Sunday Jenks received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Nellie Hill.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The book’s title is Sunday Jenks. It was published in September 2024.
What’s the book’s first line?
The book’s first line is “Sara Demcott knocked on the orange door and cautiously entered a little hole-in-the-wall office on California Street.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The book is about people and why he or she does what he or she do. What for, and where is it leading us?
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
My inspiration came from several people I’d met here and there who began to grow on me. I found myself imitating them on my walks and talking in each of their voices, using each person’s mode of speaking. Eventually, back at my desk, I began to write down the scenes as they came to me.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
Reading this book might give the reader the benefit of an adventure that the reader might otherwise never have allowed him or herself to experience.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who — real or fictional — would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character is too distinctive to remind me of anyone else in particular. I practiced imitating the two main characters—the way each one walked and how each one talked. They became real people in my mind.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I never decided to become an author. I began writing stories in my early grade-school years. My mother was very supportive and typed them out for me. She sent one of them to Jack and Jill, a children’s magazine. That was my first rejection. I didn’t take it personally, although I wondered why they didn’t want it. My mother encouraged me to write stories for my younger sisters on their birthdays. She also had the idea for a newspaper with drawings and reports for my father’s summer birthdays.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
Sunday Jenks is the first novel I’ve completed. I have a memoir that is still in manuscript form. I have several chapbooks of poetry. However, I didn’t set out to have a chapbook. At some point, I gathered together some poems, gave each collection a title, and sent each to sites that published small books of poetry.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’ve had an acupressure practice for several decades.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
That is a confusing question. I spend a lot of time walking. During my walks, some aspect or other of writing comes to me. In the past, I’d write down these random flashes of ideas or the emotions of characters, but I found those notes distracting. So, I began to keep the feeling and words coupled with the rythms inside until something or other burst forth, and I’d then begin the story or the poem or sometimes the novel.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie author?
The best part of being an indie author is the open communication with the various editors because that often involves true discussion, which leads to understandings and supportive agreements that are inevitably forward moving with editing and production.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
I wish I had advice.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I can’t say what I’d do if a traditional publisher came calling because that hasn’t happened. If it did happen, I’d have to go for a walk and search my mind.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)?
My main motivation is to get the story or the poem out there and into the world for readers.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
There are too many to itemize.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
That is a question for which I have no answer.