The T-Spot Welcomes Jenny Gardiner!

Grab your beverage of choice (Mimosas for me, of course!), roll up to or flip open a screen and let some talented writers talk to you about their writing process.

This week: Jenny Gardiner is in the spotlight!

Jenny is the author of numerous fiction and non-fiction stories, including “Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who’s Determined to Kill Me.” She loves to cook, brakes for farmer’s markets and is a huge advocate of the Buy Local movement. So let me get out of the way and cede the stage, stool and microphone to Jenny:

1. Have you always written stories?

Actually I studied to be a journalist so I was all about not making up things! When I started writing fiction it was such a refreshing change from having to fact-check everything and be accurate about details–obviously even with fiction you do have to keep certain things accurate, but to be able to just make things up and it’s ok was a really liberating experience. That said I think I always have had an overly dramatic imagination, so writing it down seemed a natural extension of that!

2. When did you decide to write professionally?

As I mentioned, I used to write professionally in a more confining way. Then I stopped the paying gig to raise my kids. Back in the early part of this century (that sounds weird, doesn’t it?) I needed to start working again and earn money and I delusionally thought I could do this by becoming a writer. Ha! But it was a great incentive to get me doing something creative and interesting and hey, eventually it led to actual income, so all good!

3. What made you decide to go the route you chose (eg. traditional, e-pub, indie)?

I’d done traditional publishing and wanted to have faith in it but as the economy took a huge downturn I saw the industry take a bigger downturn and their reaction was to basically hunker down and never take chances on writers, instead giving more money to their guaranteed sellers. The industry turned its back on so many writers, it was demoralizing. The great thing about it was when Amazon turned the industry on its head and gave so many authors a chance to not only find their audience but actually earn a living wage (and then some!) doing that. At the end of the day I wanted to believe in the New York publishing system but the fact is, it was never set up for the benefit of authors, rather it was set up to benefit the houses themselves, and the distributors, the brick and mortar stores. Without writers they’d never have anything, but authors were at the bottom of their trickle-down theory and rare was it that any author could earn an actual living doing it their way. It’s unfortunate but ultimately it’s been a bad business model based on the way things were done a century ago, and things have sorta changed since then, right?!

4. What is your writing process (hrs/day, days/wk)?

Ugh, that’s a sensitive question right now. LOL. I’ve had SO much going on with my family and my kids schedules that writing has taken a back and it’s getting me anxious, as I realllly need to get my butt down and start writing again on a very regular basis. But when I do start writing I tend to just go full-throttle and write and write and write. Which is what I’m hoping I get back to now that my youngest graduated.

5. How do you write (crappy first draft then revise or revise as you go)? Why?

I revise as I go. I’m sort of like a cattle dog circling back to corral my keep, so I write and read and rework it and write and read. It might take longer to do it this way but when I type “the end” I have a pretty finished product. I guess I do it this way because I’m anal when it comes to what I’m writing. LOL. Perhaps it’s rooted in the journalistic background, and writing shorter pieces because of that, so it’s more natural to write that way when you’re writing 1500 word pieces.

6. Do you get writer’s block? If so, how do you handle it?

I had a year or two in which a LOT of stressful things happened and it sort of sucked my creativity dry. I just couldn’t expend energy in both directions (so naturally I wasted it in high stress mode rather than channeling it into writing, darn it!) I also find that the focus on marketing and publicity truly suck my writing away, so I’m moving away from bothering with that at all. I don’t think it really works much anyhow, so I’d rather focus on output.

7. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

I love getting into the story and gaining steam and watching a skeleton notion start to take shape and gather flesh.

8. If you could go back in time and tell your younger self one thing you have since learned about the business of writing, what would you tell them (you)?

Don’t waste your time on marketing and publicity! (and maybe I’d say “Hey, in a few years Amazon will enable you to earn money as an author so just write those stories that editor rejected for some stupid fickle reason and eventually you’ll find your audience).

Fun Topics:

9. Wine, liquor or beer? What’s your favorite of the spirit you chose?

Champagne first. Red wine, for sure. Always love a cosmo, too!

10. What author(s) are on your automatic buy list?

That’s a good question. I think I sort of stopped automatically going back to an author after being frustrated too often wasting money on a follow-up book that just hadn’t met expectations. Now I always do the free sample chapters of books to be sure I want to buy it, and the interesting thing is I’m finding I’m buying way more books that way. Just not the ones that I think aren’t up to snuff.

11. What TV shows are you watching?

We LOVE So You Think You Can Dance, Mad Men, New Girl, Modern Family. I miss all the fabulous shows on HBO because we don’t subscribe to it. I figure I don’t have time for them anyhow. I like to watch Bachelorette just to mock it though I recently found myself actually enjoying parts of it (when they had the Muppets on it). I’m sure that was a freak accident!

12. Who is your celebrity crush and why?

Ooooh, will have to ponder that a bit. I don’t know if I have one! Though I wouldn’t turn George Clooney down…Even Matt Damon seems to get more handsome/sexy the older he gets. Girl crush? Hoda Kotb. She’s the co-host of the later in the morning Today Show. She’s so smart and funny and clever and rocks the best wardrobe ever. And that’s a job I used to always want!

I love that, Jenny. No one has ever given me their girl crush before. Mine is Zoe Saldana. Love her and think she’s gorgeous. {Tracey’s Note: Jenny, if we ever meet in person, I’ll tell you my Columbiana story. } You can find more info at her website: www.jennygardiner.net. Please check out Jenny’s latest, Slim to None, available NOW!!!

Abbie Jennings is Manhattan’s top food critic until her expanding waistline makes staying incognito at restaurants impossible. Her cover blown on Page Six of the New York Post, her editor has no choice but to bench her–and suggest she use the time of to bench-press her way back to anonymity. Abbie’s life has been built around her career, and therefore around celebrating food. Forced to drop the pounds if she wants her primo gig back, Abbie must peel back the layers of her past and confront the fears that have led to her current life.

Who thinks Jenny needs to give a speech about new models of publishing? {Tracey raises her hand.} Who is your celebrity girl crush? Tell us what you think and make sure you check back next week to see who’s hanging out at the T-Spot.