This week we are catching up with the fabulous J. Marie Rundquist. Are you ready?
Your tagline for authorship is “Different shapes of family and friendship, with a splash of love”. Can you expand on this a bit?
No one family looks the same as another. Some people are closest to their blood relatives, and many others have family they’ve formed throughout their lives. I love showing the importance of finding friends and family who will be your supports and for whom you will be their support. The “splash of love”? I think that part has many ways to be interpreted, and I enjoy including love in all its shapes.
Can you tell us a little about your newest novel- AS THOUGH YOU WERE MINE?
As Though You Were Mine is about a woman, Julie, who becomes guardian to her four year old twin niece and nephew after her brother and sister in law die in a car accident, and the the twist is that they’re actually biologically her children as she had donated eggs to her sister-in-law to help them conceived via IVF. It explores unexpected parenthood and complicated family relationships amid the myriad ways different people experience grief.
Were any of your own personal beliefs challenged as you worked through the research or writing of the novel?
I’m sort of an agnostic person when it comes to structured religion. I have characters who have what I consider to be more rigid religious beliefs which were in conflict with their family members. Yet I didn’t want to portray those characters as villains. At the same time, Julie, the main character, isn’t without faith, but her brother’s behaviors as an adult color her convictions. This book is not a religious story at all, but those were issues that arose that offered me a challenge on how to balance my personal beliefs against my characters’ and also avoid one-dimensional characters.
What would you say is your biggest strength as a writer?
Someone recently told me this: ““You create characters that make me reflect on my own biases and imagined reactions to situations. I appreciate these characters and their flaws and their understanding…You did it in As Though You Were Mine, too. I can honestly say I’ve never read characters as diverse as the ones you create. It’s all so thoughtful.”
It’s probably one of the best things I’ve heard about my writing and definitely something I strive for as create worlds that look like the one I live in.
Your debut novel, ALL I’M ASKING, was self-published, and your newest work, AS THOUGH YOU WERE MINE, is traditionally published. Why did you decide to make the switch, and what are the pros and cons you’d offer to authors asking that question?
Every author has to find the best path for themselves and a lot of that depends upon goals. My goal has simply been to get my stories out into the world and self-publishing was (and will continue to be) the best way forward for me to do at this point in time. Will I traditionally publish again? Will I seek a new agent again? Maybe! But then again, maybe not. The pros to self-publishing mostly lie in direct control–story, timeline, cover, pricing, etc. The pros I see to traditionally publishing include full package support for editing/development, design, formatting, and marketing support (although marketing still lands mostly on the author, no matter the publisher). My advice: examine your goals and then do the research.
How can readers stay in touch with you and follow you?
While I am on Facebook (J. Marie Rundquist, Author) and Instagram and Threads (ProfeJMarie), the very best way to follow me and get extra stories and info is through my newsletter. Readers can sign up through my website: https://jmarierundquist.com