New Adult Book Club discussion

Happy Sunday, NABC-ers! We have a fabulous Q&A with Jerica MacMillan! Jerica is the author of Rebound Therapy, Rebound Envy, False Assumptions, Summer Fling, and more. Please leave your questions for her below! <3

Hi Jerica!
Which of your books is your favorite and why?

What or who inspired you to start writing?

What was the hardest book for you to write? Why?

Do you have a ritual or superstitious habit before you write a book?

Why did you start writing romance books?

What are you working on now?

How do you decide it's time to write? do you specifically select a timing of the day or when you're inspired?

Melissa wrote: "Hi Jerica!
Which of your books is your favorite and why?"

Hi, Melissa!

I don't know that I have a favorite, per se, but Lance and Abby from Summer Fling will always have a special place with me. I think that's why they get the most cameos everywhere else, lol.

S.Shade wrote: "What or who inspired you to start writing?"

It's hard to pinpoint any one person or thing. I've always enjoyed writing in some capacity. When I was in sixth grade, I drew comics to entertain myself when I got bored at school. I still have one somewhere. But journaling and blogging have been something I've done since I was a teenager. After I had kids, I started playing around with fiction for the first time since I had to write stories for school. Mostly random starts to stories I never finished, but eventually I decided I was going to write something from beginning to end, no matter what. That became Rebound Therapy.

MiDouradoP wrote: "What was the hardest book for you to write? Why?"

I'd have to say Coping Skills (Players of Marycliff University, book 5) was the hardest from an emotional standpoint. The emotional core of that book was lifted from my own experiences, so digging through all that was cathartic but difficult.

From a technical standpoint, Double Exposition was probably the hardest. I had to take a big break in the middle of writing it because my husband had surgery and we had to travel to Seattle for it (we live about a 6 hour drive away). Then, the beginning just wasn't working at all, so I had to scrap and rewrite a big chunk of that book, and then heavily revise what came after to line up with the new beginning and delete all references to what got deleted.

Jemima wrote: "Do you have a ritual or superstitious habit before you write a book?"

No, not really. I try to figure out the beginning and the main conflict before I start a new book. I often listen to music while I write, but I don't make carefully crafted playlists in advance or anything.

When I'm sitting down to write, I usually poke around on Facebook and check my email and stuff before starting in. I do try to figure out what I'm going to be writing that day before I sit down. If I don't know, then I'll open up Evernote, where I keep my journal and freewriting as well as story ideas and scene lists for ongoing books, and write about what needs to happen next in the book.

Debra wrote: "Why did you start writing romance books?"

I love happily ever afters. And sexy times are fun too.

I started reading romances when I was in middle school, and they've been in the mix of my reading choices ever since. Before I started writing seriously, I'd been reading more and more romances, so when I decided to write a story, it seemed natural for it to be a romance.

Nicole wrote: "What are you working on now?"

The next set of books in the Songs and Sonatas series. This will be a two book set about Charlie, one of the side characters in the first three books. I'm just shy of halfway done with drafting the second book. I'm hoping to release those in April and May, respectively.

I'm also about to start a new series of single volume standalones that I'm planning on sticking in KU. The first book will be a friends-to-lovers/fake relationship story that will be a lot of fun. Depending on things, that should come out this summer.

Gennesis wrote: "How do you decide it's time to write? do you specifically select a timing of the day or when you're inspired?"

I have weekly and daily word count goals, so I carve out time to write.

I typically write Monday through Friday in the afternoons. I take my daughter to Kindergarten, then my son goes to the child care at the community center where I work out. After I'm done working out, I write until it's time to get my son and go pick up my daughter from school. If I haven't gotten my words in for the day, I usually finish after dinner.

Twice a week, my kids go to my parents' house, and I get a longer stretch of dedicated work time. I get more words in and can take some time to work on the non-writing parts of being an indie author.

But sometimes, the words just have to come out when they come to me, and then I'm scrambling for some way to get them down, whether it's in my laptop where they belong, in a notebook, or in a note on my phone. Those times are fairly rare and always irregular.

What type of music do you listen as you write, if any?

Has a review on one of your books ever affected you in a very significant way? In either a positive or negative way.

Do you have any plans to step outside the romance genre for future books?

How do you get inspiration for each new book\ Series?

Do you come up with a title first or start writing out the story then come up with the title?

Who are your go-to authors that always make you want to one-click their books?

If you could be any book character for a day, who would you choose and why?

Do you like to snack while you write? What's your favorite?

Tashia wrote: "What type of music do you listen as you write, if any?"

I have a few stations on Pandora that I cycle through. It's a variety of pop, alt rock, and latin pop. :-)

My last several books all have playlists in the back if you want a convenient picture of my musical tastes. Everything published since Jan 2017 should have one.

Ginger wrote: "Has a review on one of your books ever affected you in a very significant way? In either a positive or negative way."

I try not to let reviews get into my head too much. Generally, the reviews on my books are positive, so I figure that there are in fact people who enjoy my writing, and that's good. When I get a bad review, I remind myself that I can't please everyone. Even runaway hits have lots of negative reviews (actually, a lot of them have oodles of negative reviews, because there are people in the world who derive joy from bashing people who are successful for whatever reason).

I have gotten a few reviews where it's obvious the reader totally got what I was going for, and that is a great feeling.

Rachel wrote: "Do you have any plans to step outside the romance genre for future books?"

Not at this time. I mean, it's possible that someday I might decide to try something else, but all the story ideas kicking around in my brain right now are romances.

Lindsay wrote: "1. How do you get inspiration for each new book\ Series?

2. Do you come up with a title first or start writing out the story then come up with the title?

3. Who are your go-to authors that always make you..."

1. The shower. lol I don't really know. Sometimes ideas for another story start pushing at me when I'm writing someone else's book. For example, when I started writing Summer Fling, I had no idea I was starting a series. I was just writing this story. The idea popped into my head from ... ? Who knows? The ether is my usual answer. But as I was writing it, I was like, oh, I should write about Lauren next. And then Summer Fling ended the way it did, which set up the perfect scenario for the next book, so I ran with it. Sometimes I think it'd be fun to write an enemies to lovers story (which is how False Assumptions started), or Matt needs a second chance romance story (which was what got things going for Managed Hearts).

2. I rarely have a title before I write the book. Summer Fling is the biggest exception. I called it that from the beginning. The others all had working titles of the main characters' names while I was writing them. Development and Recapitulation had titles before I started them, but only because I knew that was going to be a 3 book set and I decided to title each book after the sonata allegro form for the first movement of a concerto. (Sorry, there's my music nerd background coming out.) It seemed fitting based on how book 1 went and what I was planning for books 2 and 3. So Double Exposition didn't get a title till it was done, but since I went with that, the other two fell in line right away.

3. Go-to authors ... I'll probably miss some. I pretty much always buy new releases from Julia Kent, Sarina Bowen, Penny Reid, Lex Martin, and Leslie McAdam. There are more, but that's who's popping off the top of my head right now.

J. wrote: "If you could be any book character for a day, who would you choose and why?"

The side character who gets to watch the drama, give advice, but doesn't get caught up in the swirl. lol. My life has enough drama. I'd take a break for a day. :-D

Emily wrote: "Do you like to snack while you write? What's your favorite?"

I usually eat before I write. My typical writing times are post-workout, in which case I have a protein bar (I like the Kirkland brand ones from Costco. They're pretty tasty, and not full of questionable ingredients.) Or I write after dinner, in which case I've just eaten dinner. Sometimes I'll have a handful of Hot Tamales or mini Reese's or something like that when I sit down to write after dinner, but I also will wait and eat those after as a reward for getting my work done, depending on how I'm feeling.

Are there any new genres you've thought about writing?

What’s next for you and future stories?

Could you tell us 5 facts about yourself that almost no one knows about you?

Katrina wrote: "Are there any new genres you've thought about writing?"

I have plans to do some books that are just contemporary romance, not New Adult. I'm not sure if you consider that a separate genre or not ...

Whitney wrote: "What’s next for you and future stories?"

Right now I'm working on the next set of books in the Songs and Sonatas series. Charlie's story. Then Lauren will get a set of books. And then Colt, Jonathan's little brother.

Lance and Gabby's sister Marissa, who appears in Unsaid Things in the Players of Marycliff University series and Development in the Songs and Sonatas series, will eventually get her own standalone.

And I'm going to be putting out a Christmas book in December as book 7 in the Players of Marycliff University series.

Since the Songs and Sonatas books are in groups of 2 or 3, I like to release those close together. To fill in the gaps, and because I like to multitask, I'll also be starting a new spinoff series about Cataclysm (they make a brief appearance in Recapitulation). That'll be probably 5 books by the time the series is done, each a standalone about one of the guys in the band. It'll be lots of fun, and I'm excited to get started on it. I'm hoping to get the first book out in that series sometime this summer.

Ally wrote: "Could you tell us 5 facts about yourself that almost no one knows about you?"

🤔

These are probably just random more than little known, but here goes.

1. I don't like seafood.
2. I spent the summer when I was 19 in Santiago, Chile
3. I started playing the piano at age 5
4. I have my degree in music
5. I lived in the same house from the time I was 4 until I was 18, and it didn't officially stop being my permanent address until I was 21.

Jerica wrote: "Nicole wrote: "What are you working on now?"

The next set of books in the Songs and Sonatas series. This will be a two book set about Charlie, one of the side characters in the first three books. ..."

Sounds good! I'll be on the look out for that

What is your inspiration in writing Double Exposition?

What character of yours is your favourite and why?

Caryl wrote: "What is your inspiration in writing Double Exposition?"

Before I became an author, I was a violinist. My degree is in music, and I've been playing since I was 10.

While I was writing the Players of Marycliff University series, I knew that at some point I was going to write a story about orchestral musicians. Because I like to keep things interconnected, I decided to make Gabby, Lance's little sister that we meet in Unsaid Things, a violinist. She would be the starting point for my series on musicians.

One day in the shower, I came up with the idea that I wanted to write a story about a washed up one hit wonder, because I'd never read anything like that. In all the rockstar romances I've read, the guy is either just breaking out, or already super famous. Since I hadn't come up with a love interest for Gabby yet, I decided to smash the two ideas together.

And so Double Exposition and the rest of the Songs and Sonatas series was born.

Irma wrote: "What character of yours is your favourite and why?"

That's a tough one. And I don't think I can choose just one character. They're all individuals, but they also all carry little pieces of me as part of their personalities.