Inside The Indie Author: A Conversation with Jennifer Raines

Have you ever considered writing under a pseudonym, and why or why not?

Absolutely. I had a pseudonym all picked out. I was going to be Jennifer Brook. The Jennifer is real, but the Brook is a portion of my partner’s name. He has a long name and we started using Brook for takeaways or restaurant reservations, even dry cleaning drop offs. It was easier, and we both liked the image of running water that it evokes. The pseudonym was because of my job at the time—lots of romance naysayers. When I was lucky enough to get a publishing contract, I wasn’t in the job, so decided to go with my own name.

What is your “go-to” method for working through or around writer’s block?

Walking often works for me. If I’m stuck on something in the scene I’m writing, I’ll go for a walk and ideas will pop into my head. If it’s bigger, like facing a new book, and the ideas have stopped coming, I’ll reread favourite romances, maybe test ideas with someone I trust, review conference or workshop notes, even attend a new craft workshop because they always spark ideas. I often have several projects happening at once, editing a partially written manuscript, starting something new, rechecking my bottom drawer—the drawer of abandoned manuscripts. Essentially, I switch up activities. It’s important to believe the ideas will come. It may take a while, but we’re all living life, and sometimes we just have to give ourselves a break.

From your perspective, what are the most important elements of good writing?

The question asks about good writing, rather than good story telling. I like clear, grammatically correct writing. And I’ve opened a can of worms right there, because every English speaking country has variations in grammar, spelling and style. I’m Australian, so prefer Australian conventions, and some alternatives annoy the hell out of me. But that’s life. Good writing paints a picture, sketches in a character with a few words, and builds tension with varied sentence length or dialogue.

What comes first – the location, the plot, or the characters – and why?

It has varied for me. In Lela’s Choice, I wanted to use the idea of one parent moving minors across international borders to deny the other parent custody. I chose Malta because we have a lot of Australians of Maltese heritage. Betrayal—Choosing Family Book 3 is character driven. The FMC was introduced in the first two books in the series, so readers had a strong sense of her. It was a demanding book to write for that reason—it had to suit Anna’s personality and the MMC had to be the right fit. I write contemporary romance, but I always tell a story, so plot is important and getting it right can be what slows the writing process. I want heat, so I write open door romances, but I also want heart, so there needs to be respect and affection before they get down and dirty. Finally, I want a story that convinces my readers the characters deserve a happily-ever-after.

What are your least favorite and most favorite things about publishing a book?

My favourite thing about publishing a book is that I’ve told the story I wanted to tell. I got all those words on the page, brought imaginary characters to life and delivered a believable happily-ever-after. My absolute least favourite is marketing, and this may be my personal gripe, but with some successful books, it seems that great marketing trumps a mediocre book. As a crap marketer it’s hard work getting readers to pick you up—why choose someone unknown, when you can read the latest TikTok sensation. TikTok is also shaping the way new readers view romance. Many assume all romances have sex, lots of sex, whereas romances come in all shapes and sizes from sweet to very spicy.

What is a significant way your book changed from the first to the final draft?

In Quinn, by design I wanted to find a way for my MMC & FMC to be kept together. I initially built it around Lucy’s belief Niall Quinn had cheated her dead grandfather. Essentially that was a misunderstanding and not good enough to carry a book. Ultimately, the binding force was her grandfather’s will, which required them to cooperate to establish a Foundation in his name. They both loved and respected her grandfather, so couldn’t walk away from his final request.

What was the inspiration for your most recent book?

A Just Man—Choosing Family Book 4 is my most recent book. The initial inspiration was my rage at the increase in the number of strip searches by cops involving underage girls (10-17 years), especially illegal strip searches.

In 2019, a sixteen year old girl was strip searched at a music festival in NSW, Australia. The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) broadcast the then NSW Police Minister saying he "would want" officers to strip-search his children, after new data revealed 122 underage girls had been subjected to the practice since 2016. His daughter was ten at the time. I was shouting at the screen. Especially given that the Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission had already heard that some officers didn’t know their obligation in relation to minors, and in the case of the 16-year-old, there was no justification for initiating the search. Ultimately, the police officer involved said it was “probably unlawful”.

But I write romance. And my challenge was to take that sixteen year old girl and the rookie cop who conducted the strip search and move their story forward a few years. How did that incident change their lives? Could they ever trust—like—love each other?

What is a “darling” you’ve killed in a book that you’d like to resurrect in a future book?

The darlings I kill are often words or phrases I love, but really at the end of the day aren’t needed for the story. I might be resistant right up to the final edit, but I accept the need to let them go. I have parked a few characters for later books, a villain in one, a farm-hand in another, and in my current series, I have two people who are perfect for each other, but I’m not yet ready to write their story.

Where are your most productive writing spaces, and what elements are important about that space to keep you focused on writing.

I have excellent concentration skills. I can block everything out even to the extent of not using a playlist when I write because I don’t hear a thing. When I started writing, I preferred to write in the morning and at my desk, but I quickly realized that I needed to be able to take advantage of any moment to jot down an idea. When I’m walking, between meetings, while I’m waiting for someone, on the bus, before I fall asleep at night, so I’ve trained myself to take advantage of those moments and have something nearby to write on. The number of times I’ve had a brilliant idea just as I’m slipping off to sleep and told myself I’ll write it down in the morning, only to realise I can’t remember it are countless. Write it down when and where you have it.

If you were to give one of your side characters a novella of their own, who would it be, and why do you think they need their own story?

That’s an easy question because I’m writing it now. Grace Under Fire was my second published book. Bluey—real name Lachlan—is a casual farm hand, in his fifties, a secondary but important character. A few readers took a shine to him. Bluey’s romance starts before Grace Under Fire when he’s in his forties. He’s older than my usual romantic hero, and he meets the love of his life because of a tragedy. Bluey deserves to have his story told because he’s decent, kind and hard-working and winning his love and having him love you is a gift. It’s both a challenge and joy to write.

What risks have you taken with your writing that made the book better?

I don’t know if it counts as a risk, but entering competitions and having complete strangers comment on my work has changed my books. Being able to hear constructive criticism and incorporate it into your work is an acquired skill. An author’s instinctive reaction, at least mine, is to shrivel inside and say They must be wrong. Often, the criticism can push you to make a point more clearly, to change the way you describe a character or a scene or delete unnecessary back story.

I also like to learn as I write, so I choose characters in jobs I’m unfamiliar with or locations I dream of, then try to immerse myself in their worlds, not too deeply because I’m writing romance, but hopefully enough to intrigue my readers. It doesn’t always work. One reviewer commented that Quinn, by design didn’t work for her because she felt she needed to understand the worlds of woodworking and antiques to get into it. Fortunately other readers loved it.

What’s the best monetary investment you’ve ever made with regard to your writing practice?

Workshops and conferences. Places where you can engage with other writers and share ideas and swap craft knowledge. There’s always more to learn.

When you first began writing, what was a common procrastination trap you encountered, and how did you overcome it?

At first, I thought I needed long stretches of time to write anything, but I trained myself to push past that, and write a line of dialogue, if that’s what occurred to me, a scene idea, a character description, a flashpoint in a character’s life. Small ideas grow and feed off each other. I know aspiring authors who manage procrastination by writing 500 words a day. Some days they want to fly, the words are coming so thick and fast, but they make themselves stop, and have an excellent starting position for the next day.

What is your writing software of choice, and what is its best feature?

I use a simple word processing package. I haven’t updated to the latest version. I don’t want bells and whistles. I don’t want autocorrect or AI intervention, although having a spell or grammar checker is a form of AI assist. Probably the one innovation I’ve invested in in recent years is using Notability. I’ve always edited a print version of my books. I think my interaction with the story and words is different seeing it on paper to seeing it on the screen. Notability allows me to edit in a different way. I convert to a pdf, then edit through hand written notes on the screen.

Do characters’ names come immediately to you? Do you add them in a final draft? Where do you find names, and how do you make a final decision about the names you’ll use?

Names drive me insane. I realised once I’d used the same lead character names in two books and had to fix that pretty fast. I reckon most people have names they love and names they hate, often because of association with real people of the same name. I’ve given villains the names of people I despise, but only if it’s a common enough name that it can’t be linked back to the specific individual. I find famous names pop into my head. I’ve had Beta readers ask me if I know I’m using a famous name? Well, yes, but I was playing with it for a reason. I’ll choose a name sometimes because it was popular at roughly the time the character was born, or because of its meaning or connections with a particular community. I went to school with a girl named Cherry. It seemed exotic and wonderful to me, and was her family’s abbreviation of Cheryl. I’ve started to use it a few times but can’t. I can’t quite see the entire woman a Cherry would have become.

Tell us the title of one of your favorite novels, and why this book is a favorite.

One favourite is Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight by Grace Burrowes. I was weaned on Georgette Heyer, so have a soft spot for historical romances. I’ve also heard Grace Burrowes speak, and to paraphrase her, she said something along the lines of the two leads “can see a truth about each other that everyone else is missing”. That’s so powerful. I really thought she nailed it with this book. Louisa is dark and curvy when the fashion is for slender blondes. Joseph recognizes her beauty. More importantly, he admires her brain, which most people in society see as a handicap. She recognizes his kindness and tolerance, plus he makes beautiful love to her.

Think of the title of a hugely popular novel. What is one major thing you would change about the book?

Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. I really enjoyed this book as a standalone. So, I read more of hers, and found that every male was huge and their critical appendage was super huge to match. I really thought we’d dealt with the quality rather than quantity issue when talking about penis sizes. Once it was okay, three times and I thought—Why? Then someone told me about the triple six rule for male leads—six figure income, over six foot, and I’ll leave you to work out the third. That’s not my favourite hero and certainly not my only hero, so the experience makes me hesitant to read more of Hazelwood’s work, when I think she’s a good writer, so I’d change the triple six rule for the male lead.

What are you reading right now?

I’m actually reading My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. It’s an Australian classic first published in 1901, telling the story of a young woman raised in the country struggling to find her place in the world. It was made into a famous movie, and I realized I’d seen the movie, but never actually read the book. It’s very evocative of the period, with wonderful descriptions of country life, but I’m struggling to like the main protagonist at this stage.

If you could take on the identity of a character in one of your favorite books for twenty-four hours and retain the memory of that experience, which character would you choose? Tell us the title, author, character name, and why you would want to be that character.

That’s a really hard question, especially when I’ve probably forgotten more books than I remember. When I first read this question, I instantly assumed it meant which “female” character? I muddled over that, then reread the question, and it could be a character of any gender. I’d choose a female character anyway because it’s important for women in all shapes and sizes to be reflected in our literature.

I read a lot of non-fiction, so sometimes the character is the author. I don’t know how I came across Erin Pizzey’s 1974 book Scream Quietly or the Neighbours will Hear, but it’s stuck with me, and sadly, the topic is never old. She founded what became the biggest women’s shelter in the UK. I admire her ability to look at violence against women and children in the eye, to call it out and act. Compassion, determination, tolerance are characteristics I aspire to, and we need them as much as ever today. In my work over the years, I’ve met many women struggling with difficult situations. Inevitably children suffer. I’m not sure if all these interconnected experiences and ideas came together in my own book, Planting Hope, but I admire the secondary character Mona, who I tried to imbue with some of Erin Pizzey’s courage.

If you could save five books from being destroyed in the apocalypse, what books would you choose, and why?

That’s another really hard question because you haven’t specified fiction or non-fiction. Within both, there are so many branches to follow—just think poetry. There are so many choices for entirely different reasons, and what sort of apocalypse will we be dealing with? Will we want knowledge to survive? Will we want to escape into pure pleasure? Am I alone? Will I be furious?

· Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simard because the discovery that tree roots in forests communicate through a network of fungi is astonishing, and emphasises the interconnectedness of life

· Heat: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, Jeff Goodell, if I want to be a sanctimonious know it all and say “we told you so” because a climate apocalypse is a possibility

· Nature, Culture, and Inequality, Thomas Piketty where he argues inequality isn’t a natural phenomenon, but a political choice, because if we’re starting from scratch we need to know that it’s a conscious choice for a rich country to keep many of its citizens impoverished, and we can choose to be different

· Repeat: A Warning from History, Dennis Glover is a little Australian book showing that we can learn from the past, especially about not repeating mistakes. We need history.

· And because I’m spending too much time thinking about what if … if only we’d paid more attention, if only more people had read some of these books? If only the community was more important than the individual, my final choice is

· Patience for Christmas, a little novella by Grace Burrowes which I read and reread during Covid 19 lockdowns because it was short and uplifting. I could reread it tomorrow if I’m feeling overwhelmed.

Tell us a little something about your current WIP. When do you expect it to be released?

No idea when it might be released. It’s a gleam in my eye at the moment, a what if? Although I do have both a short story and a novella almost complete. The novella I mentioned above is currently filed as Bluey’s Story, but I’ll have to come up with a better title than that. I’m letting it cook at the moment. I have a full draft, but have set it aside to get some headspace before my final edit. I’m also working on a brother’s best friend, second chances romance set in the climbing/trekking community in Nepal. So, I guess the answer is I have a few WIPs at the moment and I’m not sure which I’ll finish first.

What are the titles and genres of each book you’ve written?

I write contemporary romance. My titles are: