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Such rejections can be hard on an ego, but it didn’t faze mine. Not anymore. You get enough rejection and it simple becomes a reason to succeed if nothing more than to prove them wrong.

Which is what I like about Jocelyn. Jocelyn and I are kindred spirits if you will. Her story is a hard one. She was born in the late seventies inside Pennsylvania’s rust belt. Raised into a steelworker’s family. A hard enough life except hers got harder. Her mother left when she was twelve leaving the task of taking care of her siblings and father. A father who was a drunk and abusive in a way Jocelyn never wants to discuss. Nor will we. 

When she was fifteen, she fell in love in the front seat of a pickup and nine months later gave birth to her daughter. Two weeks later, the father decided he wanted nothing to do with either Jocelyn or her baby.

A couple of hard years go by. She finds herself with another man and another child. Only this man is as abusive as her father. A pattern Jocelyn decided to change when she leaves him one night taking the kids with her. She left Pennsylvania behind her as she settled in Savannah, Georgia. This is where we begin our interview.

Q. Savannah? Why on earth did you decide to live in Savannah?

A. I didn’t really. God is a practical joker I believe. I was aiming for Miami when I was almost out of gas and money. Savannah was the closest thing off the interstate, so I stopped there and never left.

Q. Ever think about going back home?

A. Home? Honey, Savannah is my home. My kids live here as well as my grandkids. I have no lost love for Pennsylvania.

Q. Not even the Phillie cheesesteaks?

A. There are no more real Phillie cheesesteaks. They make them now with cheese whiz for cryin’ out loud. I make my own and believe me, my grandkids love them.

Q. Has living in the Deep South changed you in any way?

A. Good question. I think it has changed my vocabulary. I say honey, and hon’, and sweetheart a whole lot nowadays. I say yessum instead of yes ma’am. There are many pieces of my English which have changed living here.

Q. Do you like it?

A. I love it. I love the islands off the coast most of all. The beaches close by are glorious. So is the wildlife. I have no desire to move. Is this what you really want to talk about hon?

Q. Partly. I believe environment shapes a person. Especially writers. Take you for instance. In The Lodge, you write more about the darker flaws inside humans than the cozier parts used in a love story. The entire book revolves around the darker side of humanity. An interesting view for a romance don’t you think?

A. I do think it is far more interesting than looking at the world through Pollyanna glasses.

Q. Could you elaborate? 

A. I see the world as I see it. I don’t look at a woman and think she is pretty or desirable. I look at a woman and see a mess of insecurities or a hidden history or even a secret hidden agenda. I look at a man and I don’t see handsomeness or muscles or even confidence. I see brutality, toughness and needs. Physical needs needing to be satisfied.

Q. No physical needs for a woman?

A. Of course. However, I view men by their physical needs and women by their emotional needs.

Q. Yet, the lodge is filled with both. For both men and women.

A. Of course. People are complicated. Just because I see people in a different light doesn’t mean I am right. Sometimes I am both right and wrong. It’s possible for a man to be a brutal human being and still love someone with a gentle heart and a loving hand. The main character in The Lodge was a wife beater and yet, he evolved. I like to believe we can all change. 

Q. Can we though?

A. I have. I am not the same woman who left Pennsylvania all those years ago. I am so far-removed from that scared little girl it’s unreal. 

Q. True. So, let’s ask the obvious question everyone wants to know. What made you start writing.

A. I actually started writing as a young girl. It took my mind off things. Then as I grew older, I began to write songs for my boyfriend’s garage band. They were awful, but they did help me in later life. I still write poetry and short stories.

Q. Yes you do. I loved the one you wrote for our anthology. Where did you find that inside your mind?

A. Truckers were a part of my life as a girl. I fantasize about what it was like to drive the big rigs day in and say out back then. The fantasy stayed, though I learned later on in life it was all just a fantasy. Driving long haul trucks is a hard way to live. A lonely way to live.

Q. Sounds like the voice of experience. How many different jobs have you worked?

A. Jeez. I don’t know. I have waitressed, sold door to door, driven trucks, worked on the docks, took up welding for a while. 

Q. Is writing the way you pay the bills now?

A. (Laughter) You’re kidding right? Writing is a fun way to spend my time. I doubt I will ever make a living doing it.

Q. If one of your books becomes an international best seller, would you let the world know it was you or would you continue to be anonymous?

A. I would stay anonymous. I don’t want the attention. I want to spend my free time with my kids and grandkids. Play with my dogs. Knit and crochet and cook. I don’t want my fifteen minutes of fame.

Q. Do you think you will ever marry again?

A. God no. I am not sharing my life with another man ever again. Men are good for sex every now and again though I find I need them less and less.

Q. (Laughing) Are you saying you like sex less and less or you don’t need a man less and less for sex?

A. I will let your dirty little mind answer that one.

Q. Do you like writing sex scenes? There are several interesting ones in The Lodge.

A. Writing sex is not like having sex. When you write about it, you can take the time to think about it. When I have sex, thinking is the last thing I intend on doing. But when you write, you have to think about it. Think about all the details as well as how it’s different for a girl versus a guy.

Q. Did you find it difficult to write from a man’s point of view?

A. Not really. At least not for the ones in The Lodge. I wrote about the type of men I am intimately familiar with.

Q. What about your upcoming book, The Peggy’s? This story is told from a mostly female point of view. A nasty, terrifying female point of view. The book shows a side to women few wants to acknowledge.

A. Exactly. Why shouldn’t women be able to be the things shown in this new book. Why can’t women be shown as harshly as men. Equality means equality in all things, doesn’t it? I found I liked the concept of women serial killers. 

Q. What about the main protagonist. She’s as flawed a character as I have ever read. The anti-heroes anti-hero. 

A. Anti-hero? Rubbish. She’s a woman who has lived a hard life inside the police department’s world of male dominance. She is no different than any woman who has endured such treatments. All she wants to do is make it to the end of the day alive and in one piece. 

Q. How did you come up with such intricate tortures for their victims?

A. No, I am not into such things. I can hear you winding up. You want something juicy to give the readers. Writer is a closet pain freak. No, I am not nor do I like to give out pain. Well, except for when someone needs a smack on the back of the head but otherwise, no. I didn’t even spank my children. All I needed was to look at them with my “mommy look” and they melted. Still do.

 

Q. You didn’t answer the question.

A. It was simple really once I established the characters. I looked at each of the women. Looked at what their lives had done to them and crafted tortures they would have found sexually stimulating. These women are serial killers. They have specialized needs they hide from the world. I tapped into those needs and developed actions each of them would take. And ones they wouldn’t.

Q. Wouldn’t?

A. Of course. Just because someone is a serial killer doesn’t mean they don’t have lines they won’t cross. Don’t you think so?

Q. I hadn’t thought about it. I guess so. In fact, I like the premise of a hint of humanity inside a mind which lives to kill. 

A. One last question and then I have to go. I am barbequing tonight, and I need to check on the brisket.

Q. Okay. Which is better: Southern style vinegar BBQ or northern style red sauce BBQ?

A. Southern style of course with loads of homemade Cole Slaw.

Jocelyn hung up after the final question. I enjoy working with Jocelyn. I enjoy the viewpoints she gives her characters. I also enjoy the way she delivers those character flaws and molds them into the fabric of the story until the story can’t exist without them. A unique writing trait I have found so rarely in others.

I’m Ross the Editor-in-Chief at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.