Welcome, and thanks for joining me for another edition of Sunday Speed Dates. This week I welcome Jeanne Felfe!
Jeanne Felfe (pronounced Gee Knee Fell Fee) 
started writing as a teen, but never seriously until about 2012. She would start writing with stark raving enthusiasm, and then mysteriously stop, sometimes for months or years. It wasn’t until she retired from her ATT Project Management job that she asked herself, “if not now, when?” She launched into the July 2013 Camp NaNoWriMo, the writer bug bite, and this time didn’t let go. Her debut novel, The Art of Healing, a sweet love story, was published in June 2016. Jeanne is currently working on her second novel, a dramatic story of lost love, lies and family betrayal.
A Texan by birth, Jeanne has resided in the St. Louis area since 1986, currently in St. Charles, MO, with her fiancé, and two dogs who believe they are tiny humans. She likes to say, “If you ever meet someone named Felfe, we ARE related.”
Welcome Jeanne! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m a 60 year old grandmother, a dog lover, and an escapee from corporate America. I grew up in Corpus Christi, TX but have been land-locked since 1985. I still miss being in a tropical climate and make up for it by planting more plants than any one person should have, including banana trees, canna lilies, and hibiscus. All these plants are brought in for the winter, a process I’m working on during October.
Can you tell us a little about your latest project.
The Art of Healing is a sweet love story with lots of twists and turns, that helps reaffirm that true love is possible and that one doesn’t have to give up who they are in order to have it. It’s based in St. Louis and St. Charles, Missouri.
Oh, I love a Feel Good story!
Where are you currently living? No need to list your town, but a state, region, or general geographic location is fine. :)
I live smack dab in the middle of the country in Missouri.
What do you like/dislike about it?
I like that it’s centrally located and that I’m within a 5 hour drive of my grandkids. I don’t like that it’s not on a beach. And I don’t like that it has a winter, albeit much milder than if I were further north. I’ve never been a fan of being cold and it gets way colder here than I can stand. So I spend a lot of time indoors during the winter.
I completely understand about the cold. Your plants are lucky to have such a good caregiver!
What are some day jobs that you have held?
I spent a few years in outside sales—I wasn’t very good at it. That’s why I went back to college in my later 20’s for a BS in Math/Computer Science. Prior to my major career with AT&T, I worked as a waitress, math tutor, computer lab assistant, and veterinarian assistant. I also obtained a massage license in 2000 and spent a few years moonlighting as an Energy Medicine Therapist. After receiving my degree from the University of Houston-Victoria, I went to work for AT&T. I spent the last 15 years prior to retirement in 2012 as a Project Manager. My goal was to retire at 55 and I gave notice on my 56th birthday. My last day was 12-12-12, appropriate since I closed on my house on 08-08-08.
There’s a lot of symmetry in those numbers… Lol!
Have any of them impacted your writing? How so?
I’m a firm believe that all our life experiences have an impact on our writing, whether we’re aware of it or not. Having held a lot of different types of jobs gives me a large bucket to pull from. Being a Project Manager taught me how to manage my time and complete tasks.
I think the job that most influenced me was as an Energy Medicine Therapist because it forced me to go deeper into my own life experiences and emotions. I learned how to dive into the heart of an emotion and find the web that ties all of life together. I tend to be an emotional writer.
That’s a good thing! There’s nothing like tapping into emotions while writing. It’s not an easy thing to do.
What books have most influenced your personal life the most?
I don’t actually know the answer to this one for anything fiction. However, some non-fiction books have been Og Mandino’s The Greatest Secret in the World, and Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Both opened the door to ideas I hadn’t been exposed to in school.
I’ve not heard of those, I will have to look into them. There’s nothing like reading to broaden our horizons in so many different ways. It is the best education out there.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
As many writers will say, I started writing at a young age, but I didn’t think of wanting to be a writer until much later in life. Sometime in my 30’s I started writing, but would always stop and put it aside, often for years. After my mother’s death in 2012, I started writing again and it was then that I discovered why I kept stopping. My mother was also a writer and although she had some success with journalistic articles and some fiction shorts, she never succeeded in her ultimate goal which was publication of her life story. I realized only after she died that I feared I would succeed where she failed and was afraid it would negatively affect her mental health. She’d suffered from suicidal depression my entire life. Once she was gone, that fear left and I’ve been writing like a fiend ever since.
Oh, wow. It’s almost like you’re making up for lost time.
How do you set your writing goals?
In general, I don’t. I write when the mood strikes, however, I use contest deadlines to keep me going.
Deadlines have such a way of making us productive, don’t they? ;)
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
I don’t and I don’t write every day. I’ve found that when I put that kind of pressure on myself, my muse closes up shop and leaves me adrift. If I focus instead on writing something for a contest, magic happens, words flow.
If you could pick one author to write a collaborative story with, who would it be and why?
I’ve always loved Nicholas Sparks. The way he weaves stories of life, love, and loss together has had me hooked since his first book, The Notebook. It’s one of the few novels I’ve read more than once.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
Learning how to show instead of tell, and staying in the proper POV. The Art of Healing was my first novel and I’d only barely written completed shorts prior to writing it. I had a lot to learn and an amazing editor.
I think almost everyone can ageee: both those issues are hard to grasp.
Tell us about your Hero and Heroine? Was there a real-life inspiration behind them?
Julianne is a pediatric nurse who—after her husband leaves her—thinks all men are scum or need mommies. Jokob (pronounced Jah cub) is a traveling photographer, who is heart-broken after losing his wife. There are aspects of Julianne I pulled from personal experience and we both have curly hair. Jokob just fell into my lap—I have no idea where he came from, but he insisted from the beginning what his name was.
I love it! Characters are so funny that way. Only another writer can read this and know it is totally normal
Is there a secondary character who readers are desperate to know more about?
Perhaps Bella, Julianne’s BFF. She’s a first generation Italian-American who is always trying to set Julianne up on blind dates, usually with hilarious results. She’s a total goof, but fiercely loyal.
If you had to describe yourself using three words, they would be…
Introvert, lover, weird.
Nice!
You get arrested. Who is your partner in crime?
That would have to be my BFF Robin. She’s goofy and brings out my goofy.
Everyone needs a good friend who brings out their goof. You are lucky to have Robin! :)
What was your best travel experience? Worst?
Maui. We spent a week on the island and took our rental car around to Hana, returning on the Hana Highway where we encountered cows standing on the so-called “road.” We learned why the car rental company didn’t want the car taken there. I can’t say I’ve had a worst. I love to travel and always find something to like.
That is a great tip: always find something to like.
What did you find most useful in learning to write?
Having a critique group I can trust. Actually, having several. I belong to a local general critique group, a novel-specific critique group, an email critique group and a Facebook group. I also was part of a FB group that had 22 members. We were each writing a short for an anthology and shared them with the group as works-in-progress. Each of us would provide feedback to the others. We did this for months. I learned more about how to write in that group that I think I’d ever learned in any other way. That group published my first two pieces of fiction.
This illustrates perfectly a misconception people have about writing — it is not solitary work. It takes an entire community to produce great work, whether it’s in person or online. You are lucky in your writing friends and community.
Can you give us a sneak peak into your next book?
I’ve been thinking about The Lie (working title) for a couple of years. I was driving and heard a new Jon Bon Jovi song – (You Want to) Make a Memory. I immediately saw my male and female MC’s running into each other in the airport after over two decades. Their parting flashed into my head like a movie. I knew then I would turn it into a novel, but it had to wait its turn. I’ll be writing it during NaNo 2016. It’s a drama of family, lies, love and betrayal.
That sounds intriguing. I’m a sucker for reunion stories.
Where can we find out more about you and what you write?
Facebook
Amazon
My website is a work in progress and it’s quite ready for prime time. I plan to blog in what I call Deeper Dives, where I look at various topics from a different perspective, aimed at making readers think.
Wonderful! I can’t wait to see you around online. Thanks again for stopping by!
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