Venturing to Other Worlds

What do you consider worth the wait? Answer in the comments section for a chance to win a copy of Worth the Wait by Laura Jackson. And now, meet the author…

Tell me three things about yourself that would surprise your readers.

I listen to sports radio while I write. I once wore a bathing suit over my clothes and walked up and down the street on a dare. I want to be picked for jury duty.

What’s your favorite book? Why?

Sold by Patricia McCormick opened my eyes to the sex-slave business. It’s heart-wrenching but the kind that wakes you up to what’s going on in the world.

How long did it take you to write this book?

I wrote most of Worth the Wait during the 2012 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I wrote over 50,000 words in November and finished the story in the middle of December. I hired an editor and spent the next three months making the story better before sending it to agents and small publishers.

Introduce us to your villain. Is there a flicker of good within him/her?

There’s not a typical villain in Worth the Wait, but there is a girl who is a heifer. She’s mean, snobby and catty. So, of course, I had to figure out why…..I’m working on her story now.

Describe the story’s setting.

I knew that meeting my goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days was going to be hard, so while I had the main idea in my head, I needed some things to be “easy,” where I could write about it without doing a lot of research. So, Houston is the setting since I live in a suburb of the city and am familiar with it. It’s also a great city—diverse, growing and full of fantastic restaurants and Southern hospitality.

What message do you hope your readers will take away after reading your novel?

I pray that readers will remember that God’s best is always worth the wait. His plan is right and perfect even when it doesn’t make sense to us.

What do you consider the most impactful: the beginning or end of your book? Why?

I think the end is more impactful—perhaps because it may be a surprising ending to some readers. It’s not a cliffhanger, but it’s not the expected ending.

Ellie Lansing has a picture-perfect life with a close-knit family and the perfect boyfriend. But her world is suddenly knocked off center when her drool-worthy boyfriend cheats, and her always-has-it-together mother is diagnosed with cancer. Ellie doesn’t get it. She always does the right thing – doesn’t God owe her a happy life? Through her heartache, Ellie learns that sometimes what seems like the end is really just the beginning and that what God has for us is always worth the wait.

Laura Jackson loves books—reading and writing them. A life-longer reader, Laura studied English in college and taught 7th grade language arts before earning her Master’s degree and becoming a school librarian. Now, she spends her days sharing great books with kids and her evenings writing books about teenage girls discovering God and His plan for their lives.

To get to know Laura’s characters better, check out Worth the Wait, released February 4, 2014 and available for purchase here.

Follow her at http://authorlaurajackson.blogspot.com/, https://www.facebook.com/laurajacksonwrites, and https://twitter.com/LauraJackson80.

As always, thank you for hithering and venturing to another world with me. Please visit again next week when I’ll interview Jennifer Fromke, author of A Familiar Shore.