturally out of the characters and the setting, and since those elements are pretty wildly different in each of my books, the romance is too.
Do you prefer the bad boy or a good guy?
I've written the good guy (Johnafter in Going Too Far), the bad boy (Doug in Forget You), and the bad boy turned good guy (Grayson in Such a Rush), so it's hard to choose! I tend to prefer the type of guy I'm writing right that second. I'm very loyal. :)
Is writing something you have always wanted to do as a career?
It's certainly something I've always been interested in. My grandmother was an unpublished writer, and I credit her with my confidence that I could do this too. It never occurred to me that I couldn't. However, in school I was also interested in art and music. In fact, when I first went to college, my major was music composition. But I quickly decided I wanted to be a novelist and switched my major to English, and I never looked back.
What YA books are in your reading pile?
Soon I'm speaking on a panel at a librarians' conference in Texas with John Corey Whaley, Sherri L. Smith, and Ruta Sepetys, and I've got their latest on my shelf. But...speaking of Texas...I just finished and absolutely loved Rosemary Clement-Moore's fun paranormal SPIRIT AND DUST, a follow-up to TEXAS GOTHIC.
Add on: Goodreads
An enormous thank you to Jennifer for the interview! I am so happy to have one of my all time favourite authors on my blog! I love her books! I've read both of the books shown above including Such a Rush, Endless Summer, Love Story and The One that I want. I adore them and I'm sure you guys will too, so up pick Echol's books. Trust me, you won't regret it. At most, you'd want to buy all her books ;D
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Mia, this is so kind of you. Thanks for having me on your blog!
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ReplyDeleteAwesome interview!!
ReplyDeleteI love Jennifer Echol's books! Great interview:)
ReplyDeleteLovely blog! Please follow mine; it's new: readandlovebooks.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks♥