Transcript from The Nature of Authors Episode 002: Writing as Therapy with Shannon Jump
Chrissy Holm (00:02):
Do you love to talk about books? Do you wonder how authors build their stories each month? I'll take you on the journey of discovering how authors work, listen to how writers explain their craft and the mission behind their writing. What's the nature of authors. I'm your host, Chrissy Holm. Let's talk books. It's time to welcome our second guest Shannon Jump author of, Even Though It's Breaking. Today, we're going to be talking about psychological suspense thrillers, and writing as therapy. Thanks for being here, Shannon.
Shannon Jump (00:39):
Thank you for having me. I so appreciate it. I'm really excited.
Chrissy Holm (00:43):
Yes, definitely. And a fun icebreaker that I think we can all start off with is, would you rather, so you ready Shannon for a, would you rather.
Shannon Jump (00:54):
[inaudible 00:00:54]
Chrissy Holm (00:54):
Okay, cool. So would you rather read a physical book or an audio book?
Shannon Jump (00:58):
Physical, for sure.
Chrissy Holm (01:00):
Nice. And on that same note, what's your favorite type or what's your favorite genre of book?
Shannon Jump (01:06):
I kind of go back and forth. I tend to switch it up every once in a while just to make sure they don't all start to sound the same, but lately psychological thrillers have really been my jam. And that's probably because that's what I'm writing right now, too. So, but yeah, I do dabble in romance and other types of thrillers and all that kind of stuff too, but yeah, psychological thrillers.
Chrissy Holm (01:29):
I love it. And I know I saw some questions come in beforehand that are really on the thrillers.
Shannon Jump (01:35):
Oh good.
Chrissy Holm (01:36):
So we're excited to learn some more of how you feel about thrillers and some of the other questions of course I'll get to later on. But yeah, I love that, because I think there has to be that variety to keep yourself interested. And do you kind of read to a mood, whatever you're in the mood for too.
Shannon Jump (01:53):
For sure. Yeah. And I think I must have been in some kind of mood in August because I DNF to, did not finish probably four books in a row. Couldn't get into a single one of them I'm like, "screw this goodbye". And then I think everything I read was just, it wasn't quite that five star read. So I was really moody I think. But yeah, I tend to... My mood really, it's kind of like music, right? You listen to music that kind of coincides with your mood. I'm the same way with reading.
Chrissy Holm (02:24):
Absolutely. Yeah. I've been in this weird mood too. I'm not finishing them, but I'm reading seven books at once that I'm... because I'm not finishing them.
Shannon Jump (02:35):
Makes sense. Yeah. And that's so hard, right? I really struggle with reading more than one book at a time. So for me, it's if I'm going to start another one. Usually that means I'm not going to finish the one I was reading.
Chrissy Holm (02:46):
Absolutely. Yeah. Which is funny that you said that because so I was going to play a quick little game and one of the questions you've already answered, so we'll have to ask another question, but maybe we'll start with a fun. Well, I think it's fun. Maybe it's not that fun, but a question about nature and the weather. I know I'm in the sun. The sun is supposed to be setting a little bit more, but...
Shannon Jump (03:07):
Yeah, not quite yet.
Chrissy Holm (03:10):
No. So it's a little blinding. But so if you were to pick your favorite type of weather, what would it be? Sunny, snowy, rainy, overcast. What would you choose and why?
Shannon Jump (03:19):
So, I love this question. And so we're heading into the best part of the year in Minnesota in my opinion, fall. So I am very much a 70, 75 and sunny kind of girl. I like to be able to be outside in a t-shirt during the day and then into a sweatshirt at night and still be comfortable. But yeah, that's my ideal. I absolutely love fall here and I love the trees and all the changing colors. It's my favorite time.
Chrissy Holm (03:44):
I do. Yep. I second that I think it's a beautiful, I mean we go through such a long winter that it's nice to be able to just have that balance of you're saying in the daytime just walking around, enjoying the sun, but then I don't mind a sweatshirt every now and then, you know?
Shannon Jump (04:01):
Yeah. It's cozy. Right. And I like to, I love to read on my porch in the fall. So even at night, if I've got enough light, I can throw on a hoodie and just go sit out there. So that's my favorite spot.
Chrissy Holm (04:12):
I love that. Yeah. I think I find myself sitting on... We don't have a porch, but we have a front stoop kind of thing. And I'll just sit there and look up every now and then and people watch a little bit. So, it's such a beautiful time of the year to do that.
Shannon Jump (04:26):
Perfect.
Chrissy Holm (04:26):
And it's finally cooling down, right?
Shannon Jump (04:29):
Yeah. I was getting pretty hot for a while there.
Chrissy Holm (04:32):
Yeah. But awesome. All right. Well, I see some more people here as well. Hello. Hello. Hope you're having a lovely-
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Hello, and I agree. DNF is a term. Yes. I love it.
Chrissy Holm (04:43):
Yeah. I know. I hadn't actually heard that until recently, which is kind of embarrassing that [inaudible 00:04:49]
Shannon Jump (04:49):
Not don't even feel that way because until I got into the whole bookstagram side of Instagram, I hadn't heard of it either. I was just, it was just, I didn't finish that book.
Chrissy Holm (04:59):
Yeah. So I love that. I said to my sister earlier today, I was like, "I think it's a DNR" and I'm like, "Wait a minute. No, no, no, not DNR."
Shannon Jump (05:06):
No, no, no. Well, it could be if you really are not going to go back to that push.
Chrissy Holm (05:11):
Yeah. Right. Exactly. That's hilarious. All right. Well, I have another fun little game before we dive into your book and some of the questions that the audience had asked and it's kind of a rapid fire game. Like a yes, no, it won't go that fast. Because I've only got what? Three questions. Which one of them you already answered. So. All right. So have you ever read a more than one book at a time?
Shannon Jump (05:35):
Yes. Hated it.
Chrissy Holm (05:36):
Oh good to know. Do you like to listen to audio books?
Shannon Jump (05:43):
No.
Chrissy Holm (05:45):
I was like, here comes the truth.
Shannon Jump (05:46):
I don't. Well, and I feel so bad because... And I am of the opinion that audio books are books. It's not that they're not, I just, I can't get into them and I kind of always want to strangle the narrators because they're just not reading it the way that I would. And it drives me nuts. So no, but I will say when I'm old in senile and can't see anymore, I will be on that audio book train till the day I die. But right now, no.
Chrissy Holm (06:12):
Yeah, no, I know I have a hard time focusing almost on the audio. I just, I'd rather sit and read and I don't know.
Shannon Jump (06:20):
Yes. Yeah.
Chrissy Holm (06:26):
I'm probably that way too. That's hilarious. All right. So the last one, I guess. Have you ever been in a book group before? Like a book club?
Shannon Jump (06:31):
Yeah, I think not a local one, which I would really love to do one day. But no, not an in person one, but I've done a lot of the online book clubs, especially through bookstagram and joining read alongs and things like that. But the problem is once I'm told, not told, but once I have to read a book, I don't want to read that book. And because I'm such a mood reader, I'm like, "God, it's the 31st of the month and the thing is tomorrow and I haven't even picked it up and it's because you told me I had to read it." And so I kind of go back and forth. So I really struggle with being told what to put on my TBR.
Chrissy Holm (07:07):
Yeah, no, I totally get that too. It's ideally it sounds nice going into it cause you're like, oh, all these different books that I might not read, but then you get it. And you're like, "I don't actually really want to read this."
Shannon Jump (07:20):
Yeah. Or you just, you don't see the hype around the book. Right. It's supposed to be this great five star read. Everybody's loving it. And I can't get past page 30 without wanting to throw it. I mean, and then I feel bad. I don't want to join a group and talk trash about a book, especially now that I'm an author. I don't want to do that. So if I don't like it, I'm probably going to just tap out of that group real quick.
Chrissy Holm (07:42):
Yeah. Like, "oh, all right. Peace out guys." I just can't.
Shannon Jump (07:45):
Yep.
Chrissy Holm (07:48):
Oh, wonderful. Well, thank you, Shannon. Thanks for playing that fun little game and yeah.
Shannon Jump (07:53):
Great question.
Chrissy Holm (07:53):
It's always interesting. Yeah, it's always interesting to see what people do. And I know you're in such that not only are you an author, which we're going to talk about here in a moment, but that bookstagrammer type piece. So it's kind of a fun, little unique piece I think. But going back to your book. Well, I know you've got two books. One, Even Though It's Breaking and then My Only Sunshine, correct?
Shannon Jump (08:16):
Yep.
Chrissy Holm (08:17):
Cool. And if you want to just explain, maybe I know the main focus is Even Though It's Breaking right now, but feel free to describe both of them. Yeah. We'd love to kind of hear what the title is and the genre and just a little bit about
Shannon Jump (08:29):
It. Awesome. Well thank you. And hello Cole. I see you and Erica. So yeah, I'll start with, Even Though It's Breaking and I just got my very first paperback print copy over the weekend and I absolutely love it. So, this is my sophomore novel. It is a completely different genre than my first book. And the reason for that is because my first book is actually based on a true story. It based on portions of my life, but it's not a memoir. It is a fiction novel. And I like to kind of refer to it as a fictional memoir where it's based on true, but it's not nonfiction. So that book kind of in my as a writer and knowing that I wanted to branch out into the writing community and self-publish a book. That one had to be first, for me. It had to be my book baby, the very first one that got me out there.
Shannon Jump (09:23):
And if I didn't do it first, I would probably never do it. So that's why the genre's different because while maybe in my opinion, part of what I went through is psychological thriller. Right. But it's not a psychological thriller. So, but that's really, my niche is the psycho thrillers and that type of novel with writing. So that's why the genres differ. But the new book coming out October 26th is called, Even Though It's Breaking. And this book, I'm so excited about it because this is the first thing I got to write. That's 100% fiction. And it was so fun to go from A to Z and pull the whole thing together, creating characters and plot and all of that. And it was challenging, especially when it came to those little mundane things of like, okay, what's their hair color? What's their eye color. And Cole on here actually was one of my data readers.
Shannon Jump (10:11):
So, they read some versions of it and were like, "Hey, your eye colors, aren't matching up here."
Chrissy Holm (10:16):
Oh no.
Shannon Jump (10:17):
Two chapters ago they were blue eyes and now they're green. And I'm like, "Yeah, I'll deal with that later."
Chrissy Holm (10:21):
Yeah. Minor details.
Shannon Jump (10:25):
Little. Yeah, exactly. So little things like that just, I wasn't even thinking of that, but my first book, My Only Sunshine was obvious, these characters were real people. So I kind of had something to go by, but Even Though It's Breaking, like I said, is a psychological thriller and it is told by the main character, Allie, and also by a secondary narrator named Owen. So Allie is this young woman she's in her mid twenties and she has kind of like this perfect life. I like to refer to it as happy.
Shannon Jump (10:52):
Everything, which fun fact was the original title of the book was Happy Everything. And the irony of it is that nothing about the book ends up being happy, right. In certain parts. But I kind of decided that I wanted to go with this... I'm totally going off topic now, but...
Chrissy Holm (11:09):
No you're good.
Shannon Jump (11:11):
All of my books are going to relate to a song lyric in one way, shape or form. So My Only Sunshine, Even Though iI's Breaking, both of those are lyrics from songs. And so the title changed once I realized that was the world I wanted to take, but happy everything is in there, it's in the synopsis. So I still got to got to use that. But anyway, so Allie's in her mid twenties, she's got this perfect life, great job, great boyfriend. She has everything going for her. And something changes to where she no longer has everything going for her.
Shannon Jump (11:41):
She reaches this point where she starts to question everything, she's questioning her relationship and whether or not she wants to move forward with it. And in the midst of all that, she goes through a really traumatic event and the book takes place. It opens up kind of at the start of that traumatic event. And then it goes back to before. And then towards the end, it splits into the after. So it's broken down into different sections. And this is content warning because apparently I can't write a book without a content warning, but she is sexually assaulted and doesn't remember anything. She wakes up in the hospital and has no memory of what happened to her. And so she ends up going back home and she's with the boyfriend and all this stuff. And then the secondary narrator comes into play who turns out to be her stalker.
Shannon Jump (12:26):
So we get to see both sides of things. We see Allie's point of view as the victim of the assault and the main narrator. And then we get Owen's side of things and the story kind of intermingles too, to where one chapter is Allie. And then it starts right back up with Owen's opinion of that same kind of event. So we piggyback back and forth through multiple years.
Shannon Jump (12:48):
I think the whole book takes place in like four or five year period. But yeah, and for me, Owen is my favorite character and some of my, a readers, they, the arcs just went out last weekend and some of the arc readers are absolutely loving him too, which is great. But he's this damaged guy, right? I mean, he's stalking somebody. So obviously there's something a little bit off with him, but he's got this tough past, he's been through something and Erica just said, she loves Owen. She [inaudible 00:13:15] And Cole, both of them are on my arc team, but yeah. So he's got this troubled past and you start to feel for him and you want to hug him. And at the same time you want to be like, what is wrong with you for what he is doing. So, yeah, that's the gist of the book. It just kind of go ahead and goes back and forth between those two narrators and we kind of see how, how those events changed their lives.
Chrissy Holm (13:36):
Wow. Wow. That sounds so incredible. Oh no, but it sounds so good.
Shannon Jump (13:42):
You know, It's so funny. I was picking my daughter up from work today and on the drive over there, it literally takes me five to six minutes to drive there, to get her. I was reciting this to myself in the car because I'm so bad at explaining it. I just want to tell you the whole story. So I'm like, okay, I have to reign this in. I can't give away stuff. So yeah. That's my new elevator speech show stories.
Chrissy Holm (14:04):
It beautiful. You nailed it.
Shannon Jump (14:06):
Thank you.
Chrissy Holm (14:06):
That was so... It's, I'm so intrigued and I love stories that kind of go back and forth between the different perspectives because... Not only is it good storytelling, but I think to it show... you can see empathy a little bit. And I believe empathy is a big key to just life in general. So you get to understand the different character's perspectives and stuff.
Shannon Jump (14:28):
Yeah. Well, and I think for me, this was my first time writing a dual narrative as well. And I tried to kind of, when I was going into it as like I knew who Owen was going to be, and I knew the kind of depth I wanted him to have. I wanted people to go into it being like, oh my God, I hate this guy. Oh, poor Owen, I love him, just kind of wishy washy with how they feel about him, because it feels wrong to love him, you know?
Chrissy Holm (14:50):
Right. Yeah.
Shannon Jump (14:52):
So I thought that the best way to do that would be to give him his own voice. I did both of the narrators and first person present tense or present yeah, present. I had it mixed up. It's happening now. Okay.
Chrissy Holm (15:06):
It's all right.
Shannon Jump (15:06):
So, yeah. And I was trying to think back of what are some of my favorite psychological thrillers? What elements did they have that really made me like, whoa, this was so good? And that dual narrative kept coming back to me. And I was like, okay, well, I'm going to have to put myself in two people's shoes and let's do this.
Chrissy Holm (15:23):
I love that. Well, was that difficult? Or how did you go about kind of doing that dual narrative? I mean, how did get in that mindset?
Shannon Jump (15:33):
It was definitely tough. I obviously struggled more with Owen than I did with Allie. Writing a female character and kind of the content warning in there as going through a sexual assault and things like that. And I personally am a domestic abuse survivor. I've been through some of what she went through. So, for me to be able to take that experience and put it into her life and relate it to someone who's not me or not based on someone from my other book. So, Yeah. So she wasn't too tough to write. It was just coming up with her backstory and finding her voice. But Owen, man. Okay. So I had to just, okay. I don't know if you know a song creeped by Radiohead?
Chrissy Holm (16:12):
I do, yes.
Shannon Jump (16:14):
Okay. That song played on the loop. Every time I had to write an Owen chapter, it was headphones on full blast and just get me in that mindset. So Owen-
Chrissy Holm (16:24):
Brilliant.
Shannon Jump (16:24):
...Really was born from that song.
Chrissy Holm (16:27):
I will never not listen to that song and think of that now.
Shannon Jump (16:32):
Same. I can't, every time I hear it now, I'm just like, okay, that's Owen. it's the only thing I think of when I hear it.
Chrissy Holm (16:37):
I'm channeling my inner Owen right now. It's amazing. Well, these are so, that's so good. And I think they're actually going in line with some of the questions that other people had asked. I think it's just so incredible to try to get into that mindset, like you're saying. And I know some of this stuff can be difficult to write and especially if you've experienced some of those things. And that kind of leads me to my next question is part of why I do writing is just so I can help change societal norms and get people to stop thinking of what's socially normal. Yeah. But what would you say is your main reason for writing? Do you feel like there's a bigger purpose that you have behind your stories?
Shannon Jump (17:20):
Yeah. Chrissy, that's such a great question. And I love that. I love the depth of that and I would totally agree, like we need to change the societal norms, right? I mean, we have to evolve. It's just who we are, as people, we have to. And I think this question really is a good segue to mention My Only Sunshine, which was my first book and you just, you brought me right to it. So that book is based on my past experiences through a really tough relationship and really kind of the last 20 years. And for me, writing has been my outlet. It's my therapy, it's my cathartic thing, to be able to sit down and do, to get my mind balanced. And I think for me kind of going through some of what I experienced when I was younger, I had such a hard time talking to people, not about everyday life.
Shannon Jump (18:08):
I can do that. Just fine. I have friends, I can talk, all that stuff, but digging deep and actually talking about the things that happened did not work well for me. And I tried therapy at times, I tried a number of things. And for me, this was my therapy. Writing is my therapy. And I think now too, now that I've gotten My Only Sunshine under my belt, that story is there. It's told and to be able to put that story out there, content warnings galore in My Only Sunshine, as well. With the domestic abuse and drug use and all that kind of stuff. And supporting a partner who's going through substance abuse issues while also dealing with the domestic violence aspects of it. It's such a tough give and take. And you question your decisions, you question everything you do. And did I cause this was it my fault, and am I worthy of going on and living a happy life?
Shannon Jump (19:04):
And especially if the other person didn't get to do that, what happens from there? And so, yeah, I think story itself really has been a good, I don't want to say tool. That's probably the wrong word, but it's a good resource for domestic violence survivors. And I've had a number of readers, even though the content is so heavy, right? I think there's certain parts of the book where if it's tough for you to digest or read something like that, certainly skip over certain parts, right. Or skim it or something just... But the story itself is more than just the domestic violence. It's the substance abuse and overcoming something just traumatic that happened to you. It's being a parent because there's a couple kids involved at that point and being a good friend and a family member and all these things. So there's a lot of different elements that are kind of added into it where it's not just about that story, but I've had other survivors reach out to me, want to share their stories and talk about the things they've experienced too.
Shannon Jump (20:02):
And that's been really rewarding as well. So where initially I started writing for therapeutic purposes. Right. But now I'm at the point where it's like, okay, but now how can I help? My story's out there, but what can I do to help? And how can I make it? Again, so that society doesn't consider talking about domestic violence and rape and sexual assault as a taboo subject. It needs to be talked about. And that just goes right back to the beginning of what you said, but we have to change the societal norms. And sometimes that's the only way to do it is to be a voice on paper.
Chrissy Holm (20:38):
Oh, Ugh. I've got... It's not even cold out here and I'm keep getting goosebumps, everything that you're saying, it just, I'm resonating with so much. And I know you said it's not fully memoir, but I applaud you even for sharing that story. It's-
Shannon Jump (20:52):
Thank you.
Chrissy Holm (20:52):
It's not an easy thing to do. And someone really close to me has also gone through that. So it's hard to see. It's hard to, it's just, it's heavy, it's heavy stuff, but you're right. We need to talk about it because it's going to continue happening. If people don't share their stories or like you're saying help. I think that's the biggest thing is helping people.
Shannon Jump (21:12):
Well, and I think along with that too, is there's going to be other people out there like me who don't feel comfortable talking about the exact events. Right. And for me, I was able to take my story and turn it into something fictional to where I can deny like, "Oh no, chapter 10 was all made up." And I'm just throwing that out there. I don't even know what chapter 10 is.
Chrissy Holm (21:32):
Yeah. Right, right.
Shannon Jump (21:32):
But you can put it out there and let people make their own assumptions. You can still get the important parts of what you want to say out there. And that's where I really think being able to write fiction really changed things for me. The self-publishing industry really changed things for me, because I purposely went the indie route with my writing. Because with My Only Sunshine, it was such a personal story that I did not want someone to tell me what to do with it. Tell me how to write it and how to market it. That was just to me, no, I need to do this myself. So I did all this research and stuff at the start of COVID back in 2020. And I was like, well, if I'm going to write the starring book, I guess this is the time to do it. So I did. And what happened after that really surprised me because people liked it and started buying it and reading it. And then they started asking me when the next book was coming. And I was like, "I don't know. I didn't know I was writing another one."
Chrissy Holm (22:30):
Right.
Shannon Jump (22:31):
So yeah, I just kept going and somehow characters were speaking to me again.
Chrissy Holm (22:36):
Awesome. Yeah, no, that's incredible. I love how it's kind of just become, people love your writing, love your stories and want more of it. And I guess that kind of leads me to another question before I go to other people's questions too. But my question, again, to you is where do you see yourself in the next 5, 10 years, at least with your writing wise? Do you want to write more books or what are your thoughts?
Shannon Jump (23:03):
I'm having fun right now, Chrissy. Putting the first book out was the hardest, because it was just... Writing it was its own thing, but the research and figuring out how I wanted to publish it and how do I even do this? And then getting on Instagram and being like, well, you read my book. How do you get people to read your book if nobody knows your name? And that's where the bookstagram thing came into play too, where I thought, I love to read just as much as I love to write, why don't I do a hybrid thing and just do both? Make some friends along the way. And maybe those friends will want to read my books. Right. That worked out. Yes. So, and I think that was probably a pat on the back kind of thing that kind of worked out in my favorite word.
Shannon Jump (23:49):
I did make some friends and my friends want to read my book and they're telling their friends about it too. So for me, next book, I have to admit is already in progress, even though, Even Though It's Breaking, hasn't come out yet. And the roundabout way that happened was that I put My Only Sunshine out there, it's contemporary fiction, my fictional memoir. And that wasn't the market necessarily that genre that I wanted to stay in. So I'm like, "Okay, well, how do I derail and still keep my readers and bring them with me?" And that's where I think I've been fortunate that the readers followed, and some of the themes and the two books so far, they're similar. I mean, they both talk about domestic violence issues, all that kind of stuff with drug use and abuse with substances and all that kind of stuff.
Shannon Jump (24:35):
And I think those themes, right, they impacted my life so much that they're prevalent in my writing. And I think that's okay, because the way that you write about them and tell all these different stories. And every story's going to have a different ending, every story's going to have its own path just like life, right? Just like every single person that goes through any of these events. So I'm like, okay, well we'll keep the theme similar because these are the stories that are in my head. Just whatever I want to write. And the issue though, was that the second book that I was working on is actually going to be the third one that I'm putting out. And the reason for that was that I thought, Even Though It's Breaking was going to be a better transition from the contemporary fiction to psychological growers. So it's kind of the middle road between My Only Sunshine and the third book that's coming. So I kind of pivoted, I was about 20,000 words or so, about a third of a book, right?
Chrissy Holm (25:28):
Right, right.
Shannon Jump (25:29):
Through the other one. And then I kind of had to push it aside and then this new idea had come to me. So I started writing that and I'm like, yeah, this one makes sense for book two. So book three, I'll go ahead and share the title because some of the folks in here will be excited about it. So again, with the song theme, right. So we've got a lyrical theme in the titles. I grew up a big Fleetwood Mac fan and my mother used to listen to them a ton. So the title of the book is, Wouldn't You Love to Love Her, from Rhiannon, which sounds like Shannon which this kind of cool.
Chrissy Holm (26:00):
Yeah. And I like that.
Shannon Jump (26:02):
In my head, it's Shannon, that's how we sing it. [inaudible 00:26:06] always sang it that way. So yeah. Wouldn't You Love to Love Her, is the next book. And I'm thinking it's going to come out in early 2022.
Chrissy Holm (26:14):
Oh yeah.
Shannon Jump (26:16):
It's not as long between the books this time, because that one was already in progress. But Even Though It's Breaking is out right now with the arc readers and going to my editor soon as well, but I'm already back to working on the other book as well, so...
Chrissy Holm (26:28):
Oh, that is so exciting. And I love that. I love that, not only the title, but that theme.
Shannon Jump (26:34):
Thank you.
Chrissy Holm (26:34):
And I know you mentioned that earlier, that's so unique and I think it ties back to your story. I feel like each of them in some type of a way. Ugh. I'm just so excited for you.
Shannon Jump (26:47):
Thank you. Yes. And I think the musical aspect of it to me is personal. Like you said, I was a singer before I was a writer. I sang, I'm not going to do it right now, but I do sing. And I always have, and I used to write lyrics. I mean, part of my therapeutic writing was lyrics and poetry and that kind of stuff. So it's really, obviously, kind of transferred into my fiction writing as well.
Chrissy Holm (27:10):
Oh, that's so powerful. I know we haven't actually, we've messaged, but we haven't talked one on one.
Shannon Jump (27:15):
Yeah.
Chrissy Holm (27:16):
And I just, I'm resonating with so much. Obviously I made that little theme song at the beginning.
Shannon Jump (27:20):
I love it.
Chrissy Holm (27:22):
Music to me too is so important. I sing badly, but I think music is, it just ties us together as people. And I think that's, like I said, already, very unique to tie all your books kind of along those lines. So-
Shannon Jump (27:34):
Thank you.
Chrissy Holm (27:35):
You're welcome. Thank you, Shannon. All right. So I'm going to go to the questions that I got. So for psychological thrillers, do you pull feelings from any lived experiences?
Shannon Jump (27:47):
Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's probably been answered a bit as well, but yeah, definitely, I do. And I think what's fun about the psychological thrillers is that you can kind of take that everyday life situation and make it into something kind of creepy. And that brings back Owen and the song Creep, right? It's just this normal guy who just does these abnormal things and you can kind of morph that character and that's kind of fun. But yeah, and those similar themes from My Only Sunshine with the substance abuse and domestic violence come into play, but they come into play so differently. Those that have read both of the books will probably attest to that. They're completely different stories with similar themes.
Chrissy Holm (28:30):
Awesome. Yeah. That's super interesting. I saw a couple more coming in. Let's see. So you did mention that Even Though It's Breakings in first person, correct? Yeah. Okay. So one of the question was, do you have a preference of thriller books written in first person versus third person narrator?
Shannon Jump (28:48):
I do. I'll read both, but for me, I think writing wise, they're probably always going to be first person. I think it's easier to put myself into the character's head if I am the character, as creepy as that sounds right. You know, you're a writer, right. I mean that some of the stuff that goes through our heads should put us in the loony bit. Instead we're creating these great fiction stories and writing movies and TV shows and all that stuff instead. But, but yeah, I think totally spacing out right now, but first person. Yeah, absolutely. Just because it's easier to become that character and put yourself in their head.
Chrissy Holm (29:24):
Yes, absolutely. I'm laughing at the spacing out thing. Because I think we do that as writers too. We just like, I totally lost-
Shannon Jump (29:31):
[inaudible 00:29:31] moment. I don't, there was nothing in here that distracted me, but still.
Chrissy Holm (29:36):
No, no I do that too. Yeah. Us writers. We can be unique every so often.
Shannon Jump (29:42):
Yeah.
Chrissy Holm (29:42):
Right. Exactly. So, what books did you like as a kid? And do you remember what your first thriller book was?
Shannon Jump (29:51):
Gosh, I don't know what my first thriller was. I don't know at all. I'm not sure. But as a kid I could take you through a whole progression. I mean I loved Box Car Children was a huge series for me. I absolutely loved those books. I had them all. Gosh, what else? I'm totally blanking. Hold on. Where the red fern... They're on my shelf. Where the Red Fern Grows. Yep. That's been one of my all time favorite books since fourth grade in like the Shel Silverstein books with all his little stories. I love those Ramona, that series and Babysitters Club. Gosh, there were so many, The Twits Roald Dahl. That was the Twits. I loved that book. Yeah. That was my younger years. And I dabbled a little while in V.C. Andrews. Found a book in the house and ended up reading it, it wasn't mine, but I was like, "Ooh, what's this? And it's just total smut. Right. But I'm like, "Okay, I guess that explains why I like romance books too. But yeah. I honestly don't know what my first thriller was. I'm kind of sad that I don't. That's a good question.
Chrissy Holm (30:48):
Yeah. Maybe it'll come to you later and then throw a comment on. Yeah, no, that's a good range. And I think I probably have some of those on like Box Car Children, I think in my basement right now. Yeah's so good. It's been so long. Yeah.
Shannon Jump (31:03):
RL Stein. That would be my first thrillers. I mean, it's like a kid version of a thriller right? RL Stein. Yeah. I used to read the Goosebumps books all the time. Yes. That's I'm like, I know there was something, but, yep.
Chrissy Holm (31:16):
Wow. Yeah. That's good. And super ironic. I just ran. I was on a hike today and I ran into somebody wearing a Goosebumps shirt, sweatshirt weird. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. It was. It meant to be Goosebumps. I see from my friend Holly in the chat. Yep.
Shannon Jump (31:32):
That's good stuff.
Chrissy Holm (31:33):
Yes. So when do we get a hint on what your third book is about?
Shannon Jump (31:38):
The funny thing is I already told, I don't know if Cole is still on, but I had already told Cole a little bit about it too. And I was like... It's so hard. This is why I'm meant to be an indie author because I cannot keep my mouth shut. As soon as these stories start coming to me, I want to tell people. I make covers like I've already got a cover for it. Yeah. I can't stop. And I need people to... I feed off of other people's excitement when it comes to my writing. So it's, I need those beta readers and people to tell me no you're on the right track, keep going. But yeah. So I think I want to get, Even Though It's Breaking, kind of out there. I'm going to try not to say anything about book three until at least that's been out there for a little bit. But if it's coming out in early 2022, that means marketing would start November, December? So, but I will say, I don't know who asked that question, but if it was Erica just...
Chrissy Holm (32:29):
It was Erica. It was.
Shannon Jump (32:31):
You DM me. I'll tell you about it. Have you signed a non-disclosure or something?
Chrissy Holm (32:36):
Yeah. That's hilarious. Yeah. Cool. No, I'm so excited. So November, for the rest of the public, maybe November December-ish.
Shannon Jump (32:45):
Yeah. I would say probably sometime in November I would start talking about it. Maybe do a cover reveal and all that fun stuff, but I'm trying to give it this two month range, at least, to market and get pre-orders going and all that fun stuff.
Chrissy Holm (32:59):
Absolutely. Well, I look forward to watching and seeing and hearing more about that.
Shannon Jump (33:05):
Thanks.
Chrissy Holm (33:05):
So if you're not following her, make sure you, after we leave here in a little bit, follow Shannon.
Shannon Jump (33:11):
Yes. Well, and I will give one hint about the next book, because again, I can't keep my mouth shut, but so I mentioned earlier that book, when I started writing, it did not feel like it was a good transition from My Only Sunshine contemporary fiction to psychological thrillers. Right. It is a psychological thriller, but it's I guess a provocative psychological thriller. It's a little dirty. I'm not going to lie.
Chrissy Holm (33:37):
I like it.
Shannon Jump (33:38):
It's a little dirty. So the cover, I'm so excited about the cover. I know Cole saw a little preview of the cover because I just suck at keeping things inside, but I'm like, "Does this work?" Yeah, it's provocative psychological thriller. So I kind of had to get in the market first and there's a little bit of provocation in and Even Though It's Breaking too, but it's nothing compared to what, Wouldn't you love to love her? Which I think the title kind of hints that it's I don't know...
Chrissy Holm (34:04):
Yeah.
Shannon Jump (34:04):
Anyway, so that's a [inaudible 00:34:06] provocative psychological thriller.
Chrissy Holm (34:08):
Ooh, that is super intriguing. I can't wait. Oh, I can't wait. Thank you, Shannon. All right. So we got a couple more questions and then we can probably wrap up. Somebody was just asking, you may have addressed it already, but what led you to that genre to psychological thriller.
Shannon Jump (34:25):
Psychological thrillers? I've read a ton of books, especially my adult years. I mean, obviously we talked about some of the ones I read when I was younger, but as an adult and having lived through some things, right. I think back to those books that impacted me, which ones did I have a hard time putting that book down. I will auto buy from that author. I will read it cover to cover in one sitting and immediately go, "Oh my God book hang over, absolute five stars." Right? That's the kind of writer I want to be. I don't know if I'm that writer. Maybe some people might think I am, but I'm not in the traditional market. Right. So I don't have all that developmental editing going on. I have an editor she's amazing. And she gives great feedback, but the story is mine.
Shannon Jump (35:07):
And for me, I just kept thinking what stories did people put down and say, "Holy crap, that was a great book." And that's what I want to write. So that's kind of what led me to psychological thrillers. But I think with this genre, you can dabble in so many different things. Again, I love romance books too. I'll take all the smut. I'll take the cheesy stuff that you see on Hallmark. I don't care. I like it, but I can't read them all back to back. Right. I need to be able to kind of mix it up. And that's part of why I read different genres, but with psychological thrillers, you can bring some of those other elements in. And that's why Wouldn't You Love to Love Her? Is that provocative psychological thriller, because some of those romance elements and romantic suspense are going to come into play, in that book. So I think it's a customizable genre would probably be a good way to say it. You can do [inaudible 00:35:59]
Chrissy Holm (35:58):
Yeah, you can... I was just going to say that, you can put a lot of ingredients into the bowl and mix it up a little bit, but it still ends up being the psychological thriller. That's awesome. All right. We will finish with one more question. Do you have a favorite thriller book or any lesser known ones that didn't get the credit it deserved? We'll finish it that
Shannon Jump (36:21):
Okay. In real life, I think she'd give me a big hug for this, but I'm huge advocate for Britney King. Britney King is a psychological thriller author. She is also an indie author. I discovered her books through my editor, who we were having that initial conversation. And she's like, "Hey, I, these are some books I've worked on." And she gave me a couple of them. Well, I read this three book series back to back in a weekend that was Britney King. And I was like, "Okay, well, I'm officially your number one fan". Because her books are great. I love them.
Shannon Jump (36:51):
And I've been buying them like crazy. And anyone who follows me on Instagram will know that I'm going to shout about Britney King every once in a while. So, and the super exciting thing was, I've been on a couple of her arc teams and getting those advanced review copies and all that kind of stuff. And she follows me now as well and pre-ordered, Even Though It's Breaking. So, I was so excited about that. That's like, okay, when one of your favorite authors pre-orders your book, I'm like, what? So yeah, Britney King, if you have not read any of her books, check them out. If you're not sure where to start, send me a DM, check out my page because I've highlighted her several times and I freaking love her. So
Chrissy Holm (37:29):
Britney King. Okay. Noted. That sounds amazing.
Shannon Jump (37:32):
Yep.
Chrissy Holm (37:33):
All right. Well thank you so much, Shannon. If you want to just tell everyone where we can buy your books and anything else that you want to kind of finish this off with.
Shannon Jump (37:42):
Yeah. So my books say I'm publishing through KDP, which is through Amazon. So the majority like the easiest way to find them is through Amazon. My Only Sunshine, available on paperback and Kindle also in Kindle unlimited, Even Though It's Breaking will be in those formats as well. And pre-order for ebook is currently available. I also have my book is set up through Ingram spark so other retailers can purchase it. So it's available in some local bookstores if you're out in the right county area. And then I just found out a couple weeks ago, it's on Target.com. So an indie author at Target.com and I'm not falling over. What? So Target.com, it's on Barnes & Noble.com. Probably some other places. I think Book Depository has it too, but yeah. So it's out there. Just, you can also check my website, which is linked in my Link in bio, on my profile. So...
Chrissy Holm (38:35):
Fabulous. Oh, that's... I know I keep getting excited, but this is so awesome.
Shannon Jump (38:41):
That. Thank you.
Chrissy Holm (38:42):
Yes. Thank you so much, Shannon. Thank you so much for being here for answering these questions. I've got to get My Only Sunshine I've read the cover or whatever the back cover like so many times. And I, now I just got to get it. And now off the pre-order your other book as well. So I appreciate you Shannon and thanks again.
Shannon Jump (39:00):
Thanks for having me. This was so fun and your questions were awesome and truly, I hope all of your author interviews go as well as this. This was great.
Chrissy Holm (39:09):
Fabulous. Thanks so much, Shannon. Have a wonderful evening.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Bye Everyone.
Shannon Jump (39:14):
You too. Bye.
Chrissy Holm (39:15):
Bye. Want to learn more about the world of writers? Subscribe to the nature of authors on your favorite podcast platform. Have a burning question you'd like to ask upcoming guests? Reach out at www.chrissyholm.com I'm Chrissy Holm. And until next time, keep reading, writing, spending time in nature, and dreaming up new worlds, my friend.
Comments