Topic: Character Interviews
1. Can you tell us your name and the title of the book you live in?
My name is Jaycee Stanton, and Different Roads is the name of my story.
2. Describe to our readers what your role in the book is.
Hmm . . . shocking people every chance I get maybe? Seriously, the book is about the crazy journey my life has been, and my role is to show everyone how I finally made it to the place where I can feel safe at last.
3. How did you convince your author to put you in this book? For example, did you visit a dream or make yourself known some other way?
That's easy. I just talked to her in her head all the time until she wrote the book. I knew I had her when I told her the stories about when I was a kid. She's almost as sappy as my husband Bud!
4. Is your author easy to work with or controlling?
She's a pretty good kid. Kinda nerdy, but that makes her publisher happy. She actually LOVES editing and revising manuscripts!
5. Would you tell us about one of your favorite friends from this book?
Well, I didn't meet her until almost the end of the book, but my best friend's name is Jeana Royal. She's an incredible lady who inspires me not to make assumptions about anyone and not to judge.
6. Do you plan on appearing in another book or are you happy to be where you are?
I have a guest stint in an upcoming book called SYMMETRY where I meet a funny lady named Jess Cassady whose husband is almost as conceited as mine!
7. What would you like our readers to know about you?
I'm no angel by any means, but I don't drink or do drugs because of the sorry drunk I grew up with. I also don't lie, and I'm not really as tough as I pretend to be.
8. Did you learn anything during your adventure in this book?
I learned that everything happens for a reason.
9. Can you tell us what you think is the most exciting thing that happened to you in your book?
Well, don't tell him I said so (he's stuck on himself enough already!) but I think Bud is more exciting than anything-all the fights I've been in, the people I've outsmarted, even the times I almost died.
10. Is there anything in your story you wish you had not done? Why?
Oh, there are lots of things I wish I hadn't said. Everything I think eventually comes out of my mouth, and I don't always use language that's appropriate for mixed company.
11. What was your main motivation?
To face all my fears and get past them.
12. Introduce us to your main adversary?
Well, it was my father when I was young, then it was Bud's rich old man for a while, but mostly it was my own fears and self-doubts.
13. Is there anything you would like to have done but your author stopped you?
The last person who tried to stop me from doing anything is still recovering! Actually, she tried her best to keep me from throwing a particular item at Bud's head, but I told her it had to be done. I remember she wrote that part with tears streaming down her face. But I was right about it, of course.
14. Here's your chance to speak your mind. What do you want to tell everybody?
The most important message I have is for children who are abused or neglected like I was. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something or let them make you feel as if you don't deserve to be loved. If you believe in yourself, you can do anything you want to do. And if you need to take yourself away from your misery while you're growing up, escape into a book like I did. They'll take you anywhere you want to go.
15. Please tell everyone where they can find out more about your story and where they can purchase it.
You can read about my childhood in the short story called "Hope Chest" that's published in the Spring 2008 edition of New Works Review literary e-zine at http://www.new-works.org/. Different Roads (ISBN 0-9722385-3-0) is from Amazon.com or any of the online retailers, and it's also available direct from the publisher at http://www.authorsinkbooks.com/.
