Interview with Author J.B. McGee

We had the pleasure of virtually sitting down with Author J.B. McGee. See what she had to say when asked some questions about her book. I think you'll enjoy the things she has shared.

                                                         
1. WSBB: What inspired you to write Skipping Stones?
    JB: I got really sick after I published Conspiring.  I had to have surgery and was bed bound for a good six weeks.  Towards the end of my recover when I was regaining some strength, there was a nice spring day and my husband, Chad, asked if I wanted to go on a picnic to Lake Lanier.  Even though I knew I needed to finish Forgiven, and I was tired and weak, I watched as my husband tried to teach my two boys how to skip stones.  Like their mother, they are challenged in this department.  It was at that time that I knew I had a special story.  I took pictures with my phone and just waited on the story to come to me.

2. WSBB: What inspired the This Series?
    JB: My life was the original inspiration.  I had originally planned to fictionalize some things I experienced, like meeting a boy at a wedding and thinking his sister was his girlfriend.  However, it didn’t take long before my timeline was pushed to the back of the notebook and the characters and story became their own.  Yeah, there’s still a lot of me in all my books, but those characters became their own people in my mind with their own unique story to be told.

3.WSBB: This Series gets picked up by Hollywood. Cast Bradley, Gabby, Veronica, Ian, and Lindsey.
   JB: Ha.  Bradley is most definitely David Gandy.  He wasn’t my muse because I didn’t know who he was when I wrote the book.  Bradley was a combination of Ian Somerhalder, Henry Cavill, and Collin Egglesfield.  I think David is just what I had envisioned in my mind.

I think that Lucy Hale would make a great Gabby.

Charlize Theron would be a great Veronica.

Luke Guldan as Ian.

Lindsey – Emma Stone

4.WSBB: Can you tell us a little bit about your current WIP?
   JB: I’m working on a companion to Skipping Stones.  When I wrote Skipping Stones, I planned for it to be a standalone, single book.  Then I kept hearing everyone saying they wanted to know more about Drew.  So while I was on the way to Pittsburgh for a signing, his story popped into my head.  These stories play in my mind like a movie I’ve seen before.  I started translating it when I got home, and I’m about 1/3 of the way through it.  It will also be a standalone, and you can get away with reading it without having read Skipping Stones, but of course, they complement each other nicely.

5. WSBB: What is your favorite food?
    JB: I have to pick one thing?  I love pretty much anything Italian.

6. WSBB: What is your favorite color?
    JB: Hot Pink

7. WSBB: Tell the readers the last book you read, and what you liked about it.
    JB: Making Faces by Amy Harmon.  Where to even start?  I think the thing that connected me most to the book is that Bailey in that book has Muscular Dystrophy.  My family (all four of us) have Mitochondrial Disease, and it’s very similar.  It was nice to read a book that I could so easily relate to, but also sad and scary in a way.  It was an epic love story, and I just can’t gush enough about it.  I had so much in common with Fern.

8. WSBB: What is your favorite movie?
    JB: It’s hard to name a favorite.  I would have to probably say Pretty Woman is my all-time favorite.  The Vow is a close second.  They are the two that come to my mind because I can watch them over and over and never get sick of them.  The Vow was the only movie I watched two times in a row ever.  I also loved The Proposal.

9. WSBB: If you could be a superhero, what would you be and why?
     JB: I’d be a fairy that could cure all childhood illnesses.  I’ve seen too many of my friends have to bury their babies because of Mitochondrial Disease and cancer.  Living with two children who have been sick their entire life and had multiple hospitalizations and procedures, it breaks my heart right in two to see them suffer.  I’d make them all better if I could.  All of them.

10. WSBB: What or whom inspired you to write?
      JB: The short answer is reading Fifty Shades of Grey got me back into reading.  Then several months later my own story popped into my mind.  I’ve always been a verbal story teller, often being told to hurry up and get to the point.  I was encouraged in college by my children’s literature professor to write children’s books.  I think deep down I’ve always been a writer, I just needed to figure it out for myself.

11. WSBB: Boxers, Boxer Briefs, or Tighty Whities?
      JB: I guess it depends because David Gandy can sport any of the above to an extent that makes my jaw end up on the floor.  LOL.  I would say I like them all, but tighty whities are my least favorite unless they are on him.

Case and Point...

12. WSBB: Skipping Stones is such a powerfully moving book. What do you hope the readers take away from it?
       JB: In one word, hope.  I hope that my readers always find light in the darkness.

13. WSBB: What is your biggest pet peeve?
       JB: People who don’t put their carts in the proper places at the grocery store…not in a parking place, not on the grass median, not in the crossed out part of a handicap parking place.  They belong in their special places.  You might have hit a nerve.

http://www.undeniableruth.com/2012/09/11/why-dont-people-return-their-shopping-carts/

14. WSBB: Where do you see yourself in five years as an author?
      JB:  This is hard.  I don’t know that I see myself necessarily anywhere.  What I hope and dream of is being a successful household name.  I don’t necessarily want fame. I just want my stories to have such an impact on people that they become passionate about them and read everything I put out there.  I want to be able to know that my family is financially okay.  I’d love to see Skipping Stones on the big screen.  I am grateful for what I have now, for what I’ve accomplished in a year.  I seriously feel like my cup runneth over. Anything extra is a bonus.

15.WSBB: Tell the readers your most favorite book, one that you've read more than once?
     JB: The only book I can remember reading more than once is Fifty Shades of Grey.  I found new stuff that I had missed each of the four times I read it.

16.WSBB: What is your greatest accomplishment to date?
     JB: Getting pregnant, staying pregnant, and taking care of my precious, special babies.

17.WSBB:  Describe for us what your writing cave is like?
     JB: It changes from time to time.  It’s been my kitchen table, the public library quiet room, and now it’s a desk in the sunroom that is open to my kitchen and living room.  It’s right in the middle of the house, the madness.  I like it, though.  I blast music and have my back turned to the hoodlums.    This way if a boy needs a hug, they walk up and tap me on the shoulder, usually scaring the living daylights out of me because I’m in another world.

18.WSBB: What is your favorite part about meeting fans?
     JB: Meeting fans.   LOL.  It’s all surreal.  The fact that people would take time out of their life, spend their hard earned money to not only buy my book, but to come to an event to see me, make these little books, shower me with gifts, it’s all such a tremendous blessing.  It is the biggest natural high.  I don’t know that I can explain how it feels.  It’s amazing.  I love being able to hug them, take pictures with them, and talk to them about books.

19.WSBB: Have you had a fan girl moment when meeting other authors?
     JB: Oh yeah.  I think my first was M. Leighton.  The day I got to sign sitting next to her was like an ultimate moment of achievement for me…like, wow, I’ve really done it.  Then I was in complete awe in Las Vegas.  I just kept thinking of Wayne’s World and doing the little thing with my hands saying, “I’m not worthy.”

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Skipping-Stones-J-B-McGee-ebook/dp/B00F8P3F8G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387321607&sr=1-1&keywords=skipping+stones

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Broken-This-J-B-McGee-ebook/dp/B009JFTSE6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387321728&sr=1-1&keywords=broken+jb+mcgee

Connect with J.B. McGee on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjbmcgee

Find all her titles on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6544571.J_B_McGee?from_search=true

Book Trailer for Skipping Stones: http://youtu.be/XeAsnhPqs14


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