Featured Interview With J.E. McDonald
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Saskatchewan Canada, and I still live there today with my husband and three girls. I often infuse my writing with my landscape, and readers will notice my love of rivers and open prairie in my writing.
We unfortunately don’t have any pets right now, it’s been a couple of years since we’ve had one, but my girls and I have been itching for a kitten for a while. We’ve just been waiting for my youngest to get to an age where she won’t be too rough. Once that happens, I’m sure all my social media accounts will become kitten spam accounts.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I really started reading voraciously around the age of eleven when I discovered Harlequins. My mother was always reading them, and I picked one up one day and couldn’t put it down. My love for romance hasn’t dwindled since then, even if I’ve expanded my tastes to include other genres as well.
I’ve always loved to write. In school I would have rather written a test full of essays than one with multiple choice. More than once when I didn’t know how to answer a math word problem, I would use the space provided to argue a point instead of solving the equation. It didn’t impress my math teachers, unfortunately.
I began to write novel-length stories in my late twenties and I can’t seem to quit the habit. The books in my series, the Wickwood Chronicles, are paranormal romances infused with humor, mystery, and a lot of steam. They take place in the fictional town of Wickwood where strange things happen to ordinary people, and it’s just getting weirder as the series goes on!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
It’s probably no surprise that my favorite genre is romance. I love all subgenres of romance, seriously all of them. Some of my favorite authors are Helen Hoang, Alyssa Cole, Sarah MacLean, and Kresley Cole just to name a few. There are so many good ones out there!
My biggest influence in the past was Julie Garwood. She was the first author I was exposed to who took me away with her writing, where I truly lost myself in a book. More recently, I would say Lisa Kleypas hits that same sweet spot. She writes books I can’t put down, then I end up going to bed at 3am by accident. I find her writing immersive, and that’s what I want to do with my readers, to just take them away to another place.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest release, Ghost of an Enchantment, features a witch named Stella who’s an energy reader. She’s had a string of bad luck lately, and just when she thinks it’s turning around, her best friend opens a portal to another dimension in their living room. Oops! Police are sent to investigate the noise disturbance. The officer who lands on her doorstep is none other than the hottie she met at the bar a week ago, a guy whose energy is so addictive she’d been obsessing about him. Now she’s got some explaining to do.
I love writing these sorts of mashups: comedy, romance, and paranormal. This one took me a bit longer to write because of the pandemic. Our whole routine changed at home and I had to shift my writing habits to accommodate. Overall, I think this one took me about seven months to get to my editor.
The next allotment in my series, Ghost of a Summoning, will be releasing September 14th, 2021. I’m very excited to introduce Roman to the world, a demon hunter with a prophecy to stop. He’s got an adorable sidekick and a penchant for super sweet coffee. I hope readers fall in love with him as much as I have.
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