Hello friends!
I am delighted to introduce you to our featured writer, Miss Jennifer Roche. Her writings go beyond the realms of imagination. She is creative with words and so powerful in her imagination that it hooks the reader. Here is a see-through to her art of writing that she has personalized. In the following interview, she discusses about her journey to self-discovery through writing. Her novel, Mindreader will be released in September.
The title Mindreader arouses many questions in readers. I interviewed some friends and got interesting replies:

“Mindreader?! Interesting! I guess it is about a student reading teacher’s mind to know what questions will be asked in the exam.”
“Umm…It might be about a lawyer reading convict’s mind in order to win the trial.”
“It might be about a situation where one of the businessmen gets to know about the business strategy of one’s competitor.”

This intrigued me more and I started reading about Jennifer and her blog. Jennifer puts views of miscellaneous things in a justified manner. She talks about all the viewpoints and logically presents them to her readers. Her writings are clear and lucid. She is imaginative as she writes about numerous possibilities. She seems to have mastered the art of writing by being both lucid and fancy.
By then, I got curious to know what Jennifer’s approach to Mindreader was. I posed a new of questions to her in order to find out.

How has writing helped you in self-discovery? How does writing help you?

I find that writing helps me to figure out what I think and believe. It’s part of what makes writing so damn difficult – it doesn’t work if you don’t have absolute clarity on what you’re trying to say. When you’re writing a novel, you have to figure out exactly what you believe about the world and characters you’re creating. Which characters deserve the reader’s sympathy? Who deserves redemption? What should the characters do to resolve their insecurities and satisfy their desires? Every story I’ve ever written has explored a specific thing, and by the end of the story, I feel like I understand that thing a bit better. With Mindreader, I started out thinking I was writing a novel about how people think and communicate. There’s still a lot of that in there, of course, but by the end, I realised I was *actually* writing about one woman’s search for connection and purpose. Although, truth be told, I don’t think I’ve ever written a story that *hasn’t* ended up being about those things… There’s a moral in there somewhere, I’m sure.

There is so much to learn from you, Jennifer! How do you keep yourself motivated for writing? Is there any quote or person that you got inspired from?

I always find it incredibly motivating to hear other writers talk about their process. If a book, movie, TV show, podcast, song – anything really! – is about the creative process, I devour it. One of my favourite movies is The End of the Tour, which is all about David Foster Wallace dealing with the unexpected success of Infinite Jest. I’ve watched the documentary, A Year in the Life of J.K Rowling, about 5 times, because every time I watch it, I’m suddenly itching to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys, nowadays). I have a couple of notebooks dedicated to quotes I particularly like, many of which are about writing. One of my favourites is from Cheryl Strayed, who has written far more beautiful things than I have space to mention here, so I’ll just pick one of my favourites:
“Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don’t know what it is yet.”

That’s an amazing expression!  What was your first reaction when you read that your book was accepted for publication?

Because of the time difference between the US and Australia, I got the email at about 4am. I usually wouldn’t have seen it until later, but this time, for whatever reason, I heard the vibration and looked at my phone through bleary, half-open eyes. When I read what it was, my eyes snapped open and I jumped out of bed. I ran into my mum’s room and poked her awake, shoving the phone into her face and saying, “They accepted it!” At first, she was sleepy and confused, but when she saw what I was talking about, she shot out of bed and we hugged and jumped up and down and squealed.

I never did end up going back to sleep after that.

Who is your favorite author and why?

I have a few, but if I can only pick one, I can’t go past J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter books were hugely influential in my writing when I was a kid (as were Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Morris Gleitzman), but the reason she’s my favourite author is because she’s carried over into my young adulthood as well. Her detective series under the pen name Robert Galbraith reminded me that I love mysteries, and is part of what inspired me to make Mindreader a murder mystery. (Honorary mentions go to Lionel Shriver, Gillian Flynn and Cheryl Strayed.)

I am curious to know what you might be doing in coming 5 years? What are your plans as a writer? What might you write about?

I have a Young Adult/New Adult science fiction trilogy I’m working on at the moment. I’m hoping to finish the first book by the end of the year, and then I’ll see what happens with it. It’s about four students at a University in the year 2100 who become unlikely friends after everyone else in their cohort is killed in a terrorist attack. The attack was designed to convince the school to cancel their trial of four mysterious serums that give the users supernatural powers. So, if that sounds interesting, stay tuned. 😉

Thank you for sharing so much with us! I am excited to read your novel.

About Interviewer: Shefali Srivastava is an avid writer and reader. Her writing journey started with VerbalEyze. Her poems were selected for Young Writers Anthology: Springing from Halls of Marble. She was also co-editor of Young Writers Anthology: Reaching Beyond the Skies. She can be reached at shefali.srivastava08@gmail.com