I would like to introduce Jenny Holiday - author of Saving the CEO, a new contemporary romance from Entangled Publishing. I had a chance to ask her a few questions about her life and her writing and she has some very interesting responses.
In your bio, you list that you have a degree in urban
geography. What exactly is that, and why
did it draw you?
"It’s about cities and human landscapes—how they got to be
the way they are and how people use them. A concrete example is the practice of
redlining in the 1960s. This refers to banks refusing to make mortgage loans to
people in certain neighborhoods—drawing a red line around them on a map. So of
course these areas, which tended to be home to poorer people, started to
decline. We might look at some of these
areas today and see slums, but in fact there was a clear reason these places
became the way they are. Urban geography is about untangling all that.
I got into it because I had a great prof as an undergrad. I
was an undecided about my major, and I heard her give a presentation. I had
always thought about geography as memorizing the state capitals, but she showed
us it was so much more."
"The monster that keeps me up at night is four years old, and
he lives in my house. He is not a fan of sleeping.
I do get a little spooked by the idea of ghosts, especially
if I’m staying somewhere I’ve never been. You know those people who go around
hunting ghosts with special equipment and stuff? CRAZY PEOPLE. And when I was a
kid, a babysitter let me watch a made-for-TV remake of Psycho. (Who does that?)
As a result, for two years, I refused to take a shower without my mom in the
bathroom with me, standing just on the other side of the shower curtain.
As far as superstitions, I don’t really have any."
What is the hardest part of the story to write and how do
you get through it?
"Writers talk about “the sagging middle,” and that is
definitely the challenge for me. I come out of the gate with a bang, but around
about 20,000 words, I think, “are we done yet?”
Part of your new book, Saving the CEO is about breaking your
own rules. How often do you break your
own rules?
Remember that four-year-old I mentioned? I’m still working
shedding on the “baby” weight from being pregnant with that kid. I pretty much
break a rule every single day on this front. I have an incredible weakness for
M&Ms. But beyond that, I don’t think I really have big-time rules for
myself like the hero of the book. He’s much more tightly-wound than I am!"
Many romance novels use the theme of love at first sight, or
soul mates. Do you believe in love at
first sight or is it something that belongs in the stories?
"I believe in attraction at first meeting, which I guess is a
slightly less dramatic version of love at first sight. And I’m not just talking
about physical attraction. I think it’s possible to “click” with a person right
away, and that can lead to love. I also think “lust at first sight,” which is
what happens to the main characters in Saving the CEO, is possible. Part of
this book was about imagining how lust could lead to love when the characters
were resistant to the idea of love."
Quickfire Questions:
Favorite ice cream?
Strawberry
Cats or dogs?
Neither. (I am preparing to be booed.)
Favorite childhood TV show?
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Lights on or off?
Are we talking about what I think we’re talking about? On—but
dimly!
Author Bio:
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