A Novel Reality: Between Hurt and Healing

BETWEEN HURT AND HEALING

Jackie Melvin

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Tate Publishing

Date of Publication: February 2, 2016

# of pages: 424

Scroll down for Giveaway!

Jackie Melvin Author Interview

Are you a full-time or part-time writer? How does that affect your writing?

I am a part-time writer now. I was unemployed for almost a year and wrote full-time. I was too isolated and too lonely to be without a job, but now that I have a job I find it hard to find enough time in the day to write. It’s a struggle many authors face, so I don’t feel alone in that regard.

What are some day jobs that you have held? Did any of them impact your writing?

I have been involved in the public school system for almost 15 years, as a substitute teacher, a teacher’s aide and a full time teacher. I knew before I started that the setting was going to be a local high school. The school system is exciting, fun, and full of so many different activities, personalities and scenarios that it’s hard not to be able to come up with a few stories to tell. I have also written a few weekly columns, along with a few human-interest stories for our local paper. This of course kept me writing and exposed my work to a larger audience, allowing feedback that gave me a direction.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

Names are very important, but I don’t have any names that are more special than others. I try and pick first names for the era; at this point there are no Gramma Brittneys as there are no baby Earls. Last names, however, I have a lot of fun with. I have a tendency to just put a bunch of letters together until I can pronounce it, then assign it to a character.

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Coming to an end. I didn’t want the story to end, and I didn’t want to leave these characters behind.

What projects are you working on at the present?

I’ve always got a few projects started. In my folders I have two non-fiction ideas, two different stories for novels, and a handful of children’s stories.

Introverted Denise Staukhill just wanted a quiet life. She never dreamed she would find a man like Darren Olsen to share it with. An unexpected tragedy ends their fairy-tale romance, and Denise once again finds herself alone and devastated.

Years later, the handsome head football coach from the local high school and Darren’s best friend, Eric Ortellio, tries desperately to help her find peace. As their relationship starts to grow, the manipulative Coach Nick Nelson, trying to protect his secretive past, steps in to ruin both of them.

Will Denise and Eric’s friendship sustain the lies and manipulation that the evil Nelson has weaved? Can Denise find the strength to let go of Darren and hold on to Eric, or will her faithfulness to Darren keep Eric out of her life forever?

Visit the author's WEBSITE for best pricing

or purchase from:

Amazon Tate Publishing

Denise talking to her twelve-year-old daughter Cissy, about her own mother:

“She loved color in her drawings, bright colors: greens, reds, blues, yellows. All her pictures were happy. She told me when I was your age to take whatever makes you sad and color it in. I guess she just meant that colors are happy and sad is black and white.”

Cissy’s response:

“Maybe that’s what Grandma meant when she said, “color it in.” Celebrations are colorful like birthday balloons and wedding cakes. Funerals are black, and hospitals are white. Funerals are always sad and hospitals can be sad sometimes too. So if you find what makes you sad and color it in, you can be happy."

Jackie Melvin is a hopeless introvert: hasn’t seen the inside of a movie theater in a decade. She is despairingly sappy: will cry at commercials, songs and memories. She is a disheartened housekeeper: good before the kids, great with the kids, now the laundry room doubles as the master closet. An unexceptional athlete, the weather matters! A wanna be nutritionist, if only chocolate had nutritional value. A mediocre musician: been playing the same songs for thirty years. A happy wife, she married up. A reluctant empty- nester, miss those kids so much. And she is a writer: the author of a series of children's books, and Between Hurt and Healing is her first novel.

She currently lives in Lubbock, Texas with her husband, her dog, and her cat, and spends as much time as possible visiting those kids.