Part II Corrine Jackson Interview and International Giveaway

Welcome back to Part II of this awesome interview with Corrine Jackson, the author of IF I LIE! She is also coming out with a YA paranormal trilogy, so I'm going to take a quick moment to put in a plug for it!

Goodreads Book Description (Publish date Nov. 27, 2012): Remy O’Malley heals people with touch—but every injury she cures becomes her own. Living in a household with an abusive stepfather, she has healed untold numbers of broken bones, burns,and bruises. And then one night her stepfather goes too far.

Being sent to live with her estranged father offers a clean start and she is eager to take it. Enter Asher Blackwell. Once a Protector of Healers, Asher sacrificed his senses to become immortal. Only by killing a Healer can a Protector recover their human senses. Falling in love is against the rules between these two enemies. Because Remy has the power to make Protectors human again, and when they find out, they’ll becoming for her—if Asher doesn’t kill her first.

This is Book One in the Touched trilogy.

Author Blurb: Corrine Jackson lives in San Francisco, where she works at a top marketing agency managing campaigns for several Fortune 500 clients. She has bachelor and master degrees in English, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. Visit her at CorrineJackson.com or on Twitter at @Cory_Jackson.

1. I believe that editors are crucial in picking up problems that we don't see in our writing. Who was your best and most helpful critic and why? 

My editor at Simon Pulse, Annette Pollert, was crucial to making my manuscript shine. One of the main edits we made to the book was to add six new scenes with teenagers in order to balance the presence of teens vs. adults in the story. The tight structure of IF I LIE made this change scary and challenging, but it was the best thing for the book and I think the new scenes revealed a lot more about the characters. Annette also went through the book line-by-line, tightening up the language. This process was brutal. I felt battered some days when I was working on the line edits. I don’t think I appreciated how much work we did, though, until I read my ARC and felt total satisfaction with the finished product. There was nothing that I wanted to change, and I’m very proud of that. Serious edits hurt, but they are so vital. I’m thankful I had Annette to work with on IF I LIE.

2. I love that you did so much research for your book (and it totally showed). Can you tell us a little more about the Veterans History Project and the Wounded Warrior project, and how my readers can get more involved?

The Veterans History Project is an amazing project with a mission to record and preserve the stories of our soldiers for the Library of Congress. Their mission statement reads “The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war."
 
I was researching the wartime experiences of soldiers for IF I LIE, the Veterans History Project proved invaluable and life changing. I spent hours watching video interviews and reading documents. I learned what war and military life is like from the men and women who have experienced it firsthand. The stories left their print on me. I thought about my uncle, a Vietnam veteran who was changed by that war, and I wished that I could have recorded his story for the project. I had a bittersweet yearning for others to know about the project, and maybe be inspired to interview a veteran in their life. It’s a mark of respect to honor a soldier by listening to their story, and so George became an advocate and staunch supporter of the Veterans History Project. You can learn more about the project here and download a guide on how to create an entry for the project .

The Wounded Warrior Project has a mission “to honor and empower wounded warriors.” There are an estimated 400,000 soldiers suffering from PTSD as they merge their old lives with the traumatic things they’ve lived through. The Wounded Warrior Project has created programs to give back and take care of our “military service members who incurred service-connected wounds, injuries, or illnesses on or after September 11, 2001.” You can learn more about them and how to help here.

3. Tell us a little bit your next book, TOUCHED, without giving too much away.
TOUCHED is a romantasy about a girl who has the ability to heal people with her touch. Unfortunately, every injury or illness Remy heals becomes hers, and she’s grown up using her ability to hide the violence her stepfather inflicts on her and her mother. After a particularly brutal confrontation lands her in the hospital, Remy is forced to live with the father who abandoned her and his perfect family. The story deals with how she adjusts to her new life with all of her old scars. Plus there are people threatening her because of what she can do, and a boy who has powers that put her in danger. TOUCHED has a lot of action and romance.

4. SPOILER ALERT! I hope I am not giving too much away when I say that it is very brave and important to bring up the controversial topic of gay men in the military. Can you tell us about your experience with writing about this conflict?
I did a TON of research. I read a lot of books and interviews. The problem was that I was hearing conflicting takes. Some said it was no big deal to be gay in the military, but I’d also heard some opposing views on this. I decided to go right to the source - Marines – to get the truth. I was lucky enough to correspond with soldiers who were stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. I asked them what they thought would happen if someone came out in their troops, and they were willing to answer so long as I kept their names anonymous. And the truth is that there are a lot of people out there who would react with violence or small-mindedness. Even now with the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy repealed, there are soldiers keeping their sexuality a secret out of concern for their safety or ability to be promoted. I find that incredibly sad, and I wanted to start a discussion about that. I hope that IF I LIE makes people think about this in a new light.

Thank you so much, Corrine, for taking the time to do this interview! I loved your answers and know everyone else will too!

Don't forget to enter this great giveaway!

 

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