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WORK TITLE: Strawberry Wine
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://darlyjamison.com/
CITY:
STATE: OH
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
N/A
PERSONAL
Married; has children.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and novelist. Worked at a library.
AWARDS:Watty Award, Write Affair Contest, Kensington Publishing, for Strawberry Wine.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Darly Jamison writes contemporary romance fiction. She dreamed of becoming a writer at a young age, drawing stories over and over before she could even read. Jamison initially published her fiction on the WattPad website, where stories can be shared and read. In a guest post for the website Cat Mint5’s World, Jamison said the idea for her debut novel Strawberry Wine came from a country song she once heard of the same title. Jamison noted: “I connected with the lyrics and wanted to know more about the couple” in the song.
According to Jamison, the idea of publishing the story she began writing via WattPad was promising because she connected the platform with a certain amount of anonymity. “I’d never written on a serious level before and knowing my story would be hidden behind millions of others felt comforting,” Jamison noted in the Cat Mint5’s World guest post. For WattPad, Jamison submitted the story chapter by chapter. Sometimes it would take a few weeks between chapters, but Jamison kept writing. She said that at one point, after realizing she had readers, she became nervous and thought of deleting the entire story. “I … had readers who were counting on me to finish,” Jamison stated, adding: “Since I didn’t plan the story, I just let it tell itself, [and] every scene felt like a surprise.”
Despite having not written seriously before, Jamison knew what she thought should be the basic elements of a good romance. On her home website, Jamison noted that there had to be romance, of course, but for her a good romance novel also featured conflict, flawed protagonists, and developed secondary characters who have relationships with the protagonists. Jamison also noted that, for her, a romance should have a happy ending. Jamison subsequently submitted Strawberry Wine in a writer’s publishing contest and won, leading to the novel becoming her debut novel.
Strawberry Wine revolves around Addison “Addy” Monroe and how a teenage love suddenly places her at a crossroads in life ten years later. Addy is eighteen years old when she falls in love with a college student from Texas named Jake Grady. Jake is working on her family farm in Georgia for the summer. Although Addy only wants to relax and have fun with her friends before facing the stress of her senior year in high school, there is an unmistakable attraction between Addy and Jake.
Initially, Addy and Jake become good friends as Addy finds Jake unlike most of the boys in her small hometown. Eventually, after Jake comes to Addy’s rescue from a town bully, a romance develops. The love affair between Addy and Jake is intense, but soon Jake leaves for college and the two young peoples’ lives diverge. A decade later Addy is a physician’s assistant in Atlanta and engaged to a doctor. Despite the seemingly happy life she leads, Addy remembers that wonderful summer with Jake. Then she makes a visit to her old hometown, Lakeside, to announce her engagement and there encounters Jake.
For a contributor to the website A Novel Glimpse, Strawberry Wine “was a of mix of romance genres. Part one was a young/new adult romance filled with lots of immature teenage drama.” The contributor classified part two as “adult contemporary romance” and noted: “The switch from Addy’s teenage view-point to her adult one was well done.” A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that Jamison “flounders a bit” because Addy’s two love interests seem one-dimensional. Nevertheless, the Publishers Weekly contributor went on to note Jamison’s “solid female characters” and recommended Strawberry Wine to “readers looking for rural charm, second chances, and tender cowboys.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2016, review of Strawberry Wine, p. 130.
ONLINE
A Novel Glimpse, http://anovelglimpse.com/ (January 25, 2017), review of Strawberry Wine.
Cat Mint5’s World, https://dilyanakyoseva.wordpress.com/ (March 3, 2017), Dilyaha Kyoseva, “My Writing Process—Guest Post by Darly Jamison, Author of Strawberry Wine.”
Darly Jamison Website, https://darlyjamison.com (October 23, 2017).*
DARLY JAMISONSkip to content
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About Me
Darly Jamison is a Watty Award winning writer of Contemporary Romance. Her dream of becoming an author began before she could read, when she repeatedly drew the same story until the pages spilled over the bottom drawer of her parents’ antique chest.
As she grew older, her love of the written word continued to flourish and she was ecstatic when she landed her dream job in a library! Unfortunately, her position there was short lived and she was let go for continuously reading on the job.
Darly’s big break came when she entered her first novella into a writing competition. To her surprise, her story won and she was awarded a publishing contract through Kensington Publishing.
When she’s not busy devising her next story plot, she can be found hanging out with her family in Northwest Ohio, or trying to cure her insatiable sweet tooth.
Her debut novel, Strawberry Wine, will be in bookstores January 31st, 2017, and is available now for preorder: https://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Wine-Darly-Jamison/dp/1420141643
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7 thoughts on “About Me”
It so happens that I’ve chosen Wattpad for practising my English (I live in Poland) so far I’ve read many Wattpad romances and other pieces but afer reading The Fast Line I’m sure about outstanding skill of the Autor. (deep bow! ). Congrats…Keep going and bring Joy for Us Readers 🙂
Liked by 1 person
Edward , November 7, 2015 at 11:55 am REPLY
Thank you, Edward! I really appreciate you stopping by and for the kind words. Let me know who you are on WP and I’ll be sure to add your story to my reading list!
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darlyjamison , December 21, 2015 at 4:35 am REPLY
Pingback: Darly Jamison | Brickley Jules
That’s an amazing story! Congrats to you!
Liked by 1 person
K E Garland , May 1, 2016 at 5:34 am REPLY
Thank you kindly! The win came as a major shock, but a very happy one. 🙂
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Darly Jamison , May 5, 2016 at 3:45 am REPLY
D. Jamison I absolutely loved Strawberry Wine! It was the first story I finished on Wattpad this summer! It really got me in the summer mood, and I devoured that story immediately! 🙂 The romance between Jake and Addison was so adorable and genuine. Never stop writing!
Liked by 1 person
McKenna Morris , August 2, 2016 at 5:25 am REPLY
McKenna, thank you so much for this! I’m so happy you enjoyed the story. I can’t wait to share the rest of it with you. The published version goes up for preorder soon! Thank you again for this lovely comment. ❤
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Darly Jamison , August 23, 2016 at 4:29 am REPLY
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Darly Jamison
Hey there, I'm Darly, winner of The Write Affair contest sponsored by Kensington Publishing and Wattpad!
Life has been a bit crazy since my story Strawberry Wine won the grand prize, and I've been hard at work revising my debut novel. It's available now for preorder and will be in book stores everywhere January 31st, 2017. I hope you will join me for this exciting journey!
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My Writing Process – Guest Post by Darly Jamison, Author of Strawberry Wine
MARCH 3, 2017 ~ DILYANA KYOSEVA (CATMINT5 ON WATTPAD)
Hey, kittens!
Welcome to the first post of March into My World March!
We have Darly Jamison, sharing her experience with us.
darly-jamison-author-of-strawberry-wine
Darly Jamison, Author of Strawberry Wine
My debut novel Strawberry Wine is now sitting on shelves at all of my favorite bookstores, but the truth is it was first born on Wattpad. Well, that’s not entirely correct. The story had been brewing inside my thoughts for years, ever since I’d heard a country song by the same name. It’s a bittersweet story about first love. For some reason, I connected with the lyrics and wanted to know more about the couple Deana Carter was singing about. I needed to know what happened after they broke up, but once the song ended, so did their story. When I discovered Wattpad, I knew I finally had a place to learn more about them.
I’d never written on a serious level before and knowing my story would be hidden behind millions of others felt comforting. I had no idea what I was doing and felt way too embarrassed to tell anyone in my life what I was up to. Writing had always been a secret dream of mine, but I’d never taken creative writing classes and didn’t think anything I wrote would ever stand out.
Chapter by chapter I posted my first romance. Sometimes I would upload once a week, and sometimes it would be a couple of weeks before I added another part. I didn’t outline or take notes, I just wrote the first thing that came to mind, loosely following the flow of the love song. And before I knew it, I had readers! To be honest, that scared me more than anything else. I know most would-be writers go to Wattpad hoping to find an audience, but once I had one, I debated deleting my story entirely. It’s true! I was planning to trash it and tell everyone I had no idea what happened. But when the time came to get rid of it … I couldn’t. Somewhere along the way, I’d fallen in love with my characters and I still needed to know how their relationship played out. In addition to that, I now had readers who were counting on me to finish. Since I didn’t plan the story, I just let it tell itself, every scene felt like a surprise. And still, I had no idea how it was going to end! When it did, I cried like a baby.
strawberry-wine-by-darly-jamison
I learned a great deal writing Strawberry Wine, but I think the most valuable lesson was to never again go in without an outline. I know some authors prefer to wing it, but for me, I need a little something to guide me along. It doesn’t have to be much, just a few key points to push the story in the right direction, toward an ending readers will love.
The first thing I do is write down the basic idea of my story. The protagonist, the situation, the setting. What’s the protagonist’s goal? What or who is the antagonist? How will these characters grow throughout the story?
Once I have that, I think about important scenes that will move the idea forward. Chances are, I already have some in mind, but I make sure to leave room for flexibility. By the time it’s all said and done, many of those scenes may end up on the chopping block with new ones taking their place.
I make sure there are no plot holes; that everything I want to happen has meaning and makes sense. In the end, I want the plot and subplots to wrap up and all questions to be answered.
Now that I have a general “outline”, I try not to dwell on it. I know that must sound counterproductive! I said it’s important to have one, but personally, I’ve found that studying it too much can curb creativity. It’s there when I need it, but the freedom to do my own thing really gets those juices flowing. At least, for me!
That’s my writing process. What’s yours?
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One thought on “My Writing Process – Guest Post by Darly Jamison, Author of Strawberry Wine”
Dilyana Kyoseva (CatMint5 on Wattpad)
MARCH 3, 2017 AT 1:43 PM
Thank you for sharing your writing process with us, Darly!
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Strawberry Wine
Publishers Weekly.
263.51 (Dec. 12, 2016): p130.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
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Full Text:
Strawberry Wine
Darly Jamison. Zebra Shout, $4.99 mass
market (320p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4164-1
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Small-town teen love gets a second chance in Jamison's promising debut. Addison Monroe fell hard for
college student Jake Grady the summer before her senior year of high school. Jake works on her family's
farm in backcountry Georgia and speedily becomes Addison's savior when a classmate makes unwanted
sexual advances. The first half of the novel follows their affair through its rapid turns with all the headiness
of first love, summer pleasures, and heartbreak. The second half picks up 10 years later with Addison's
seemingly perfect life in Atlanta, where she has a successful career and charming fiance, Christopher. Her
return home to announce her engagement is quickly complicated by an unexpected death and her reunion
with Jake. Jamison flounders a bit by making Addison's suitors one-dimensional--Jake is goodness
personified, and Christopher is such a villain that one expects him to twirl his mustache-and giving Jake's
past some unnecessary unpleasantness. Her solid female characters, including Addison's grandmother and
best friend, provide a good counterbalance. Jamison will gratify readers looking for rural charm, second
chances, and tender cowboys. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Strawberry Wine." Publishers Weekly, 12 Dec. 2016, p. 130+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475225074&it=r&asid=4573ef9b6fa4fad294d86bed1bbb710d.
Accessed 2 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475225074
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Review: Strawberry Wine by Darly Jamison
Posted on January 25, 2017
Strawberry Wine
Author: Darly Jamison
Publication Date: January 31, 2017
Publisher: Zebra Shout
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Note: I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Synopsis:
How do you know if a first love is made to last?
Addison Monroe was eighteen when she fell for Jake Grady, a college student working on her family s farm for the summer. With his sapphire eyes and killer smile, Jake could have had any girl in Lakeside, Georgia. But he wanted Addy, and for those brief, wonderful months before circumstances drove them irrevocably apart they belonged to each other.
Ten years later, Addy is engaged to a doctor and working in Atlanta as a physician s assistant. Life feels full and satisfying. Yet memories of that long-ago summer and wine-flavored kisses are hard to shake. On a return visit to Lakeside, Addy crosses paths with Jake again, and soon finds herself at an unexpected crossroads. So much has changed, and Addy has chosen another route. And the magic of first love can never be rekindled…can it?”
Strawberry Wine is the story of a teenage girl experiencing her first love only to lose him. Flash forward ten years later, and Abby runs into her first love Jake again. Their reunion is bittersweet because Abby is engaged to marry another man. Seeing Jake again makes Abby begin to question the life she has chosen.
Strawberry Wine was a of mix of romance genres. Part One was a young/new adult romance filled with lots of immature teenage drama. It was the story of Addy’s past with Jake, and it nicely led into Part Two. The switch from Addy’s teenage view-point to her adult one was well done. She felt like the same person just older, which is what you would expect. Part Two was an adult contemporary romance.
Addie was a typical teenage girl navigating falling in love for the first time. She was dramatic and teenage girl crazy. There was an innocent sweetness of her relationship with Jake that I really loved. In some ways, I wish time hadn’t jumped so much in Part Two and that they could have resolved their issues earlier.
Jake was that hot cowboy of your dreams with a sensitive side. I couldn’t find much wrong with him other than he let Addie slip through his fingers and he made a questionable decision at one point in Part Two. Otherwise, he was perfect.
What kept Strawberry Wine from earning a higher rating from me was the inconsistency in pace of the story. The slow, drawn out beginning of Addie and Jake’s relationship in Part One didn’t feel cohesive with fast-paced conclusion of Part Two. Part Two felt like it abruptly ended and then everything was quickly explained in the epilogue. It felt like something was missing. I would have rather have experienced the time between the end of Part Two and the epilogue.
Strawberry Wine was a good debut novel. Darly Jamison is an up and coming writer with the potential to become great. She created an entertaining story with interesting characters and a lot of fun drama. I’m looking forward to reading her next novel.
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This entry was posted in Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Romance and tagged Coming of Age, Contemporary, Doctors, Family, Farmers, Fiction, High School, Love Triangles, New Adult, Romances, Second Chances by anovelglimpse. Bookmark the permalink.
4 THOUGHTS ON “REVIEW: STRAWBERRY WINE BY DARLY JAMISON”
Candid Cover on January 25, 2017 at 9:20 am said:
I haven’t heard of this one before! I think it is really interesting that the author mixed YA with adult fiction. The premise does sound really intriguing to me and I am sorry that the story fell short for you. Sometimes pacing really affects my enjoyment of a book, too. I hope that you love your next read! <3
Reply ↓
anovelglimpse
on January 25, 2017 at 1:21 pm said:
It was just the second half of the book was missing something the first half had. Couldn’t quit figure it out. But you’re right, it is interesting that she mixed it.
Reply ↓
Kelly on January 25, 2017 at 3:24 pm said:
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this one more! It can really ruin a book when the pacing just seems off, especially when it’s slow paced in the beginning and feels rushed toward the end.
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anovelglimpse
on January 25, 2017 at 5:19 pm said:
Yeah, the story just didn’t feel cohesive. 🙁
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