Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
A1. When the doors closed on Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Tulsa, where I was a chaplain, I became a full-time fiction writer, accomplishing a lifetime goal. I wrote my first short story in third grade.
I published SHOOG on Amazon.com. Soon to come, if not out already, is SHOOG II which I sent to Amazon for review on Feb. 29, 2024.
SHOOG and A SUIT FOR MELVIN were both published in 2022.
The first Melvin book was originally written in the 1970’s-80’s, set in 1957 and was the first of THE JOE MACGREGOR series, historical fiction. I had not intended to write a sequel, but surprisingly, men particularly seemed to love the book and asked for a sequel.
The second book, A HORSE FOR JOE, was dedicated to my high school and college peers who were sent to Vietnam, as well as all veterans. I created a glossary of characters and footnotes so readers could easily keep track of the characters and perhaps learn something from the footnotes. I am writing A SEARCH FOR MELVIN right now, and my fans keep telling me to hurry up.
I do not write children’s books. My books contain characters of all ages, causing the generations to interact. The characters don’t hide their feelings from the reader, and I am not afraid to tackle subjects some find taboo. I personally do not swear, but I throw in a couple of colorful words to keep the setting and characters realistic. For all the tears I cause, I hope the reader has several laughs to balance them out. I love to make people smile or laugh.
I first published at age 21 in a national education publication, later working as a news editor, photographer, and writer, following experience in hospital public relations and marketing, a year in labor and delivery and over four years for a psychiatric hospital.
I taught high school English, junior college writing, was a preschool director and children’s pastor. I earned a Masters of Divinity from Phillips Theological Seminary and a BA from Culver-Stockton College. (I was privileged to visit Culver-Stockton in 2023 to lead two writing workshops.)
My three biggest accomplishments in life are my three children which I share with my former husband, A. Thomas Jennings. The “Jennings’ kids” are now successful adults. I have eight grandchildren who seem to be keeping up with their parents as far as accomplishments and education. We all have a great sense of humor.
As a side note, I was born in Tulsa, OK., but grew up in Small Town, MO. People make a big deal out of how to pronounce Missouri. It’s an Indian word, and I was delighted, when I saw CHILDREN OF THE FLOWER MOON, to hear they pronounced it the way it should be pronounced, Mah-zur-ah. The word does not end in an ie. Ah, there will be a response for that teaser!
For four years I was a senior mentor to Oklahoma State University medical students, and I dabble in acting.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “A Horse for Joe”?
A2. A SUIT FOR MELVIN was based on a dance that really took place, and as I wrote it, I visualized my hometown. A HORSE FOR JOE is purely fiction.
The first challenge in any sequel is catching up the reader so they know what’s happened before even if they didn’t read the first book. Although I am able to tell people, “You don’t have to read the first book to enjoy the Joe book,” I feel they miss out on having fallen in love with the characters and experiencing the emotion that took place before they tuned in.
Bringing people up-to-date without boring them to death is a challenge and a worry.
I kept telling myself the characters all had to be interesting, and all of them had to have a background. The characters are not just names; they have feelings, intentions, and personalities.
In addition to wanting believable, dynamic characters, I wanted a lot of action, as ongoing as possible, events overlapping, hopefully causing a reader who is lying down to sit up, waiting to find out what happens next.
I also care about the writing itself. I aim for rhythm, fascinating words when possible, vocabulary that isn’t just skimmed milk over shredded wheat.
My desire is to leave people “wanting more.”
Truthfully, once I get into a book, the characters take over. They’re dictating; I’m just keyboarding. I thank them for that. If I ever create a character who doesn’t help me out, I shall fire them.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
My list of favorite books runs from JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS to SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. Over the years, Ray Bradbury was very good about answering my letters. In the very first one he said if my characters come alive in my books like they did in my letters, I would make it.
I love THE POISONWOOD BIBLE and anything Barbara Kingsolver writes. Having been an English major, and a child who read three books a day in summer, I have to thank all the writers, because I’m certain all of them gave me something.
When we lived in West Des Moines, Ia., I sat down and visited with Henry Felsen, who wrote many teenage books like STREET ROD and HOT ROD. He later stopped by our house as I was giving a birthday party for a six-year old and asked to read something I’d written. He then invited me to visit his college class, but we were moving to Oklahoma in a few days. His advice was to never be discouraged by rejections. His eighth book was rejected many times, more than any of mine have over the years. I took that to heart.
If I can share one more thing, Henry’s grocery list was lying on the restaurant table. It said, “Something to pick up with my hands and eat.” So often when I’m writing and go to the kitchen, that’s my goal, just something I can grab, like an apple, so I can get back to writing.”
Q4. What’s your favorite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
A4. I suppose that would be my hometown in Small Town, Missoura. I confess most of the places I have visited, I have also lived. I traveled very little in my adult life, not by choice. It seems like we worked all the time and never had money for trips.
Although my hometown has changed a great deal, the town square still exists although without the hitchings posts. The first house where I lived in Missoura, what we called the big brick house, burned down, but the second, where I lived from third grade until graduation, still looks the same from the outside. The architecture inside is strange as rooms were built as they were needed –family, borders, etc. I lived with my grandparents. My mother and her siblings were all born there.
The high school has been torn down, but I can still see it in my mind. The “new gym” where I graduated has been replaced. I don’t know my way around there anymore, and very few people remember our family, which hurts my feelings.
But the important thing is when visiting there I have my own memories as Jo-Ann, but I also have the memories of Holly who lived in that house and on that street when I was writing SHOOG.
J.J. from the MacGregor series lived uptown on the square over a drug store. People still hang out at “the lake.” In my mind and heart, Small Town, Missouri, has real people as well as the ones I created and put there. Although the barn-house, Tina Tinker, Brett Coffee, and Pastor Billy never existed in that town, SHOOG put them there, and they fit well.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘A Suit for Melvin’?
A5. When I was in seventh grade, several mothers in town planned a semi-formal dance with their daughters in seventh grade. The girls wrote formal invitations and thought nothing of explaining what semi-formal meant as they hand-delivered them. It’s the first dance in my memory where I danced every dance I wanted, because I had two boys who were friends, who took turns dancing with me.
Something happened that night that still brings tears to my eyes it was so touching. I never forgot it. So when my children were young and we were living in Bolingbook, Il., I went to my office in the basement and created J.J. based on a rascal of a boy in my class, and Melvin, a boy who was in the class for seven years but then disappeared as some students seem to do. The experience of the two boys at the dance and their discussion on the way home is probably the most touching thing I’ve ever written. J.J. becomes Joe in the next book and continues to touch people. I was just a spectator and have no idea what they really talked about on the way home, but that book is very dear to me. My daughter Rachel tells people, “It’s a sweet book.” Who knew it would become a series?
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘SHOOG’?
A6. SHOOG took much longer to write than the other books, three years. I was at home one day remembering, as people tend to do as they grow older. I had this beautiful memory of a boy who quietly sat down by me when no one else was yet in the classroom. It was our senior year, and when I realized there was a presence next to me, I looked up, and he had pulled his chair over to mine and was just waiting for me to look up. When I did, my heart swelled, and I know my smile was as big as the moon. When the bell rang, he got up and left before he said a word.
Later, a girl I think of as my nemesis, because of the things she said and did to me, stopped me in the hall at school and said he wanted to go out with me. I blurted out, “I don’t know that my grandmother will let me go – but I’ll talk to her!” I called after her, “Tell him to ask me himself!” He never asked me out, and I was confused.
Two years passed before I heard she had told him I thought I was too good for him. Then someone else in my life affirmed that I was if you can believe that. I was broken hearted that the beautiful boy with the quiet smile thought I had said such a horrible thing. By then I was in college, and he was getting married. Truthfully, he probably never thought a thing about it; he probably forgot me. And I know he went on to be happily married and have children. So did I!
But I remembered that day when he pulled his chair up beside me, I looked him up on my laptop, thinking I would tell him the truth and apologize. He had died eight years before. I am usually not much of a griever, but I could not stop being sad. There was no way to say I was sorry.
One of my granddaughters recommended a book I should read, but it didn’t help.
We never dated; we never had a conversation. He was quiet in class, so I don’t know what his voice sounded like. So I invented Hugh Coffee and Holly Bishop. Holly lived in the house where I grew up, and a fictional love story was born.
When I was at Culver-Stockton, the English majors often talked about therapeutic writing. I was never for it. But in the writing of SHOOG, I was able to deal with many things, and I believe those feelings come through. Women come to me and say, “This is my story.” Humans share experiences.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
A7. My books are available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. A SUIT FOR MELVIN and soon, A HORSE FOR JOE are available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. For an autographed copy, contact Jo E. Jennings at jjennings29@cox.net. I confess I will have to add postage/envelope cost of $6.50. As I uploaded SHOOG II just now, I also found that SHOOG II will cost more than my other books have, just over $12. However, I would love to hear reader’s questions and will answer them as soon as I can. I would like them to tell me what they think.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘SHOOG II’?
A8. Be still my heart! When I was in second grade, I visited the library with my classmates in Kansas City, Mo., I chose a “fat book” way above my reading level. There was a photo of a donkey on the front, so I thought I would be reading a book about a donkey. There was not one donkey! It was then I learned pictures on the cover of books may have nothing to do with what’s inside. That’s aggravating.
Grams, whose mental abilities start to slide, is sitting in a rocking chair. Hopefully, it’s obvious she’s depressed. Her hands droop. Her face is covered by a COVID mask because it’s 2020. She’s wearing a military jacket as her son Tim was killed. She holds a sock doll which in the book she says is “Timmy.” In actually, the doll she is holding belongs to Holly and was named Dennis when she made him for Holly years ago. The quilt has many embroidered symbols of Gram’s faith – the Praying Hands, etc. This was taken by what I call my “cabin by the park” as I live in a condo overlooking a park and tried to decorate it as a cabin. The colors are bright, but it’s very humble. So in my mind the cover shows humility, grief, faith, love, that there’s a pandemic going on, and that the military is involved somehow. (I hope the fact I fractured my back several months ago helped with Gram’s expression.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
A9. The characters must be interesting and continue to have personality. If they don’t have personality, then make that an obvious, maybe fun, part of the character. Action needs to continue throughout the book, even events overlap. Once in a while, if possible, the reader may be on the edge of his/her seat. With sequels I am adding things to the character’s lives the reader doesn’t know. Maybe they had the character all wrong! They’re doing THAT? He’s what? Let the characters surprise the reader. I do not get bored with my characters. I love it when they take the reins.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
A10. Years ago I received a letter from a publisher saying he would have published my book, but my grammar was too perfect. He said if I continued using perfect grammar, I was going to fail. I didn’t take that advice totally, but I do allow my characters to use the grammar that goes along with their character. My son Adam said, “Mom you’ve got to read Stephen King’s book on writing.” I did. I use a lot of short sentences which are paragraphs. He says that’s OK. I give him credit but use his advice in writing workshops. It’s a great book.
I also remember Henry Felsen’s advice not to worry about rejections. I have never pasted rejections on my wall, etc.
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