Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Almost Missed You
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://jessicastrawser.com/
CITY: Cincinnati
STATE: OH
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Pittsburgh, PA; married; husband’s name Scott; children: two.
EDUCATION:Ohio University, graduated.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and editor. Writer’s Digest, Cincinnati, OH, editorial assistant, editorial director, chief editor, 2008-17, editor-at-large, 2017—; Personal Journaling, Cincinnati, OH, managing editor; Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, marketing and public relations executive; Emmis Books, Cincinnati, OH, editor; F + W Media, Cincinnati, OH, managing editor. Previously, worked as a freelance writer and editor.
MEMBER:Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
WRITINGS
Contributor to websites, including WritersDigest.com.
SIDELIGHTS
Jessica Strawser is a writer and editor based in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 2008 to 2017, she served as the chief editor of Writer’s Digest. Strawser now serves as an editor-at-large for the publication.
In 2017, Strawser released her first novel, Almost Missed You. In this volume, she tells the story of Violet and Finn, a seemingly perfect couple. Finn abruptly leaves Violet while they are on vacation and takes their son with him. He demands that his friend, Caitlin, help him hide. Meanwhile, Caitlin plans to take the child back to Violet.
In an interview with Kimmery Martin, which appeared on Martin’s self-titled website, Strawser explained how she developed the idea for Almost Missed You. She remarked: “I think we all have those moments where everything in our lives seems so perfect, even if just for an instant, and we’re struck with a fear that it’s too perfect—the old ‘nothing gold can stay.’ I found myself imagining one young family’s world crashing down in a way that was both ordinary (in the characters) and extraordinary (in the circumstances).” Strawser told Holly Rizzuto Palker, contributor to the Literary Mama website: “I was playing with the idea that we’re all unreliable narrators of our own stories, just by the very limitations of our perspectives, and I wanted to challenge myself to tell this particular story in such a way that you needed all three characters’ perspectives to piece together the full picture.” She continued: “With Violet, for example, it was all too easy as a mother, myself, to imagine her emotional turmoil. And with Caitlin, I had a sort of metaphor, oddly—I’d picture the expensive designer purse she mentions early on, the one her pedigreed husband gifted to her but that she then inadvertently filled with the messy stuff of motherhood: dried-up loose wipes and goldfish cracker crumbs. That was how I pictured her. I think each of us needs to find our own way to channel a voice, whether a novel contains one or three of them.” In an interview with a writer on the 17 Scribes website, Strawser stated: “Just as central to the book as the plot are its themes: Is there such a thing as fate—and do the perfect matches so many of us spend our lives looking for really exist? Or are some connections better off missed, some secrets better off kept?”
“Fans of smart women’s fiction mixed with a fast-paced plot should not miss this startling first novel,” asserted Wendy W. Paige in Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly critic commented: “Strawser’s exploration of marriage, its expectations, and motherhood are spot-on.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, January 1, 2017, Wendy W. Paige, “Bad Marriages,” review of Almost Missed You, p. 92.
Publishers Weekly, January 30, 2017, review of Almost Missed You, p. 174.
ONLINE
17 Scribes, http://17scribes.com/ (March 28, 2017), author interview.
Jessica Strawser Website, https://jessicastrawser.com (November 1, 2017).
Kimmery Martin Website, https://www.kimmerymartin.com/ (March 27, 2017), Kimmery Martin, author interview.
Literary Mama, http://www.literarymama.com/ (September 1, 2017), Holly Rizzuto Palker, author interview.*
ABOUT
Jessica_Strawser_color_fix-1
Photo by Corrie Schaffeld
By day, Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large for Writer’s Digest magazine, North America’s leading publication for aspiring and working writers since 1920. By night, she is a fiction writer with a debut novel, ALMOST MISSED YOU, new from St. Martin’s Press (named to the March 2017 Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction shortlist!), and another stand-alone book club title, NOT THAT I COULD TELL, forthcoming in 2018. And by the minute, she is a proud wife and mom to two super sweet and super young kids in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Her diverse career in the publishing industry spans more than 15 years and includes stints in book editing, marketing and public relations, and freelance writing and editing. Having served as WD’s chief editor and editorial director for nearly a decade, she blogs at WritersDigest.com and elsewhere (if you’d like a guest post, contact me!), tweets @jessicastrawser (please do say hello), enjoys connecting on Facebook, and speaks at book clubs, libraries, writing conferences and events that are kind enough to invite her.
Let’s stay in touch. Join my email list for (very) occasional updates and hellos.
(And for the long-winded version of this bio, keep scrolling…)
THE DIRECTOR’S CUT
Jessica Strawser is a Pittsburgh native (as the granddaughter of a steel mill worker, she has fond summertime memories of Kennywood Park and thinks the world would be a better place if all salads were topped with french fries) who spent much of her childhood reading books, rereading books, and writing in a journal—often while perched up in a cherry willow tree (fortunately her own limbs are still intact) or when she was supposed to be sleeping.
At Moon Area High School (her name was Jessica Yerega back then) she was co-editor of the student newspaper, The Moonbeams, and completed a senior project with The Allegheny Times that landed her first “real” front-page byline.
She went on to Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, where she took on the courts beat for The Post award-winning student newspaper, served as editor of Southeast Ohio magazine, and graduated as the outstanding magazine senior for her year (let’s not get into which year), by which point she’d accepted an offer to relocate to Cincinnati and join Writer’s Digest magazine as an editorial assistant.
Upon discovering that her studio apartment was also inhabited by mice, she was dismayed to find that they did not sing and sew her dresses, and underwent a swift but temporary transition from being a dog person to a cat person. (She is now both, but has neither.) That situation under control, she set about earning her stripes at WD and soon took on a managing editor role with its now-defunct sister publication, Personal Journaling.
She was lured away by a job offer in marketing and public relations at Xavier University, and after a year there joined start-up publication Emmis Books, where she edited a fun array of regional and niche commercial nonfiction titles, including Ohio Wine Country Excursions, A Taste of the Murphin Ridge Inn, Everybody Loves Pizza and My Sister Is Missing (which was made into a Lifetime movie called “Murder on Pleasant Drive” and yes, of course she threw a viewing party!).
In 2006, she married her husband, Scott, and returned to F+W Media (parent company of WD) as managing editor for Memory Makers Books and North Light Craft, where she helped to shape such beautiful books as Rice Freeman-Zachery’s Living the Creative Life, Michael George’s Simply Elegant Flowers and Kelly Rae Roberts’ Taking Flight. She moved back to Writer’s Digest in 2008, this time to the helm as editor-in-chief. In late 2017, she was named editor-at-large in order to better divide her time with her writing.
The best parts of her job are threefold: 1) She has the privilege of interviewing and sometimes even working with bestselling and critically acclaimed authors, many of which are her own literary heroes, for cover stories. (She is still pinching herself over having spoken with Alice Walker, David Sedaris, Anne Tyler…) 2) She is tapped in to a tribe of aspiring and working writers in all genres—and they daily surprise, delight and motivate her with their own stories of where they’re going and where they’ve been. 3.) She has a crash course in fiction writing right there in her inbox. Aside from being a voracious novel reader, editing every article in the magazine multiple times over is the only real fiction training this journalism major ever had.
She got serious about writing her own fiction—though she’d always wanted to “one day”—in 2009, and spent more than five years rewriting and revising the same book (with breaks to welcome a pair of incredible kids to the world). That manuscript ultimately found an agent, but not a publisher. Then along came a new story, a new agent, and her first book deal. (You can read more about her crooked path here.) Her debut novel, ALMOST MISSED YOU, is new from St. Martin’s Press (and was named to the March 2017 Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction shortlist!), and she has another stand-alone title, NOT THAT I COULD TELL, slated to follow in 2018, with a third under contract for 2019.
They’re the kinds of books she hopes book clubs will like. (In fact, discussion questions and opportunities for her to join your group via Skype are available here.) They’re the kinds of books she likes to read.
• Delighted to be a WFWA member.
• For regular updates and other fun things, visit Facebook.com/jessicastrawserauthor.
QUOTED: "Just as central to the book as the plot are its themes: Is there such a thing as fate—and do the perfect matches so many of us spend our lives looking for really exist? Or are some connections better off missed, some secrets better off kept?"
Interview with Jessica Strawser, Author of Almost Missed You
We’re talking today with Jessica Strawser, author of Almost Missed You, which debuts today, March 28, 2017!
Please describe what the story is about.
Everyone agrees that Violet and Finn are the perfect couple, and everything about their story seems meant to be—until they take their first family vacation and Finn vanishes with their three-year-old, Bear, leaving Violet blindsided and heartbroken. When he shows up at the doorstep of a mutual friend and blackmails her into hiding them from the authorities, we learn how far back their most damaging secrets go, and question whether the stories we tell ourselves are ever really the whole truth.
Share a teaser sentence or two from your novel.
“The not knowing why Finn had done this or where he had gone was enough to make Violet feel as if she might be on the verge of something essential coming loose in her mind. And of course she couldn’t let that happen. Bear would need her. Bear did need her. She knew it as sure as she knew that her husband was not the man she’d thought he was at all.”
What do you want people to know about your book?
Just as central to the book as the plot are its themes: Is there such a thing as fate—and do the perfect matches so many of us spend our lives looking for really exist? Or are some connections better off missed, some secrets better off kept?
What did you learn about yourself while writing this novel?
I learned that it really is true that no writing, even so-called “unsuccessful” or “failed” writing, is wasted effort. I’d written an earlier novel that attracted an agent but never found a home with a publisher. In the long months of waiting and accumulating slow feedback, I did a lot of thinking about what I might do differently next time. In writing this novel—which has little in common with that first unsold one—I discovered my compass had become steadier; my focus had become sharper.
What was your timeline from drafting to publication?
I wrote the book fairly quickly, between August 2014 and March 2015, signed with a new agent who loved the project in September 2015; she sold it in a preempt two weeks later, and it will be published in March 2017.
What is your favorite part of writing (drafting characters, making up scenes, plotting, developing emotional turning points, etc). Why?
I find the best writing to be a bit like putting together a puzzle—especially with my approach, which involves either no outline at all or a very loose one. My favorite moments are when a piece I’ve been looking for falls into place and I can suddenly see what the picture is going to look like when it’s done.
Briefly, where did the idea for your book come from?
I have always been fascinated by questions of fate and destiny, particularly where romantic relationships are concerned—not just “the one,” but “the one that got away.” Not just “what’s meant to be,” but “what might have been.”
When do you do your best thinking about your work in progress?
Inconveniently, when in the midst of something more mundane—showering, pushing the stroller around the block, driving to work, riding along the bike trail. I know I’m far from alone in this, so there must really be some magic to it.
Share something people may be surprised to know about you?
Through a lot of high school I seriously contemplated attending college to become a marine biologist. Discovering my weak stomach for dissection and wavy boat rides (not at the same time) helped to sway me back toward what had been my first love all along.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
Always stop a writing session when you know what comes next, so you have direction and purpose the next time you sit down at the keyboard, and can jump right in.
What’s next?
Another stand-alone book club novel, forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press in spring 2018.
AlmostMissedYou
Jessica Strawser – ALMOST MISSED YOU
Violet and Finn were “meant to be,” said everyone, always. They ended up together by the hands of fate aligning things just so. Three years into their marriage, they have a wonderful little boy, and as the three of them embark on their first vacation as a family, Violet can’t help thinking that she can’t believe her luck. Life is good.
So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach—just packs up the hotel room and disappears. And takes their son with him. Violet is suddenly in her own worst nightmare, and faced with the knowledge that the man she’s shared her life with, she never really knew at all.
Caitlin and Finn have been best friends since way back when, but when Finn shows up on Caitlin’s doorstep with the son he’s wanted for kidnapping, demands that she hide them from the authorities, and threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy her own family if she doesn’t, Caitlin faces an impossible choice.
Told through alternating viewpoints of Violet, Finn and Caitlin, ALMOST MISSED YOU is a powerful story of a mother’s love, a husband’s betrayal, connections that maybe should have been missed, secrets that perhaps shouldn’t have been kept, and spaces between what’s meant to be and what might have been.
QUOTED: "I think we all have those moments where everything in our lives seems so perfect, even if just for an instant, and we’re struck with a fear that it’s too perfect—the old “nothing gold can stay.” I found myself imagining one young family’s world crashing down in a way that was both ordinary (in the characters) and extraordinary (in the circumstances)."
An Interview with Jessica Strawser, author of Almost Missed You
March 27, 2017
Almost Missed You begins with an event so startling there is no possible chance you’ll put the book down. A woman named Violet is vacationing with her husband Finn and her little son Bear, luxuriating in the bright beauty of the Florida sun and sand, her mind drifting in lazy, grateful reminiscence. In one of those fantastic meet-cute situations, she and Finn had first encountered each other on a trip to this very beach—thrown together during an emergency in which there’d been no chance to exchange information. In a show of inexplicable cosmic irony, they managed to dodge one another in a series of near-misses over the next few years, until finally the stars aligned and they met again.
This time, nothing intervened: they now have a peaceful, stable marriage and the immeasurable blessing of a baby. But something unspeakable must have happened to Finn in the time before they reconnected, because when Violet returns to her hotel room after a morning spent drowsing and reading and remembering on the beach, they’re gone. Finn and Bear are gone, every trace of them vanished from the room—and from Violet’s life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Strawser’s writing is creative and engaging, skillfully weaving the past into the present as she draws her characters into a dense thicket of moral dilemmas, buried secrets, and blackmail. I don’t want to give too much away, but every character does something that surprised me--especially near the end, which has some significant curveballs. An addictive debut novel!
So let's meet Jessica! By day, she's the Editorial Director of Writer’s Digest magazine. By night, she is a fiction writer, and by the minute, she is a proud wife and mom to two super sweet and super young kids in Cincinnati, Ohio. Visit JessicaStrawser.com to learn more, or follow her on Twitter @JessicaStrawser.
KM: Almost Missed You is a masterpiece of plotting. Told from the perspectives of three of the characters—Violet, Finn, and their friend Caitlin—it spans two time periods and three main locales. Tell us a bit about your writing style—did you outline this manuscript in all its complexity, or did it occur organically as you wrote? How did you come up with the idea for the book?
JS: When I started the first draft, I had a few key points I wanted to hit along the way – more of a very rough sketch than an outline. Part of the fun in writing the story was finding out the answers to the questions the characters were facing as I went—it was exhilarating and a little scary not having more of a map, but somehow, it all pieced itself together.
As for how I came up with the idea, my husband has been getting a lot of questions about that! Kidding aside, I think we all have those moments where everything in our lives seems so perfect, even if just for an instant, and we’re struck with a fear that it’s too perfect—the old “nothing gold can stay.” I found myself imagining one young family’s world crashing down in a way that was both ordinary (in the characters) and extraordinary (in the circumstances).
I’ve also always been drawn in by the idea of fate, of what’s meant to be, and the significance so many of us place on some sense of that. Go to a 50th wedding anniversary party, and chances are people will still be asking the bride and groom how they met, as if there’s some secret significance to it. I wonder whether we place too much emphasis on the wrong things, sometimes, in our prospective mates and our eventual partners, and so I loved the idea of building a story around a chain of events that would both challenge and celebrate the role of destiny in our relationships.
KM: To my delight, your settings alternate between Cincinnati, Asheville, and rural Kentucky, which just happen to be three places I’ve lived or spent significant time. In my opinion, you nailed each place, imbuing them with such realistic detail I started to worry you’d somehow accessed my memories. How did you choose your locations? Do you view places differently as a writer than you did prior to writing a novel?
JS: Thank you so much—what a huge compliment! I’m originally from Pittsburgh, but I moved to Cincinnati for a job a few weeks after my college graduation, met my eventual husband later that same year, and have been here ever since. I think coming here as a transplant at that stage of young adulthood enabled me to get to know the city on an independent, neighborhood-by-neighborhood level: I moved every time my lease was up for the first four or five years. Now, as a parent, I’m still discovering places I never had occasion to seek out before. I’m so happy to have had the chance to set a book here, giving a nod to some of my favorite spots.
Of course, both Kentucky and Asheville are a simple road trip away, and especially as a nature lover I’ve spent many weekends visiting both. There’s very little not to love about Asheville in particular—the artwork, the mountains, the food, the people—and I stop there any chance I get.
KM: Let’s talk about Finn, Violet’s husband. Without giving too much of the story away, he does something utterly unforgivable in the novel. And yet, your portrayal of him is nuanced enough that he doesn't come across as an irredeemable villain. How hard was it to create a storyline in which his actions were believable and understandable?
JS: In setting out to tell a story that delved into layers of love and fate, an irredeemable character was the furthest thing from my mind. I like the idea that we’re all unreliable narrators, whether or not we intend to be, inherently telling the stories of our lives through our own filters. To get the whole story of any relationship, I think you need to come at it from both/all sides, and you might be surprised to discover the differences between them. Anger without sympathy might be the easier, cleaner emotion, but it’s hard not to feel for Finn.
KM: Caitlin faces a wrenching predicament when she has to choose between a crushing betrayal of her best friend and her own family’s well-being. Did you ever consider an alternate decision for her?
JS: You know, I considered alternates for a lot of the characters and plot points, but I can’t say I didn’t always have a basic sense of what Caitlin was going to do. One of the wise, successful writers I’ve been fortunate enough to interview for Writer’s Digest (*waves enthusiastically at Lisa Scottoline*) said something that really stuck with me about how in her view, plot and character are the same thing, because action reveals character. I always felt pretty clear on who Caitlin is, and so when it comes to what she does—well, that’s who she is.
KM: Was it easy to choose the title?
JS: I had a different working title the whole time I was drafting and revising, but I never really loved it. After polling my beta readers and presenting them with some other options, I ended up settling on Almost Missed You just before going on submission, and it stuck!
KM: In your day job, you’re the editorial director for Writer’s Digest magazine. Tell us a little bit more about your background and your literary influences. What spurred you to writing fiction?
JS: I’ve always, and I mean always, been a voracious fiction reader. In high school, I was co-editor of the school newspaper and ended up pursuing journalism, which was a nice close cousin—I got to write, and hang out with other writers, and study language and story structure and how to serve an audience. Working for WD for so many years has been a dream job for me: In part because I did (and still do) feel an irresistible pull to our articles and books and classes for and about fiction writing. It’s like an on-the-job crash course, reading those techniques and insights over and over again, and it was only a matter of time before I decided to try it myself.
KM: And finally, what are you working on now?
JS: Revising another stand-alone book club novel, due out from St. Martin’s Press next year!
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Buy Almost Missed You HERE
QUOTED: "I was playing with the idea that we're all unreliable narrators of our own stories, just by the very limitations of our perspectives, and I wanted to challenge myself to tell this particular story in such a way that you needed all three characters' perspectives to piece together the full picture."
"With Violet, for example, it was all too easy as a mother, myself, to imagine her emotional turmoil. And with Caitlin, I had a sort of metaphor, oddly—I'd picture the expensive designer purse she mentions early on, the one her pedigreed husband gifted to her but that she then inadvertently filled with the messy stuff of motherhood: dried-up loose wipes and goldfish cracker crumbs. That was how I pictured her. I think each of us needs to find our own way to channel a voice, whether a novel contains one or three of them."
A Conversation with Jessica Strawser
HOLLY RIZZUTO PALKER
September 2017
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Jessica Strawser works literary magic from two distinct angles. As an author, her debut novel, Almost Missed You, was recently named to the shortlist of Best New Fiction by Barnes and Noble and is a PopSugar "Best Spring Reads" selection. It's a nuanced work of fiction that centers on the themes of parenting and fate. Strawser is also editor-at-large at Writer's Digest magazine, which has been a resource for aspiring and established writers for nearly 100 years. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raises her two young children with help from her supportive husband. Holly Rizzuto Palker spoke with Strawser about her career at Writer's Digest, her advice for other writers, and her thoughts on finding balance.
Holly Rizzuto Palker: What is a typical day like for you as author, mom, and editor-at-large of Writer's Digest?
Jessica Strawser: Well, I'm still trying to figure that out! Up until this month, I'd take my daughter to preschool, put my son on the bus, and be in the office around 8 a.m. A day would vary from proofing pages for a printer deadline, to working with contributors on new features, to assisting with programming for our events. Though I rarely took a lunch break, I was always home for a family dinner, and the evening belonged to my kids and husband. After bedtime stories and snuggles, I’d retreat to my home office to work on my fiction (and/or promote my debut novel and forthcoming follow-up release) until I’d have a hard time staying awake in my chair.
I'm transitioning to a more independent day where my own writing and promotional efforts come first—there are many types of writing I'd love to do to complement my novels—and then a chunk of the afternoon is spent plugged into Writer’s Digest. I'd love to reclaim at least a few evenings a week away from the laptop! After years of such an intense routine, my husband and I both miss occasionally having a chance to reconnect at the end of a weekday.
HRP: You started as an intern at Writer's Digest and eventually moved into the position of editorial director and, now, editor-at-large. What did your professional path look like?
JS: I did start my career with Writer's Digest as intern for the books line, then editorial assistant for the magazine, then associate editor who had a heavy hand in our special issues and our now-defunct sister publication, Personal Journaling magazine. I moved on to spend several years in book editing at a variety of niche nonfiction imprints, worked a brief stint in marketing and public relations, and spent some time freelancing before returning to WD as chief editor in 2008. To have hands-on experience in so many areas of publishing has been an asset in curating content for our audience of aspiring and working writers.
Only very recently, with my own writing projects demanding more of my attention, did I scale back my role to an editor-at-large capacity in order to allow more time to honor those commitments. But I'm still involved in editing, advising, and writing for the magazine and website, as well as representing the brand at events online and off.
HRP: How is Writer's Digest different than other writing magazines, and what are the best ways for new and emerging writers to use Writer's Digest as a resource to help their careers?
JS: Every issue contains techniques for honing aspects of your craft, a hefty dose of inspiration and motivation (from debut authors, independent journalists, midlist successes and best sellers alike), and the insider perspectives you need to knowledgeably pursue various paths to publication: agent profiles, highlighted markets, trend pieces, marketing tips, and the like. Every issue has a themed, feature package, enabling us to comprehensively cover topics such as, finding an agent, self-publishing, and examining many facets of novel writing or freelance success. Our stable of columns and departments still offers something for everyone. We take an intimate, writer-to-writer tone—smart and savvy without being especially academic.
HRP: Which is your favorite section of Writer's Digest magazine?
JS: Our in-depth "WD Interviews" with bestselling authors that serve as cover stories for every issue are my favorites. I often pen them myself (although I love them even when I don't), and, in the course of doing so, have delved into the craft and lifestyle of writing with many amazing talents: Alice Walker, David Sedaris, Lisa Gardner, Patricia Cornwell, Harlan Coben, Khaled Hosseini, Elizabeth Berg, Jojo Moyes, David Baldacci, Liane Moriarty—I could go on and on (and often do). I'm working on one now for our February 2018 issue and already, I can't wait for you to read it!
HRP: Writer's Digest also holds an annual conference. What's that like? Where is it held?
JS: It's earned its place as an industry leader for a reason: it just keeps getting bigger and better every year. This year’s event drew nearly 1,100 writers and industry pros to the Midtown Manhattan Hilton, where we'll be returning in August. There's so much information, so much support, and so much talent to be found there. Emerging writers connect with agents in our pitch slam; panels and instructional sessions light up packed rooms with ideas; writers form lasting friendships; and groups between sessions and keynote addresses fill the positive energy to brimming. Writer's Digest also hosts a novel writing conference held in Southern California in the fall.
HRP: How did Writer's Digest inspire you to be a better writer?
JS: Every time I start to feel myself floundering, I don't need to look far for reminders that this whole mysterious writing endeavor can be done and that, when done well, it can make for the most wonderful, satisfying sort of creative life. There's really no way in which WD has not inspired me to be better, to reach higher, and to feel less alone at the keyboard.
HRP: How do you balance your many roles—editor, author, mother?
JS: Funny enough, I have actually spent quite a bit of time atop a balance board in physical therapy (thanks to chronically bad knees from years of ballet), which has a way of making one think of balance literally. I think we working parents often talk about the concept as if we can find the perfect mix and then relax and stay there comfortably. But the truth is that when you're physically balancing, all of your muscles are engaged and you're constantly swaying your weight one way or the other so as not to fall.
With that in mind, I try not to beat myself up over trying to do everything in equal measures all of the time. Some days you lean in toward your family while other days the writing pulls extra weight. And there are deadline weeks when I know my magazine work won't leave me much good energy for anything else. It's a constant shifting, and I've never held myself up as an example of doing it well—but I do try very, very hard, which I think is the best that any of us can do.
HRP: What piece of advice would you give other mother writers about finding time to achieve their personal and professional writing goals?
JS: I had the privilege of interviewing Debbie Macomber a few months before my first novel published, and she's an absolute force in the romance world—200 million books and counting—who started with only a high school degree, a rented typewriter, and a houseful of little ones. At one point, she'd been pressured to quit writing because her rental typewriter was an expense her family could scarcely afford, and she wrestled with guilt over not only her time but her money, but still she pressed on.
Her children are grown now, but when she learned that mine are young (three and six), she took time to stop the interview and tell me that she sees writing with young children as a blessing. She said that not only did it teach her to write through distractions and to be less precious about her routine, but that she has seen evidence through her children's entire lives that she truly showed them the power of working toward a dream—and what a gift that was.
I was feeling particularly overwhelmed at the time, and I really can't tell you what it meant to me to hear that from someone in her position. To have her look back and say: this is worthwhile in ways you don't even yet realize, and you should not second-guess your own pursuit of something that is going to show your children determination and strength and creatively fulfill something inside you at the same time. For me, it still means taking as little time away from my kids as I possibly can, but I think that kind of perspective can really help us all focus on the bigger picture on the harder days.
HRP: Your degree is in journalism. How did you use your nonfiction background to write fiction?
JS: Regardless of what genre I'm writing at any given time—I've also published personal essays in venues such as The New York Times' Modern Love column and Publishers Weekly—I'm keenly aware that I'm imparting information to the reader. That was especially useful in writing my debut novel, Almost Missed You, which juggles three POV characters, jumps around in time, and has a series of carefully crafted reveals that made it essential to keep track of what the reader knows at any given point in the story.
HRP: Almost Missed You tells the story of Violet and Finn, a couple everyone says was "meant to be." So, no one is more shocked than Violet when Finn packs up their hotel room on a beach vacation and disappears with their three-year-old son. The story is told from the point of view of these two characters as well as that of Finn's best friend, Caitlin. What methods did you use to create such distinct voices?
JS: I was playing with the idea that we're all unreliable narrators of our own stories, just by the very limitations of our perspectives, and I wanted to challenge myself to tell this particular story in such a way that you needed all three characters' perspectives to piece together the full picture. Beyond that, I'm not sure I had any sort of method, though there were things about each character that were vivid to me. I'd make a conscious effort to call them to mind before beginning to draft or (especially) revise any given scene. With Violet, for example, it was all too easy as a mother, myself, to imagine her emotional turmoil. And with Caitlin, I had a sort of metaphor, oddly—I'd picture the expensive designer purse she mentions early on, the one her pedigreed husband gifted to her but that she then inadvertently filled with the messy stuff of motherhood: dried-up loose wipes and goldfish cracker crumbs. That was how I pictured her. I think each of us needs to find our own way to channel a voice, whether a novel contains one or three of them.
HRP: You often speak about your misguided first attempt at a novel, which you ultimately shelved before you wrote Almost Missed You. How would a writer know when to just “let it go”?
JS: Well, I wouldn't necessarily call my first attempt misguided; my earliest novel did land an agent on a revise-and-resubmit request, which taught me an enormous amount about applying feedback to my work. It did not find a home with a publisher and, in retrospect, I think, perhaps, my agent at the time was not the best fit for me. But I speak about it often because it's important for writers who are feeling as if they've hit a wall to hear that there is hope. In my experience, at least, when you spend literally years vacillating between rejections and radio silence on your submissions, it takes a toll, and that's when it's easiest to give up.
I didn't truly let go of that first project until I signed with a new agent on a second project and she flat-out told me she did not feel that the first book was as worthy as my second. She had reviewed both projects and told me that my growth as a writer was evident, and it was hard to argue with that. The key, then, was that I had grown and had produced something new during those frustrating years. That is the best course for anyone, I think.
HRP: Your next book is due to launch in 2018 from St. Martin's Press. What can you tell us about it and what else can we expect from you?
JS: Not That I Could Tell is another book club sort of book: a blend of upmarket women's fiction and suspense, set in an eclectic Ohio small town and dealing with the question of how much responsibility we bear for what happens to our friends and neighbors. And, over the summer, I signed a contract for a third novel with St. Martin's.
QUOTED: "Fans of smart women's fiction mixed with a fast-paced plot should not miss this startling first novel."
Bad marriages
Library Journal. 142.1 (Jan. 1, 2017): p92.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Strawser, Jessica. Almost Missed You. St. Martin's. Mar. 2017. 320p. ISBN 9781250107602. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250107626. F
"All the wrong people know all the wrong secrets here" says one character in Strawser's debut, knitting parental abduction with a page-turner of devastating secrets unraveling among friends and spouses. Violet's blessed life goes haywire when husband Finn takes their toddler son, Bear, and abandons her during a beach vacation. Finn draws friend Caitlin into his breakaway from his wife by threatening to expose her marital secrets if she doesn't hide him in the family cabin in Kentucky. But to help a desperate Finn is to betray a grieving mother. Torn between obligations of motherhood and friendship, Caitlin accedes to Finn's demands while strategizing a plan to return Bear to his mother. Alternating time lines and narrators first raise--and then answer--questions in a story than has more twists and turns than the roads in the Blue Ridge Mountains. VERDICT Fans of smart women's fiction mixed with a fast-paced plot should not miss this startling first novel from the editorial director of Writer's Digest Magazine. [See Prepub Alert, 10/3/16.]--Wendy W. Paige, Shelby Cty. P.L., Morristown, IN
QUOTED: "Strawser's exploration of marriage, its expectations, and motherhood are spot-on."
Almost Missed You
Publishers Weekly. 264.5 (Jan. 30, 2017): p174.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Almost Missed You
Jessica Strawser. St. Martin's, $25.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-250-10760-2
In Strawser's nerve-wracking debut, a woman's husband leaves with their son, shattering her life and catching others in his devastating wake. Violet and Finn Welsh and their three-year-old son, Bear, are on vacation in Florida when Violet's world is turned upside down. Although Finn's life before marrying Violet was marked by tragedy, Violet thought they were happy, but now all she knows is that she will do anything to get her son back. In between them is Caitlin Bryce-Daniels, Finn's longtime best friend and now Violet's close friend as well, whom Finn blackmails into helping him by threatening to reveal a horrible secret. The narrative, which alternates between the three, as well as past and present, is undeniably suspenseful. The conclusion is a bit neat, but Strawser's exploration of marriage, its expectations, and motherhood are spot-on, making for an absorbing read. (Mar.)