Thank you Cheryl, I'm happy to be on your blog today!
Please tell us a little about yourself. I was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and have lived here most of my life. At an early age I developed a passion for writing. My interest in people has led me all over the globe, including a two year stay in Japan and a humanitarian trip to Rwanda.
I love to write romance stories with a twist, usually involving a dangerous and dramatic backdrop. My first novel, Hands Full of Ashes (published Jan. 14, 2015), was inspired by my trip to Africa.
I spent many years teaching young adults with learning disabilities at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and I am now focused on writing full-time. I recently became a member of the Canadian Authors Association. I currently reside in the sunny Okanagan with my husband and two children.
What is your favorite pastime, other than writing? While I love writing, spending time outdoors is also a big part of my life. I live in a naturally beautiful region, with lakes and mountains, so I spend a lot of time skiing, hiking, biking and kayaking.
Any advice for new writers just starting out? Join a writer's group - the support is incalculable! Have people read your writing, share it and edit it! Submit your work to writing contests, attend writing conferences, and begin drafting a polished query letter. It's a lot of work, but if you love to write, keep at it!
What genre or genres do you write? Though I published an earlier memoir on my life in Japan, my primary focus of writing is romantic suspense.
Tell us about your latest release. Hands Full of Ashes was inspired by a journey I took to Rwanda in 2012. Although it is a work of fiction, the setting and the people I met there affected me deeply. I wanted to write a love story and shine a different light on Rwanda, a country known for the genocide. It has become so much more than that.
Somewhere, in another world, a faraway place, it was snowy and beautiful. Shreds of her memory hung loose, a coil of wire unspooled. She was in an alpine forest. The Black Tusk was there, across the valley between the mountains. Her hands were cold and they held something, a bottle or a jar. Olivia saw tiny, silver flashes, lifting and flying above.
Her arms reached out, trying to grab them. Her gravity shifted, and she knew she was falling down, into the valley far below. Is that you Jan? Where are you, Jack? Where are you going? Don't leave me here! The faces of the two men hovered above her, and she desperately reached out to both of them as she slipped over the edge.
What's your current WIP? It is another love story, set in Europe, and is more of a historical/fantasy romance. It involves a ton of research, but I am enjoying the process.
Thank you for having me here today, Cheryl!!! I'm thrilled to be here!!! My name is J.J. Devine. I've been married to my trucker husband for almost 30 years. We have three children, three grandchildren, an angel grandchild, three dogs, one cat, and two fish tanks. Yeah, we're a gluten for punishment.
I started writing when our youngest son was a year old, only getting serious about my writing career about five years ago. I am president of an and coming new writing chapter, Crossroads Romance Writers, which I along with a group of authors founded. I belong to a wonderful weekly blog group, Romance Writers Weekly, in which we have changed up the blog hop idea and do a weekly blog hop, answering questions, writing flash fiction, you name it, it has probably been covered by this fantastic group.
I am published with Soul Mate Publishing and am currently working on a few projects that will be self-published this year.
Hands down, camping. Hubby and I love being in the outdoors. He loves fishing, I love sitting at the campsite pouring over my latest WIP sitting beside a low burning fire. I have often teased him about becoming a gypsy and living in our camper year round (in the cold months definitely somewhere warm).
Write. There is no other possible way to become an author besides making yourself sit down behind the keyboard and just start writing. Make writing a daily habit, set goals and work toward those goals. Don't fret over whether or not you have what it takes, prove to yourself you do, by just doing it.
I write historical and paranormal romance.
To Raven, a twenty-five-year-old, extremely sheltered woman, they are nothing more than something to be read about in a book. To Dragon, an eight hundred-year-old vampire, they are a way of life.
I currently have many irons in the fire. I am working on an anthology with some of my writing chapter sister entitled, The Hope Chest, due out this June. I am also working on a story for a boxed set with some of the Romance Writer Weekly gang, due out this Fall. I'm also in the process of editing Destiny's Price (the second in my Acceptance Series) as well as the second book in my Darkness Series, Darkness Bring Desire.