Author Saturday Spotlight: Jamie Fessenden *Interview & Giveaway*

I feel very lucky to have Jamie Fessenden as my spotlight author today! One thing I really love about Jamie is the variety he gives his readers. Some authors stick to angst, or fluffy. Some like horror or mystery. Jamie dabbles in everything. NEVER boring and I really like that!

Jamie agreed to an interview (Which is awesome) and he will be giving ONE lucky fan a chance to win any ebook from his collection.

First let's look at some of Jaime's work:

When Jesse Morales, a recent college grad who aspires to be a mystery writer, volunteers to work on the summit of Mt. Washington for a week, he expects to work hard. What he doesn’t expect is to find a corpse in the fog, lying among the rocks, his head crushed. The dead man turns out to be a young tourist named Stuart Warren, who strayed from his friends while visiting the mountain.

Kyle Dubois, a widowed state police detective, is called to the scene in the middle of the night, along with his partner, Wesley Roberts. Kyle and Jesse are instantly drawn to one another, except Jesse’s fascination with murder mysteries makes it difficult for Kyle to take the young man seriously. But Jesse finds a way to make himself invaluable to the detective by checking into the hotel where the victim's friends and family are staying and infiltrating their circle. Soon, he is learning things that could very well solve the case—or get him killed.

In 1996, Jake Stewart is starting his third year at the University of New Hampshire. Even as a successful business major, he is absolutely miserable. Not only is Jake pursuing a field he hates when he’d rather study art, he is utterly terrified of what will happen if his father finds out he’s gay. When he finally gets up the courage to move into the creative arts dorm on campus, his new roommate, Danny, is openly gay—and there’s no denying the attraction between them.

Danny Sullivan has been out since high school, and he appears comfortable with his sexuality. But something happened in Danny’s past—something that gives him nightmares he refuses to talk about. Unknown to Jake, the way he mistreated his friend, Tom Langois, when Tom came out to him in high school, is mild compared to the way someone very much like Jake treated Danny.

It may be too late to fix the mess Jake made with Tom, but if Jake wants to be with Danny, he’s going to have to fix the mess made by another closeted jock he’s never even met.

Kevin Derocher was thirty-two when he walked into Tom’s office, newly married, a baby on the way, and the collar of his red flannel shirt pulled up to hide the bruises around his throat from when he hanged himself in his garage. After his initial consult, therapist Tom Langois believes he’ll never see Kevin again—but Kevin turns up three years later to make repairs on Tom’s new house.

Kevin and Tom become fast friends, and Tom begins to suspect Kevin may be interested in more than friendship. However, Kevin remains haunted by something from his childhood—something so terrible he blocked it from his mind. These suppressed memories make it impossible for Kevin to get close to anyone without panicking and lashing out, sometimes violently. But as his past begins to surface, it becomes apparent that Kevin may hold the key to a twenty-five-year-old mystery: what happened to Billy?
Check out ALL of Jaime's work on his Dreamspinner page: Jamie on DSP

****INTERVIEW****

Murder on the Mountain had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't figure out WHO the killer was. How do you master the ability to really leave us guessing until the bitter end?

Some people guessed, though I was gratified that many did not.  As I was writing, it seemed to me that it was too obvious who the killer was, so I actually went back with the intention of making it someone else -- someone people would be less likely to suspect.  Then I tweaked things to make it plausible that person could have done it.  I ended up going with my first instinct and changed it back to the original killer, but I think this made it harder to guess, because for a while I honestly intended the solution to be different.

We're Both Straight is fun and happy and hot. Screwups is passionate, and very realistic. Murder on the Mountain is a sexy story with a fantastic mystery. Do you like to mix it up or is there one type of story you like to write more than another?

I've always had a wide range of interests.  I love mystery, so Murder on the Mountain, Murderous Requiem, Billy's Bones, By That Sin Fell the Angels, and even Screwups all have elements of mystery to them.  But I also love Christmas, Vikings, stories about teen angst (I've read A Separate Peace more times than I can remember), science fiction, sword & sorcery....  I'll write whatever pops into my mind as a good story idea.

 Are there any occupational hazards to being an author?

Mood swings, for one.  One moment you're convinced the story you're working on -- or have just released -- is brilliant.  The next, you think it's awful, or at least that it's a commercial failure.  I know I'm not alone in this, since I've talked a number of fellow authors "down from the ledge," so to speak.  We call each other when we've reached the pit of despair.  :-)  And if you write full-time, as I do now, it's easy to become isolated.  I see my husband every evening, but he was starting to worry that I rarely left the house.  So I've engaged a Russian tutor (I studied it in college) and now I meet her one night a week at Barnes & Noble.  It at least reminds me there's an outside world.

Would you ever collaborate with another, and if so who would you like to work with?

Yes.  I've recently worked with F.E. Feeley Jr. on a horror novel.  I think my style might also work well with Eli Easton's or Theo Fenraven's.

I read on Goodreads that Kevin Smith is an influence for you. I have to say I am a huge fan of his. *Whispers* They're making a Clerks 3.... Did you write any of your books in the Kevin Smith mindset?

I'll be there!  I thought Clerks 2 was terrific.  We're Both Straight, Right? definitely has a Kevin Smith influence.  It's crude and raunchy and, I hope, funny.  To me, Kevin Smith represents an unapologetic blue collar mindset -- often poor, foul-mouthed, unashamedly raunchy.  That's where I come from, and that will always influence my writing.  I write obscenities without thinking twice, and humor about bodily functions occasionally creeps in.  Oh, well.  That's just who I am. 

You don't have to name names but have you ever taken your revenge out on someone in your everyday life through one of your stories?

Not revenge, but I do put real people into my stories all the time.  Kevin, in Billy's Bones, has a number of similarities to a friend who works as a handyman.  (Though he isn't gay or an abuse survivor.)  Tom is probably more like me than any character I've written, except maybe Jeremy in Murderous Requiem.  Sue Cross is a lot like my mother, and I even sent the book to Mom so she could double-check the therapy sessions.  Screwups is practically autobiographical -- all of the anecdotes about people in the dorm going to dinner in tuxes and evening gowns, LARPing, nude pizza parties... those all happened.  I largely inserted Jake and Danny into the middle of my college experiences.

What does your writing cave look like?

When we bought the house, we converted one of the spare bedrooms into a library with wall-to-wall shelving and peninsula shelves.  It has probably a couple thousand books in it.  My desk is in a corner with an old upholstered armchair we picked up at an antique shop nearby.

Can you tell us about any of your future work?

I have three major projects going on currently.  One is the sequel to Murder on the Mountain, which I hope to release in time for Christmas next year.  Another is a YA novel about Martian colonists.  And the third is a rather dark story about a man who thinks he has his life together, until a business acquaintance rapes him on a business trip.  Then his life falls apart.  That one's proving very hard to write, but I'm hoping I'll be finished by the end of this year.

  

What has been the most rewarding moment for you as an author?

I was very concerned when I wrote Billy's Bones that it would go too far and traumatize survivors of child sexual abuse.  Instead, I had several people contact me to tell me their stories.  It meant a lot to see that something I'd written spoke to survivors and, for many, provided a catharsis.  Others have said they couldn't read it, and I respect that decision.  But most of the feedback has been positive.

How can your fans follow you through Social media, website, etc...?

I spend far too much time on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jamie.fessenden.7

I'm also getting the hang of Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JamieFessenden1

And I keep my blog updated:  http://jamiefessenden.com/


Even though one of you will have the opportunity to win a Jamie Fessenden ebook, I want to highly recommend this author to you as one to "put on your list" He's a wonderfully talented author and you can truly find something you like in his work! 


ALSO! PLEASE REVIEW! It's very important to authors as well as readers. Your opinion does matter!

So the giveaway today is ANY Jamie Fessenden ebook from his collection, which you can find here: Jamie's Collection 
Contest will run until October  31st HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Winner will be notified via email and we'll go from there!

Good luck to you all and I want to thank Jamie for doing all of this for all of you! 


***GIVEAWAY***

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