Introducing Jeannine Garsee

UPDATE: 1) Just got off the phone with Jeannine and she still hasn't received her computer back. Please keep asking the questions and SHE will respond! 2) Remember I'm giving away copies of the Say The Word playlist to random people who post! Feel free to ask Jeannine any question you have! _______________________________________________ Jeannine Garsee is the author of two excellent books: ________________________________________________ Before After and Somebody in Between and her current release the most excellent, Say The Word When did you decide that you wanted to write? I’ve been writing stories all my life, but made a conscious decision to become an author when I was nine years old and wrote my first story and got rave reviews from my fourth grade class. This was around the same time that I realized that “real people” wrote books, that books didn’t just miraculously appear in the library. What is your favorite book of all time? This is a very hard question—it’s probably easier for me to tell you which books I positively hated—because I have a LOT of favorite books, ones I’ve read many times over. I’d have to say as far as contemporary adult books are concerned, Diana’s Gabaldon’s “Outlander” ranks number one on my list because it encompasses nearly every genre: romance, fantasy, adventure, historical, and science fiction. As for children’s books, I wouldn’t mind be stranding on a deserted island with “Harriet the Spy” because this book still cracks me up after all these years. But there are so many awesome books out there by so many great writers, it’s nearly impossible for me to name a single favorite. If you could change anything about the characters you’ve already written, what would it be? I can’t really think of any major changes. I might, however, take a bar of soap to Martha’s mouth. Do you listen to music, tv, talk radio when you write? For a long time I was absolutely NOT able to listen to the TV or radio while I wrote. Every sound distracted me. I need total silence and I’d lock myself up in my tiny office in order to get that. Since I started writing on a laptop at a nearby coffee shop, I’ve learned to adapt to extraneous sounds. Mostly I just tune it out. But I normally don’t listen to anything to put me into the mood to write. You work as a psych nurse. Can you tell us any PG rated stories? Sorry, with a clientele like mine, my stories are pretty much “R” or even NC-17. However, I did just have a patient make draw me a “Happy Easter” picture—of a smiling bunny rabbit on a barbecue grill, complete with smoke, fork, and salt shaker. You have a new addition to your family. Care to elaborate? You must be speaking of Elijah the Demon Dog! Elijah and his brother (beagle/Lab/and God-knows-what-else mixes) were kicked out of a car in February in the middle of a busy street. They were about eight weeks old. His brother found a home immediately, and I agreed to take Elijah from the guy who rescued them. Right now I’m trying to survive the Insane Puppy Who Chews Everything in Sight stage, and learning to get along with a lot less sleep. But he’s the smartest dog I’ve ever seen. What would your stripper name be? I think “Jeannine Cuisine” sounds pretty catchy, don’t you think? What inspires you to write? First, I am already inspire to write. I write constantly in my head even when I’m not writing. I always joke that if half my patients would write down what the voices say to them, maybe they could start cutting back on their meds. Writing is therapeutic and such a part of my identity that I don’t feel like “myself” unless I’m working, either physically or mentally, on some kind of story. Second, I hope not to be working as a nurse 20 years from now. The dream that I can someday quite my job and write full time is just that, still a dream—but it’s enough to keep me going, thank goodness. How do you feel about a Blog tour to promote Say the Word? I’ll happily answer interview questions for anyone who’d like to feature me on their blog! Who would win in a fight Martha or Shawna? ;) I think Martha could take Shawna any day of the week. But Shawna can afford the better lawyer. Jeannine's computer is in the shop (her shift button stopped working), so she will answer any and all questions you have when her computer is back in her hands. But PLEASE feel free to leave questions here and SHE will answer them! You can also check her out on http://jeanninegarsee.com/ and her blog is listed there as well.