JoJo
JoJo
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth20 December 1990
CountryUnited States of America
novels three translated
Rejection is part of the process, so you can't let it crush you. My first three novels never made it into publication, but my fourth, 'Sheltering Rain,' was translated into 11 languages.
copy ideal local office rent sorts time turn
I write in all sorts of places; it's a legacy of my time as a journalist, where I could turn out copy in a hotel corridor. But I have a little office that I rent in my local town, and that's my ideal place.
awful computers convinced husband kitchen note persuading quicker scribbling talk technology
I think there is an awful lot of technology for technology's sake. I have yet to be convinced by my husband that persuading our mobiles to talk to our computers is going to be quicker and more straightforward than scribbling a note in our kitchen diary.
bring four hotel included life room three year
My writing life has included the struggle to bring up three children. What I do three or four times a year is take myself off to a hotel room to unblock a problem.
america card given guild invited proudest script whenever writers
My Writers Guild of America card is one of my proudest possessions. I was given it after being invited to write the script for a film of my last novel, 'Me Before You,' which is being made by MGM. Whenever I look at it, I think, 'I'm a Hollywood writer!'
marriage mostly test unexpected
Marriage is a decades-long experiment, conducted mostly in private; a test of will in the face of unexpected obstacles.
best bills chance dogs fingers fish school social terrible time uniform words
I find my best writing time is actually 6 A.M., before the detritus of the day - the fish fingers and the school uniform and dogs and bills - have had a chance to clog up my brain. I can usually get 500 words done before 7 A.M. But it is difficult, and the Internet, and social networking, are terrible timesucks.
bit chocolate clever commercial covering death device pink putting readers suggest taking title
If chick-lit really is taking a commercial battering, I'd suggest it's because the marketing has been done to death. Covering everything in girlie pink and putting chocolate in the title may once have been a clever Pavlovian device but now makes readers feel a bit sick.
characters
If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere.
books faith work writers wrote
I wrote three books before I got one published. Most writers do. Have faith, and know that with each work you are getting better.
family life
I always say that in any roomful of people, I could hive a novel out of any one person's family or life story.
attic belief ended imagined instilled lived mum news nights novel writer
I always imagined a writer was someone who lived in an attic in Paris, but my mum instilled in me a belief that I could do anything - so I ended up writing my first novel while working nights as a news reporter.
air almost consuming depends deprived exist love mundane necessary physical relation secure
What love is depends on where you are in relation to it. Secure in it, it can feel as mundane and necessary as air - you exist within it, almost unnoticing. Deprived of it, it can feel like an obsession; all consuming - a physical pain.
best black characters decisions life people rarely stand trying until
My characters make incomprehensible decisions until you stand in their shoes. Then it makes more sense. Life is very rarely black and white, and most people are trying to do their best. I try not to judge.