This week, I’m pleased to host Jean Williams. She’s sharing with us the story behind her new book, Just Claire. She’s also giving away a copy of the book. Scroll down the sidebar to the right, and you’ll find out how to enter. Here’s a little taste of what the book is about:
_ClaireLee’s life changes when she must take charge of her siblings after her mother becomes depressed from a difficult childbirth. Frightened by the way Mama sleeps too much and her crying spells during waking hours, ClaireLee just knows she’ll catch her illness like a cold or flu that hangs on through winter. ClaireLee finds comfort in the lies she tells herself and others in order to hide the truth about her erratic mother. Deciding she needs to re-invent herself, she sets out to impress a group of popular girls.
With her deception, ClaireLee weaves her way into the Lavender Girls Club, the most sophisticated girls in school. Though, her best friend Belinda will not be caught with the likes of such shallow puddles, ClaireLee ignores Belinda’s warnings the Lavenders cannot be trusted. ClaireLee drifts further from honesty, her friend, and a broken mother’s love, until one very public night at the yearly school awards ceremony. The spotlight is on her, and she finds her courage and faces the truth and then ClaireLee saves her mother’s life.
Welcome, Jean.
You’re the eldest in a large family. Is your story the inspiration for Just Claire?
Yes, my story is an inspiration for Just Claire.
Why did you decide to write for children?
I identify with children. Give me a roomful of children any day, and I’m more comfortable with them than adults. Children are honest and don’t have agendas until later in life. I especially have learned my greatest lessons from them about life and even about death.
What do you hope kids will take away from reading your book?
My prayer is the children will know they are not alone in their struggles in a muddled and often confusing adult world. I wanted to give them hope no matter their circumstances.
Why do you think girls want so badly to be popular?
Honestly, I can only speak for myself as a preteen, teen. Although, I didn’t push for popularity as ClaireLee does in Just Claire, it was a secret desire of mine. And I wanted to be popular because I was losing ground at home. My parents were slipping away from their responsibilities to me and my siblings. I didn’t belong at home as I once did and sought acceptance and assurance in school.
You call your childhood “fascinating”. What was the most fascinating thing about it?
We had many wild adventures my two younger brothers, Manuel and Lee, right below me cooked up. We lived on 99 acres in an old stage coach house and there was an old logging road on the mountain behind our property. We used to take hikes up there and the littler kids had better keep up or stay home. Ha! We heard bears grumping behind the trees, brought home a nest of baby racoons once that we kept in a rabbit hutch and then released them when they got older, and found a heap of treasures at the properties long-time dump site. Once, we were coming back down the logger road and my brothers threw rocks at a bees nest. No matter that I warned them not to. Those bees took off after us, all but my sister, Kathy. Unafraid, Kathy sauntered down the hill with the swarm of bees going right by her never stopping to sting her. My mother said it was a sight to behold, when she ran out of the house hearing us scream and saw everyone getting stung but Kathy.
The most dangerous thing I remember was we would slide down the logger road’s steep embankment on cardboard boxes, sometimes unable to stop before we hit the stream at the bottom. We were banged up pretty badly too many times on that hill. Lee and Manuel would talk me into doing things only because they’d call me prissy and fraidy cat. I’d always think, “I’ll show them.”
What other projects do you have in the works?
I have one completed, professionally edited non-fiction book for mothers who’ve lost children to suicide. For children, I have several works-in-progress, including a new adult, young adult, several middle grades, and one chapter book. As I work on marketing my debut novel, I’m plotting in my head the sequel to Just Claire.
Thank you so much, Jean, for joining us. The book sounds so good.
_Author Jean Ann Williams, the eldest in a large family, enjoys digging into her fascinating childhood to create stories for children. Having written over one hundred articles for children and adults, Just Claire is her first book. Jean Ann and her husband live on one acre in Southern Oregon where they raise a garden, goats, and chickens. Her favorite hobbies are hiking through the woods and practicing archery with her bow.
You can connect with Jean at:
Downloads available at Amazon: http://ow.ly/XmCJ5
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-claire-jean-ann williams/1123223218?ean=2940157880842
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/just-claire
See the trailer: https://youtu.be/s8x5lJKZFHU
Jean’s blog: http://jeanannwilliams.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeanAnnWilliams
Author Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Jean-Ann-Williams-848295125269670/?ref=hl
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/