J.D. Faulkner: The Comedy Queen.

Hi everbody! Sho here, taking the reins to introduce the amazing J.D. Faulkner. I’m sure you’ve already noticed, she is the queen of awesomely entertaining blogs; funny rolls right off this girl’s fingers the way chocolate seems to roll off mine. Mmm, chocolate. But I digress.

Apparently she kept her hilariousness bottled up until college. “I was terribly, horribly shy, which kept me from talking to people and making friends.” But I’ll have to take her word for it. The J.D. I know (and love) is quirky, vibrant, and one of the funniest women I have ever met. Seriously, she is the comedic heart of WWW.

She should be writing comedy for NBC or something. So, in keeping with her ritual of giving each of us a name, I’m going to call her the Comedy Queen. Don’t believe me? Check out her blog here. And if you want to split your sides open, check out this totally brilliant “WhyMyWriterIsCrying” blog here. Her stuff brings me to tears. Seriously.  

And look at her. Is she not gorgeoulicious? (Yes, that’s gorgeous and delicious mixed together. Somewhere, my high school English teacher is developing yet another headache.) And this Seattle bred girl enjoys gorging on Spud’s fish and chips followed by Husky’s flake ice cream. I wish I could eat like that and look this beautiful! (OK, I do eat like that, but the looks … J.D. I hate you just a wee little bit. ;) ) 

But folks, that’s not all she’s got going for her. She’s a bloody brilliant writer, and she’s got a law degree. Do you know what that means? She can totally bail the rest of the WWW ladies out when research for our next book takes us places we shouldn’t go.

Disclaimer: that has never and will never happen. (Cue nervous laughter.)

She’s also just published her amazing first book, Mirrored Time, which you can check out on Amazon.com here. And look at this gorgeous cover!

Mirrored Time is a Quarter-Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and a mind-boggling romp through the time streams. Gwen Conway finds herself in the middle of a time-travellers’ war, battling against a seriously destructive demi-god. And the poor girl was just looking for a job. (By the way, the same thing totally happened to me when I got that after school job selling hot dogs, but I digress.) Check out J.D.'s website here to learn more about her awesomeness, and to read an excerpt of Mirrored Time.

OK, it’s time for J.D. to do the talking. Thanks for sticking with me while I tried to do justice to a truly amazing woman! 

1) Why write? What’s your inspiration? And when did you realize your ideas had merit?

Why write? Because I don’t have a choice. Like there really was no other option. I’ve been telling stories for as long as I remember, back to when I was a little thing, telling the story of Princess Jellybean and her magical friends.

I did try, really hard, to pick a ‘grown up, realistic profession.’ The most common response to ‘I want to be a writer,’ was: “Get a good job first, and then when you make some money, you can try to write.” So, I tried. In college, I started out as a Pre-Med major. But when Organic Chemistry came around, at the delightful time of 8am in the morning, I found myself having more breakdown anxiety attacks than should have been normal. So I switched to Classics, and I adored the stories of ancient mythology and history. But I still tried. I actually enjoyed law school, but when it came down to trying to find a job after graduation, back to the old anxiety.

Finally, I decided to let myself try to be a writer. I was the only one who could make my dreams come true. And now I have a book published, a wonderful group of fellow writers, and a sequel that’s itching to be written. Not sure I’ve completely accepted the concept that my ideas have merit, but I’m working on it. Each review, comment or moment of excitement from a reader: Those are those moments when I feel like I’m making it.

2) Who is your favorite author/ what is your favorite book? (If you could live in a book, which would it be?)

I have a hard time with this question, because I love a good book. And that’s basically my requirement. One of my favorites is Frank Herbert’s Dune. There’s something magical about it: Whenever I re-read it, I catch some new thing that I didn’t notice before. But my favorite part?

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

3) Are you an outliner, or a write-it-as-it-comes-er?

A write-it-as-it-comes-er, all the way. And I’m finally accepting that it’s okay. I try to write outlines, and usually I do have a general idea of where I want my story to go. But I think my muse takes it as a challenge when I write an outline. She goes out of her way to make the story diverge from the outline as much as she possibly can.

4) Which of your characters is the most like you?

If you know me, and you’ve read Mirrored Time, it’s probably pretty obvious. I struggled with Gwen, my MC, because I thought she was so transparently ME that it drove me crazy. Although once I accepted that she shared a lot of my thought and speech patterns, she started to become her own character. As if I had to accept that all characters are a part of their writer, and that’s okay.

5) Where do you write? Name three objects in the space and explain why they are significant (do you hold it when writing? Fiddle with it? Look at it?)

Funny story: I have a perfect little writing nook. A nice breeze, good sunlight, a cute little rolltop desk, a nice cushy chair. And… I do absolutely NO WRITING there. Instead I camp out on my bed, or sometimes on the couch, staring at my computer screen, daring myself to write. I don’t really allow myself to have any objects around me. Especially my phone. On days I’m being a good productive writer, it goes in the next room. I think the one thing I let myself gaze at is the metal wall hanging I have of Perseus. Since I like to play with elements of classical mythology, looking at him usually will jump start my creativity. Other than that, just my computer. Although that’s dangerous enough… Why is the internet so shiny?