BlueSmoke
Books&Cooks
A Virtual Chat with Jody Wenner
My wife and I have read several of Jody’s books and loved each one. Jody graciously accepted my offer of an interview to discuss her body of work, specifics about books & characters and what makes her tick as an author.
I hope you enjoy getting to know Jody.
– Bob
How would you describe your body of work to date?
I think I would say most of my books have some type of mystery element to them. It’s hard because I read widely and like a lot of different genres, but when it comes to writing, I feel like some days I’m still finding my lane.
My style is fairly straight forward and character-driven, I think, and that seems to work well with mysteries. Still, playing a bit within that broad category gives me some creative wiggle room.
I have done a police procedural, a historical mystery, a few thrillers, a couple of small town cozies, etc. I always like trying something new.
How many books have you published? Which is your favorite?
I think it’s somewhere around eleven or twelve now? The number is a bit iffy because I unpublished a few early books before I found my groove, but we won’t talk about them. Haha.
My favorite? Um, let’s see. I think I might say Chair Repair because the story itself came pretty easily to me and that allowed me to focus more on the quality of the writing.
I tried to add more layers to the writing than I usually do and I’m happy with how it came out. It is also probably the most personal story for me.
Tell us about who or what influences your writing.
Obviously, reading great books is a huge motivation. And then I would say just my upbringing. My parents were both blue collar workers.
They both say that they barely made it out of high school. But they were the hardest workers I’ve ever known.
My dad got a job at a steel mill when he was seventeen and worked there until he retired to take care of my mom when she was dying.
My mom had a severe case of dyslexia. We had two books in our house when I was growing up, and I still have them memorized.
I was a bit of a fish out of water in my family. I would ride my bike to the public library and check books out and get lost in them. So, while maybe I didn’t acquire my love of words from my parents, I did inherit their strong work ethic.
I remember when I was five years old, I used a cassette recorder and I taped myself telling these little stories I had made up. I did silly voices for the different characters. I was pretty shy and awkward and spent a lot of time alone. One day, I worked up the courage to play the tape for my grandma.
I can still see her amazement that I had come up with the stories on my own. Her reaction was so positive and genuine. She said that I should write stories when I grew up and I guess that stuck with me.
Have you had any important mentors? Tell us why they are important to you.
I wrote for my high school newspaper. I thought I might go into journalism early on. My high school journalism teacher was amazing, so she was an early mentor for sure. I also had great English teachers in middle school and high school.
It wasn’t until I began staying at home with my daughter that I thought about writing more seriously. I had another mom friend and she wrote at the local coffee shop every morning when her kids were in school.
I started to join her and she taught me about publishing. She had a few traditionally published books and was just starting to self-publish at that time.
I took a few fiction writing classes at a local literary center and formed a writing group from some members of that class. We met online for about five years once a month critiquing each other’s work and that did wonders for my writing as well.
What has been your biggest challenge or the most important thing you’ve learned as an author?
My biggest challenge is probably just getting readers. I am terrible at marketing myself and I hate bothering people.
The most important thing I’ve learned as an author? Maybe just that it’s not a sprint. There is a lot of rejection in writing and I just try to remember that I do it because I love the process.
Being a stubborn person helps. It makes up for the days when I lack confidence.
I just keep pushing forward.
I feel like I see reflections of yourself in some of your characters. How much of yourself do you pour into your work?
I definitely write what I know, and I mostly only know about myself. So, yes. I think I end up putting a little of me in some my characters.
I’m one of those overly observant people, so I also pick up on subtle personality traits about other people easily. I use that stuff when I write other characters.
My family will tell you that they always worry about when they will show up on the pages. I will never write a whole person, but I take a piece from this person and use something else from another.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Probably to try to be more patient because I think I expected to be a decent writer immediately, but in reality, I think I get a little better with each book.
It’s a slow process. Maybe not for some, but for me, I think it requires time.
My wife had high praise for your most recent release, Half Truths Under A Broken Moon. She loved how the ending and the title absolutely go together.
I’m so happy she enjoyed it! This book was a bit of a thorn in my side. I rewrote it more times than any other and I shelved it more than once. It took a long time for all of the pieces to come together.
Who is Half Truths written for?
Good question. I think the idea I had was simply to base it loosely on the area in which I grew up. Sort of a love letter to my hometown and then I added the mystery element. It evolved from there.
What kind of story is it?
It’s meant to be a small town mystery about a girl who reluctantly returns home and has to rediscover the place and people she ran away from and in doing so, she uncovers her family secrets and finds love. It has a bit of a coming of age feel and a bit of a cozy mystery vibe, I would say.
In Chair Repair and Other Ways to Die your MC, Harper, is a real mess as the story begins. What can you share about your inspiration for her? AND, Peggy is an eclectic character. Is she based on someone in real-life?
Haha. So, Harper is probably most closely based on myself than any other character I’ve written.
My mom was 20 years old when she had me, and 64 when she died from breast cancer. For 44 years she was my best friend. We spoke almost every day. So, when she died, I was that mess trying to figure out how to push past the grief.
Since my mom had dyslexia, she didn’t read much, but she listened to audio books and she loved mystery and thrillers. Her passion was restoring old furniture, chairs in particular, so those were the pieces I had going into the writing process. I wanted to write something for her and incorporate the chairs.
Regarding Peggy:
No. I don’t think I know anybody like Peggy. My only objective with her was trying to write a character that readers liked but also questioned her sanity.
Morally gray characters are the most interesting ones to me.
A Matter of Course is brilliantly uplifting. Norma and Zi are central to how the tale unfolds. Were there any particular muses that drove their development?
I honestly don’t think I based any of these characters on anyone I know directly, except the Jason character, who I based on my nephew because I needed to channel a teenaged boy and he’s the one I know the best.
How did A Matter of Course come to be?
This story just came out of me feeling really sick about the current state of gun violence in our country, but I hated the idea of writing a tragic and sad tale, so I tried my hardest to find some positives from it.
One of the most important questions, Pantser or Plotter?
I wish that I was a plotter. It would probably make my life much easier, but my process is basically just to start writing and see where the initial idea takes me.
What are your plans for 2024 and beyond?
So, I have one manuscript that is a bit of a genre shift for me. I think it still has some suspense, but it’s main component is this speculative element. I’m sort of sitting on it for now trying to decide what to do with it, wondering if my usual readers will hate it. I’ve finished a few rounds of drafting, but it still needs to be edited.
And then I have a work-in-progress that I’m super excited about.
It’s a murder mystery, but it also has this humorous romcom thing going on which is new for me. It’s more light-hearted than some of my other books. It’s almost done, so I hope to focus on getting that out as soon as possible too.
Other than these two books, I have no idea. I might write more, I might become a full-time knitter. Time will tell, I guess!
