A huge 'thank you' goes out to author H.M. Jones (author of Monochrome) for sharing her time with me for this interview.

This is a close inside look into her world, as well as an interesting development line for her novel.

Read on, and watch for the book review soon.


-Where did you get the idea for this interesting Monochrome? Was it a brainstorm moment, or slow in forming?

Monochrome came to me gradually. I was talking with my friend about her second new baby and just after I had my first. I hadn't told many people about the numbing sadness and terrible thoughts I was having, but, all of a sudden, she told me she was having awful thought about her second baby, thoughts she never had with her first.
I broke down, crying, and, strangely enough, grateful, that she trusted me enough to tell me something so taboo. I told her about my feeling then, and every day afterward the story came to me when I was not thinking about it.

The numbing depression I felt turned into a monochromatic blue world, I started to see the anger for my baby outside of myself and it became Abigail's life. So, in that way, the story formed from my own experience. In other ways, it's completely fictional. Characters just crept in as I was writing.
Ishmael is one of those. So many mothers I later talked to about Postpartum depression and other forms of depression noted that they just wanted to feel beautiful again, noticeable in their partner's eyes, but they felt drained and ugly and old. Ishmael was a way for new mothers to see the beauty they have, that others see, but that is so hard to feel when you first have a baby.

-Do you have a favorite quote or story in this book?

Objectively, it's hard for me to choose, but one of my fans told me she loved this description because she is from the Midwest:

“New York smelled like hot garbage, humans, ancient dirt and urine, when she had visited on a class trip. In her experience, cities had distinct smells, but all populous cities smelled a little like urine. Home smelled like dirt, corn plants, hot cow pies and the verdant, ripe tang of grass. Monochrome smelt like....air. Not snow ripe air, not warm, spicy air, not moisture rich, pine flavored air. Just oxygen in its simplest form, with a slight tang of metal.”

-What would you like the readers to get out of this book?

I wrote this book to entertain, of course, but also so that any readers who suffer from depression in any form will not feel alone. Feelings are so raw when they occur that they can disable us, but Monochrome was written to show how fleeting and silly they can be. How precious life can be.

-What kind of writing process do you have?

I know a lot of people, especially the old school folks, write their words by hand first, but I type first, then print. I like to read paper while I'm editing, but I'm a slow writer, so I type and take out the errors, hand-write new sentences, plot twists, etc.

I don't have an editor, apart from me and my beta-readers, so I'm not pressed for time. I take my time and do it right. I right when I'm inspired, which is often, and I put it away when I'm not and spend time with my family. If I become a professional in the field, I will set more time limits, but I don't seem to have a problem sitting down to write. I make progress on my stories almost every day.

-Do you enjoy listening to music or prefer the silence?

As a full-time mother of preschoolers, I don't get much silence ever, let alone silence to write by, but my most productive writing times are first thing in the morning and after they go to bed at night. In those times, the house is blissfully silent. I used to listen to music when I wrote, but now I just like to hear my fingers on the keys.

-What books or authors have been most inspiring to you?

My favorite author, when I was a child, was Tamora Peirce, who wrote strong, independent, feisty female characters. As a young adult it was Robert Jordan, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, all of whom created worlds and characters that stirred by imagination and made me think outside of myself. As a B.A. and M.A. student of literature it was Chaucer, Sherman Alexie, Melville, Donne, Behn and Dickens, all of whom are witty, passionate, and playful with words. Strange combination, I know, but I don't have a problem with variety in reading. I love to read almost everything.

-Where is your book available?

It's in print through Amazon and on Kindle, but I first printed it through Smashwords, and it is still available there, as well as iBooks. Almost everywhere. It's a new book, but I would love to see it on the shelves of retailers worldwide next to some of today's best authors.

-Are you currently working on another project?

I'm always working on something. Right now, I'm perfecting my first YA fantasy, Lexis, which is the first book in a series of three books, referred to as The Old Wood Trilogy. I'm also working on getting my life's poetry out, and have just released the first of four short poetry books in the Attempting to Define series. The first book is called Attempting to Define: Love, and is a sardonic, playful, joyful look at the complexity of romantic love. It is not syrupy, but is honest. For those who don't want fakey romance for Valentine's Day, this would be a good gift.

- Where did you grow up and did that have any influence on your style.

We moved around a lot when I was a kid, but I was mostly raised in Illinois and Washington, and that greatly effects the way I think. Each place we traveled to, and each place in which I lived added to the characters roaming around in my brain, the depth of my experience of the world, and my appreciation for differences within our country.
-When did you start writing.
Shortly after I started reading. I've always tried to tell stories and write poetry in my childhood journals. They were not great, but practice makes perfect, as the masses say, and I've come up a little in my writing since then. It was always my intention to be a writer like Tamora Pierce, and, after seeing her in person a few times, I still think that's a fine goal.

-What do you want to say to fans.

As a self-published author, I think my fans are more to me than a big publisher's fans are to them. Because I am my own marketer, my books get little exposure unless my fans love them enough to rate them. And here's the wonderfully astounding thing: my fans love my writing so much that they review me, message me, contact me socially, plug me on their websites, and ask me to send them signed copies because they can't wait until the rest of the world catches up to my success. Even if the rest of the world never catches up, the love, feedback and constructive advice I've received from my fans make me feel very successful and awed. Thank-you, you fantastic folks, you make my dreams come true with every little word of encouragement and every book you purchase with your hard earned money.