Hey, all. Welcome to my blog, where we talk about all things creative, with authors often but not always occupying center stage. If you’re a creative person, this blog is for you. Especially if you work a full day and come home, hungry, cold, tired, and still find the time to court your muse. Let’s celebrate us.
My inaugural guest is a writer and editor whose extensive website and blog is a mandatory guide to the art and craft of writing. If you’re looking for an editor, Jessica’s your girl. Once upon a time she also worked as a screener for a major literary agency. Not only does she know the ps and qs of the book industry, I daresay she could invent a few letters of her own. I am pleased to introduce Ms. Jessica Hatch.
My Big Fake Wedding and How to Keep a Husband for 10 Days are packed with romance, plot twists, hilarity, heart, and lovely writing. Friendship and love win out in the end, but on the way there, you’ll laugh out loud and ugly cry, sometimes on the same page. This is not the time to practice your Evelyn Wood speed reading techniques—in case you were considering that. You’ll want to mosey through these novels so that you can bask in every detail.
Without further ado, let’s get going.
Your novels are set in Virginia and Florida. They give me the sense of an updated Eudora Welty. Are you a Southern girl, or at least a Southerner at heart? I really enjoy having my work be embodied, having it enjoy a sense of place. I grew up in Virginia and now live in Florida, so my novels are set in these states because they’re what I know and what’s dear to me.
Weirdly, though, I’ve never considered myself much of a Southerner. Maybe it’s internalized stigma? Or because I feel like other things define me more than my region of birth?
With that said, at writing conferences I’ve heard some pretty cruel and obtuse things about the South (including “I didn’t know anyone could read in Miami,” which hosts one of the nation’s most prestigious book fairs every November, thank you very much). We as Americans need to start embracing the fact that not everyone who lives in the South has a Stars and Bars bumper sticker, just like not everyone who lives in New York or LA is progressively minded.
Anything you want to say about your days as a Keeper of the Gates?They were edifying! I learned a lot about what industry professionals look for in a novel, which has helped me as a novelist and a freelance editor.
I get the sense that your own life parallels that of your heroines. Any truth to that?
I love to write what I know—up to a point. Usually this means writing about a feeling with which I and the reader are both familiar (e.g., isolation, love, a need to fit in) more than any biographical fallacy. My second novel was written on a profoundly tight deadline, though, so while there is a little more “write what you know” going on there than I usually prefer, no, I’ve never faked being married while filing for divorce.
Your books are teeming with beautiful descriptions. It’s hard to nail down just a few, but my favorite has to be “automotive spooning” as a description of a fender bender. Or a “porny porn star.” Or, on a more lyrical note, “And she abandoned him there, in the salt and the sweet of nostalgia.” Language is clearly important to you. Does it come naturally?
Ha! Thank you. Language is important to me, and I’ve worked hard to bring it to the point that rhythm and sound are instinctual for me.
The mechanics of poetry are crucial for any writer, even prose writers, to grasp. Between poetry workshops I’ve taken and my late mentor Giancarlo DiTrapano’s infamous one-sentence exercise—plus, you know, reading other people’s work—I’ve learned what helps a sentence express the mood I want it to have, whether that’s funny or moving or something else. It takes time and practice, but I think anyone can hone this instinct.
And oh, my goodness, the food and drink! You kept me salivating throughout your second novel! Here are a few highlights: “…a Bloody Mary with a hearty garnish of celery, fried pimiento olives, and bacon.” Yum! Or “She fortified herself with a bite of brie, which melted on her fingers and felt like heaven on her tongue.” Tell me about your food journey.
It’s funny you mention this . . . In my work in progress, the main character is currently craving xiaolongbao! (Food details are a great way to help a novel be embodied, FYI.)
My meta-fictional food journey has finally reached what my therapists and I have striven for: a sense of enjoyment happening more often than a sense of guilt. I grew up in the heroin-chic nineties and diet-obsessed aughts, which prompted some rather eating-disordered thinking in younger me, so to be in a state of recovery like this is a victory indeed.
What passages of the book did you most enjoy writing? What parts did you find the most frustrating?
Any passage that makes my reader laugh/cry/feel something is the most enjoyable. Ironically, this includes the most frustrating sort of scene—physical comedy! Physical comedy is a challenge to write in novels for so many reasons (logistics, timing); not that I let that stop me. Scenes from How to Keep a Husband for 10 Days—like Lina and Brown rushing to make their apartment look like a lived-in love nest as Freddie tries to push their way in—required blocking, almost like you’d rehearse for a stage play. I think that hard work paid dividends.
Creatively speaking, what gets you out of the bed in the morning, and what keeps you going?
A friend gave me a plaque once that says, “Do what you love, and do it often.” That pretty much sums it up.
Did you outline your novels before writing, did you wing it, or was it a combo deal?
I outline but then leave room for (a) play and (b) head-scratching and swearing about how it can be better come editing time.
Plot-driven or character-driven?
You need both, but I adore my characters. I love to learn how their minds work.
Tell me about Bookouture. I’m not familiar.
Bookouture is a digital-first imprint based in Hachette Book Group’s London office. They’ve had some major successes, especially with psychological thrillers like Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid, and they take both agented and unagented submissions in genre fiction like women’s fiction, historical fiction, romance, and sci-fi and fantasy.
Tell me about your Pitch Wars victory. Any tips?
I entered on a whim during Brooklyn Book Fest 2018 and won a month-long scholarship to Paragraph NYC. (Which I couldn’t use because, yes, I live in Florida, but the experience was fabulous.)
My best tip is to be prepared. Know your project and be able to talk about it intelligibly. If you have your query letter polished and your elevator pitch down pat, you can’t lose.
What is your best advice for aspiring writers?
If you’re putting words on the page, you’re a writer. Screw anyone who tells you otherwise. (The word they’re probably looking for is “author.”)
If you decide to pursue publication, have a very clear understanding of what you need and want out of it. Find an objective way to surmount the “They like me! They really like me!” feeling of your first offer call, like a pros and cons list, so you can make the decision that’s right for you, not just in the moment but for the long term.
Answer the question you wished I’d asked but didn’t.
I don’t regret any choice I’ve made along the way, even if patience and considering what my end goals are would have been better. I’ve realized I’m a slow learner when it comes to practical life choices, but hey, like my characters, mistakes are the way I improve.
Would you like to tell us what you’re working on right now?
As I mentioned, I’m between book deals right now and starting to look for an agent. I’m currently retooling two experimental speculative novels that have been sitting on my hard drive. In case agents want my next effort to also be romance/women’s fiction, though, I’m working on a spicy romcom tentatively called Roll for Initiative. In it, a young woman navigates a love triangle, a late-in-life autism diagnosis, and learning to play Dungeons & Dragons all over the same autumn.
How can your adoring fans reach you?
The best places folks can keep up with me these days are my blog (www.jessicahatch.com/blog) and my Instagram account (@JessicaNHatch). Hi, in advance!