The Road to Jamais Vu
I thought I’d share a little about the back ground of Jamais Vu and how it came to be. The most frequently asked question I get is, how did you come up with the idea for your story? Every story has its own history and its own path to publication.
The Keepers was a very personal story for me. It was the first thing I wrote after my mom died and thereby has a lot of autobiographical “stuff” in it. I was at that time dealing with grief, and writing the book helped me to put aside some of the pain I was feeling.
At this point I wasn’t even thinking about getting published. You have to realize I wrote seven complete manuscripts in three years, before I decided I really wanted to put my work out there. Jamais Vu didn’t come to me in a dream, or from my own experience, but the plot came from something very real that happened to my mother when I was just a baby.
My mom was playing with a gun she thought was unloaded and was shot through the neck. My dad was told she wouldn’t make it through the night, let alone go on to live a normal life. However, she did just that, until she died of breast cancer in 1998.
When you read Jamais Vu you will see that the plot is based on a girl who is playing with a gun and shoots herself. She then spends the next months fighting demons who followed her back from the dead and trying to figure out what really happened on the day of her accident.
My biggest fear in writing the book was that I would somehow offend my dad, or injury my mother’s memory. That was the last thing I wanted to do, so I wrote the first three chapters and sent them to my dad with the request that he let me know if I had crossed any lines. I got two words back, “Keep writing.”
I hope you enjoy Darby, Kasey, Dr. Owen, Matt, and all the other characters as much as I have, and I hope knowing the back ground helps you understand the plot a little better.
Enjoy!
Monique O’Connor James
Here are some ways for you to find Monique O'Connor James and her books:
Twitter: mjames13
Blurb: A gunshot echoes, thrusting Darby Lambert into a near death experience. Inside the confines of an ambulance, she meets “the man in white light”. He takes away the guilt, but makes her question everything. “You will see them,” he whispers, as he catapults her back into the real world where she is plagued with dreams of demons, nurses, and rock stars.
Why has He sent her back? Does she have the courage to rectify her sins? Given the chance, could you erase it all?
Why has He sent her back? Does she have the courage to rectify her sins? Given the chance, could you erase it all?
5 comments:
Your book sounds interesting, thanks for sharing your personal story Monique. I really enjoyed your guest post.
That I believe is an amazing story. And your mother must have been very brave to have made it through that horrible accident. Writing is a therapy in itself and i am glad that it helped you. 7 manuscripts in 3 years is just awesome! All the best with the book!
What a story and it is great that your father is so supportive.
Steph
This is going to sound lame after the great guest post but I'm still hung up on the cover!
Isn't that cover AMAZING!!
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