Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello authors.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: I'm Joanne Morell, children's and young adult fiction writer and author of short nonfiction for authors. Thanks for joining me for the hybrid author podcast, sharing interviews from industry professionals to help you forge a career as a hybrid author, both independently and traditionally publishing your books. You can get the show notes for each episode and sign up for your free author pass over at the hybrid author website to discover your writing process, get tips on how to publish productively, and get comfortable promoting your books at www. Dot.
Let's crack on with the episode.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Hello authors.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: I hope you're all keeping well in whatever part of the world you reside and listen to the podcast in. Today's interview is with novelist, essayist, and reviewer Jean M. Blassberg, and we chat on practising reinvention through new characters and novels, how Jean defines this in her own works of fiction. Tips for authors looking to apply practicing reinvention in their new works and by creating new characters, mixing emotional story with plot driven aspects, and so much more so in my author adventure this week, the end of the year is in sight. I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that we're into October, which is both frightening and exciting. Usually around this time, my head begins to think of the year to come 2025, and I find that October is actually a good time to start making goals for that year. It's also a good time of year to be, like I said, thinking of opportunities for the year to come. You know what I found this year, and obviously past year? If you're looking to do more public speaking or get into more events, these things book up, sometimes years in advance, quarterly, lots of time frames. The more you become established in your author career and the more that you put yourself out there, the more that you begin to understand how things move and ebb and flow. And there's been a lot of that for me this year, always feeling like I'm that one step behind in some cases, but I'm definitely one step ahead than I used to be, so that's a positive. Usually in the past. Also, you know, I do use this time to reflect as well. And always coming up to this time of year, I'm very aware about how busy the end of the year gets. My children have birthdays at the end of the year. There's Christmas, there's school holidays up here. So my personal life implodes, and I say it all the time. You know, I should finish up working and I should lighten the load, at least by school holidays, when they finish in December 1 couple weeks anyway, and maybe that will be achievable. I'm certainly always ambitious with what I want to achieve by the end of the year and sometimes feel like I scramble to try and get it done. But now the, the more that I've evolved as an author and a business owner, a book business owner, I'm very realistic in what I know is achievable with what I have on my plate. And so, you know, whereas, say, getting two books plotted and drafted, probably one is more applicable. Lots of things like that. Although, you know, I always, I don't know, I always sort of, yeah, live and hope that things will be a bit different. But I have a lot of. I have a lot of personal things happening in my life at the moment and so I must have probably noticed a couple of podcast episodes of for the first time in three years, haven't put one out in the last week or two, and there's good reason for that. And sometimes I just want to say on that, you know, it is what it is. That's just life. And I batch the podcast ahead of time, but I don't do the editing until the week of. So, you know, sometimes things happen and I'm navigating a big, big changes in my life and, you know, I'm sure that come next year I'll be able to reflect on those. And at the moment I'm just being kind to myself and taking on and doing what's achievable, what I can and accepting that and being happy again. Be kind to yourself if you have things going on. I have a few in person events at the end of this year and I will be making a business plan for 2025. So where are you at this scary season? Are you in writing mode, editing mode, launching mode, any kind of mode? Are you starting to think about next year? My advice would be now is the time. Don't wait till December to think about the next month or the year that proceeds to put a plan into action. October is that time. It is. For me, anyway. I feel like it's a good time to start thinking about next year.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Thorn Creative where beautiful websites for authors are brought to life. No matter what stage you're at with your writing, your stories deserve a dedicated space to shine. A whether you're just starting out or have a bookshelf full of bestsellers, your website is the hub of your author business. Finding everything you and your books offer together, Thorne Creative can nurture all aspects of redesigning your old site or start afresh from the initial design, they can provide ongoing hosting and maintenance to marketing your books online, saving you time, money and stress trying to wrangle your site yourself. An author website built by Thorne Creative can easily direct readers to your favorite retailers, your publisher, or simply set you up to sell to them direct. The options are endless. Thorne Creative have worked with many authors across all genres and know what goes into good, functional working author websites. To sell books, head on over to thorncreative.com dot au websitesforauthors to read author and publisher testimonials and to see what they offer and some of the sites they've created.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Jean Blasberg is a novelist, essayist, and reviewer. Her upcoming novel, Daughter of a Promise, is a modern retelling of the legend of David and Bathsheba. Completing the thematic trilogy she began with Eden and the nine, Jean brings strong female characters to the forefront and beautifully details her main character's self discovery journey through a letter to her unborn son, a journey that includes the corporate world, feminism, love, and loss during a time that changed the world as we know it. Welcome to the hybrid author podcast, Jean.
[00:06:58] Speaker D: Thank you, Joanne. I'm so happy to be here.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: We're absolutely thrilled and honored to have you. Can you tell us how you became a writer?
[00:07:05] Speaker D: Well, I have always had an active imagination, which I think is an important part of the puzzle for being a fiction writer. And I've also always been a reader. So at some point the intersection of loving to read and having an imagination and thinking maybe I could emulate the type of stories I love to read. That all happened for me probably in my mid thirties. I started writing personal essay and I should actually back up. Just around that time, I was also working for a professor at Harvard Business School, writing case studies. So I was in the business of writing, but I was writing for students at Harvard Business School who would study using these case studies. Anyway. I have always loved to write. I loved the idea that it was an occupation that could feel well with being a mother, and I could kind of do it around the time that I was with my kids. However, once I really started getting serious, it was full time. And it was once my kids were out of the house. But yeah. So I've always been a reader. I love fiction. I write fiction, but I've also written personal essay. And I, and I found that was the easiest way to kind of enter the writing life. And I realized I love to explore themes around family dynamics, mother or parent and child relationships, what we inherit and what we pass down to our kids and so I decided to create fictional families in which to explore those themes instead of using my own personal experience. Although a lot of my fiction writing is informed by my own personal experience.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Fantastic. I find the same. I was having a conversation the other day, and I said, subconsciously, I think it comes that your experiences kind of come out. I recognize some of my own experiences and some characters that I was writing recently, and I don't feel like I intentionally put them there, but they've just come out.
[00:09:01] Speaker D: Our emotional intelligence really colors and helps so much with character development, with dialogue, with our characters coming in contact with one another. How can we not put ourselves on the page?
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And I really feel, especially for myself and a lot of writers I speak to, I mean, we write well. Some people do, anyway, to understand what we've been through and the thoughts and feelings we have about certain things anyway. And I think it always surprises me. I'm like, oh, that's how I feel. But Harvard business as well. Wow, that's really impressive.
[00:09:34] Speaker D: Yeah, well, those case studies are great. I mean, the whole curriculum is based on the study of cases. And so because the students need to be entertained and not fall asleep at night while they're doing their studies, there's a real formula to these case studies, and there has to be a protagonist and a conflict. And I found it to be really good training for being both entertaining and meaningful at the same time.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Fantastic. Well, today's topic is on practicing reinvention through new characters and novels. Can you tell us, you know, how do you define this and how have you undertaken this in your own works?
[00:10:14] Speaker D: Well, I'm excited to talk about reinvention. I mean, a lot of times when people ask me that question, it's about how have you reinvented yourself? And I think that a lot of my friends didn't realize I was working on novels and writing. And when that first one came out after ten years of hard work, it was like, oh, I love how you've reinvented yourself. I haven't really reinvented myself. This is who I've been all along. You just didn't know what I was working on. But as it pertains to characters, all, I think in novels, and not necessarily in short stories, but in most fiction, you start with a character or a protagonist or a main character, and usually the arc of the story follows some sort of transition in their life from a place of not knowing to a place of knowing, from a place of immaturity to understanding and wisdom and growth. That's very kind of stereotypical. But our characters are meant to have some sort of a transformation. And so I like to write characters who are trying to figure things out, who might be outsiders in a situation, but it's always interesting and important to figure out what is going to happen to them in this story, kind of this external plot that's going to create some internal transformation. And often, you know, it's these difficult moments that, you know, you're always trying to put your characters into conflict, whether it's in my latest book, daughter of a promise, there is a pandemic that enters. There is an unexpected relationship with an older man. There is a pregnancy and then a tragedy. And so my main character really thinks that New York City and working on Wall street and all she has to learn there is going to be the key to her adult kind of breaking open as an adult and a mature woman. But through all of her experience experiences over the course of a year, she comes to find that she was actually raised with the values and all of the instincts and intuition and ingredients she needs to be a successful human. So it was almost a returning to the original betsabe, as opposed to kind of the glitzy New York bets a bay. But anyway, reinvention is kind of a trigger word for me because I almost feel like we are trying to discover our real selves as opposed to reinventing ourselves. And I like to think of it that way. And I do like to write characters who are confused and maybe get caught up in certain trappings, whether it's trappings of wealth or class or upward mobility, only to realize that the trappings are hindering their understanding of who they really are instead of helping. I don't know if that answers. Yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah, no, absolutely it does. Yeah. A few things that were just going through my mind when you were talking was, I guess, and I was just thinking about myself over the years, and I feel like I'm being extremely well, you do, because you obviously evolve and you change, like you're saying about characters and things, but definitely with age and time. And I'm a very different person from, obviously, in teens to twenties to thirties and even now entering my forties. But I'm also thinking, do you think, does reinvention always have to be internal? Can reinvention also be like, you know, the external world, or do you think it's more powerful with the characters and things in novels that the change comes from within? Really?
[00:13:47] Speaker D: Well, I think there's always. There are always two threads in a good piece of literature. There's a plot there's a story that's going around, you know, life is happening, the world is turning, and things are going on that create a story. And we're turning the page to see what happens next. But our main character and the person who's experiencing this world may undergo. Yeah, some sort of transformation, or maybe not for the better. I don't know. There's all sorts of books out there. But I do think that we read because we want to step into another's shoes. And so understanding the personal reaction to what's going on and maybe just the arc of, like, being a human through some experience is the joy that a reader gets. It's feeling some empathy and understanding for a human experience that maybe in a completely different setting that you've never visited a different time period. But I think we are looking for the human experience. And definitely the external factors are an important part of the story that we read for. I think we always want to know that our main character, this sounds very stereotypical or conventional, but it's not that they've learned a lesson. Maybe they've discovered something or they re discovered someone in their life or that, you know, it could be with regard to a relationship. But, yeah, I guess I've always been a student of the fact that there's an external plot and an internal journey going on simultaneously and that we're trying to write for that. And now, as a reader, I'm kind of trained to look for that.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. So what are, what, some of the things or some of the tips you would give to authors who want to try and write like that? Like what you're saying, like, reinvent their characters from the emotional sense. Is there any specific way you kind of tackle it in your works?
[00:15:48] Speaker D: Well, not always like, a perfect arc. And I know this is audio, so me drawing with my finger isn't necessarily, but just, like, storyline or a heroine's journey, I don't know if you know that concept. So, you know, usually there are lots of up and downs for a character during a novel or during the course of a novel, but really putting your character in conflict and watching and, like, just continually making things somewhat difficult for them, it shows a lot about their inner strength and what they're made of. I guess your question really had to do with advice for writers. And I think there's a lot that's actually been taught on this journey of the heroine or the hero or your main character and kind of what's expected of the ups and downs and what were I. Well, I've sometimes been told the w shape is a good one to think about. So it's not just an up and down, but it's two ups and two downs. Or maybe, you know, it's complicated. I would say that when you're writing a plot. And my second novel, the nine, was something I set out to write as a real adventurous action pack story. And I did that, and I actually won several awards for that book in the category of, like, suspense and thriller. But as I was writing it and reading a final draft, I thought, you know, this isn't really what I'm good at, nor is it something that I think I'm quite pulling off. So I use that exciting plot, which was a scandal at a boarding school and a young man trying to get his way out of hot water, to really be the scaffolding for a deeper story between that young man and his mother and the transition that their relationship took when she sent him to boarding school while he was there, and while he was trying to figure out the mess he was in because of this secret society and kind of this patriarchal system that just existed at the school. So if you can imagine a very action packed story as well as kind of an emotional story between a mother and a son, those two things were woven together and I think really complemented each other because alone, the mother son story could have been quite sappy and sentimental. And alone, the story of the thriller and the crime at the boarding school could have felt very, I don't know, dime store novelly. But together they were like an interesting combination of an internal, like, emotional struggle and an external struggle. So that's just like a concrete example of what I'm trying to talk about, of creating layers and depths to the fiction itself. And then your characters are just easy to reveal and to make real because they're living, they're having to handle these crazy, scandalous situations. And you learn so much about a person when they have to figure that kind of stuff out.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Yeah, no, absolutely. Well said there. And I think that some people can get confused and, you know, as you said, you've got these, the plot sort of side of things. And I think, I don't know if it's a good exercise for people to think about their character in the beginning, and then they have this plot sort of driven thing, things that happen to them. I think some people can get confused, as when they get to the end of that, you know, there's lots of things that have changed in the events and the things that have taken place. And I think a lot of people miss what has happened, how their characters change, so they've gotten through these things. But like you're saying, it's maybe the emotional connection that's fallen flat, that's not being given much attention. And it sounds like a good balance, the emotional side with the story there. I find with my writing, I think I focus too much on the emotional stuff, but the interaction between the characters that sometimes I forget the outside world and the story completely.
[00:19:47] Speaker D: Joanne that's exactly what happened with my first novel, Eden. I worked on it for so many years. It's a story about four generations of women in a family who share a seaside home, a family home. The characters and the setting was what really came to me. And these misunderstandings. They each had an unplanned pregnancy, but because of the era in which they each lived, there were different acceptable practices and ways to handle it, at least here in the United States. Yeah, each of these women couldn't really relate to one another. So I had written these beautiful characters in this great setting, and I had an editor say, I love these people, but the story has no plot. Like, they're just what's carrying the story. You can't have just this family of women sitting around being resentful and misunderstanding. And I thought, well, why not?
[00:20:40] Speaker A: That's life.
[00:20:43] Speaker D: So then I created this scenario where they're going to lose the house, and long lost daughter shows up, and it's the 4 July, and everyone thinks they're there to have a family meeting about losing the house and the fact that there's no money and the money's running out, and this is happening and that's happening. But really, the grandmother wanted to introduce this long lost daughter of hers to everyone. And at the end of the day, a cousin comes along and buys the house, and, you know, different things happen. So I had to really kind of create that sense of economic doom and that the time, the clock is ticking and we're gonna lose the house, and then everyone's there. And I, this one relative, can handle meeting the long lost daughter and kind of goes on a bender. And so, like, I had to figure out what would, what are the tensions, what are the stressors. I had a teacher once use the word stressor, just, like, figure out what is going to really heat this weekend up. What's the thing that's going to get everybody going and either behaving their best or behaving their worst and showing their true colors. So I went through that exercise and really learned how to write, figure out what an external plot really needed look like. So that was. That is actually the reason I decided to write the boarding school book. Because I'm like, okay, I'm gonna just start and make this simple. I'm not gonna have all these people in this family. I'm just gonna have a mother and her son. And he goes to the school, and it's gonna be action packed and lots of lot. And then I actually went back and did it the opposite. I had to layer in this emotional thing after I decided I really don't feel like I'm a best author of action thrillers. I'm more of a domestic drama, emotional anger kind of writer.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Yeah, sounds like me as well. But I beg to differ, because if you've won awards, then everybody obviously thinks, yes, you are good at that element as well.
[00:22:35] Speaker D: Well, because I think I put in my secret sauce, which is the mother son relationship.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Well, it all sounds absolutely fantastic. It is a fine line, I think. And I really connect with it because I feel I do the same. I'm either focusing on the emotional side between the characters. And then go back and have to kind of fill her in the outside plot, story and things that. And I don't know whether I've done it the other way around or either or. I think it's. Yeah.
[00:23:04] Speaker D: With daughter of a promise. And now my current work in process, I've been writing in the first person perspective. And I like to write in the voice of my main character. It's something I hadn't really been able to do with my first two novels. But what I find is that I'm constant. I'm writing my first draft, at least, of this next work. So much of what's going on in my character's head. I had to. I just have so much of what she's thinking and so much of what's making her tick. That I have to realize in the next revision. Like some external stuff has to happen. Like she needs to be actually conducting some action. Or there has to be a reason for her to be thinking these things. It's, you know, to give the best advice is that a good manuscript is going to go through a lot of revision. And so with the successive revision, it's almost like putting layers on a cake. You're like, well, that next revision I'm going to really focus on dialogue and scenes. And descriptions of the inside of the house or where they are. And the next revision, I'm going to really make sure the action is as heightened in each of these scenes as possible. It's really impossible to just have the first draft come out and to be, like, balancing all these things we've talked about. Often just try to get the most basic, like, sense of the story out and then know that with each revision, I am going to concern myself with the important aspects of craft and make sure there's balance between an inner arc of a character and an outer arc of action and external forces.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Yeah, and details and things. It might even be worth writing the book as prose and then actually writing it as a screenplay. So you've got your internal thoughts and then your only visual and action of what's to happen and trying to join the two together. I might give that a go, actually.
Well, congratulations on all your success to date, Jean. The books absolutely sound fantastic. What are you got plans for the future for the next books?
[00:25:05] Speaker D: Well, I'm a slow writer. Things take a while to cook. But as I mentioned, I'm currently working on another piece. My three novels. You mentioned that you describe them as a trilogy, and I've been describing them that way as well. Although I didn't plan. I didn't set out and plan to write a trilogy. It just happens that I fell in love with these women from Eden and this setting, and it tends to work its way into each of my books in minor and unexpected appearances. So I do have shared characters and setting in each of the books, which I find is just an expansion of my imaginary world. And daughter of a promise has a minor character who I'm giving her own story, and I'm currently working on that. So, again, the whole idea of interconnectedness with characters and just my timeframes are coming together again. We'll see if I can pull this one off. I'm working my way into figuring out what this thing wants to be. It's a very messy process, this book writing.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: It is, isn't it? And I find there's elements that I do the same for most, but it doesn't feel like any book is the same or tackled the same or anything.
[00:26:18] Speaker D: But they're all so hard. Yeah, it does really get easier. No, no.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: But the trust and the faith that it all comes together in the end is there. And it does.
[00:26:28] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Oh, well, that's amazing. Jane, can you tell our listeners, you know, where can they find all your books and yourself and everything in store and online?
[00:26:37] Speaker D: Absolutely. So my name is Jean Blassberg, and my website is jeanblassberg.com, and there are links to my book on my website as well as my social media presence. I'm pretty active on Instagram and substack as well. I write an essay once a month, all under Jean Blassberg, author. Those are my handles, but I believe all my books, which should be available down under, at least in the electronic and the audio versions, if not distributed with the paperbacks. Yeah, wherever books are sold. But probably your online retailers or your e versions are going to be easier to get.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Jean. You shared some absolute wonderful tips and from your experiences and things like that, it's been fantastic. Thank you for joining us.
[00:27:25] Speaker D: Thanks, Joanne. It was such a pleasure.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: So there you have it, folks, the super storyteller, Gene M. Blasberg. I hope you learned a lot from Jean, as did I. Next time on the hybrid author podcast, we have Andrea Barton on plot development, plot twists, suspense, and intention for a more spontaneous writing style. I wish you well in your author adventure this next week. That's it from me. Bye for now.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: That's the end for now, authors. I hope you're further forward in your author adventure after listening, and I hope you'll listen next time. Remember to head on over to the hybrid author website at www.hybridauthor.com dot au to get your free author pass. It's bye for now.
