Interview with Jennifer Wilck

Hello Contemporary Author Jennifer Wilck! Welcome to Coffee Time Romance and More! Thank you so much for dropping by to talk to us about your book Miriam’s Surrender, book two in your Women of Valor series.

Thank you so much for having me here!

Let’s start off by letting you tell us about this book. What is it about?

Miriam’s Surrender is the story of two people who need to discover the freedom of letting go in order to let love into their lives. Here’s the blurb, to give you some more information:

Josh Lowenstein is a successful architect, hired to redesign the alumni club of a posh, private school in New York. He is strong, capable and knows the best way to do everything. Except let another woman in.

Miriam Goldberg is the Assistant Director of Outreach, and is Josh’s day-to-day contact for the redesign. She’s taken care of everyone around her, and forgotten how to let someone else take care of her.

With a tumultuous history, neither one is prepared to work together. As they get to know each other, the animosity disappears, but Josh is hiding something from Miriam and its discovery has the possibility of destroying their relationship. Only when they are both able to let the other in, and release some of the control they exert over everything, will they be able to see if their love can survive.

I got the opportunity to read Miriam’s Surrender, and I really enjoyed it! Where did you get the idea for this book?

Thanks for taking the time to read it. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Well, my idea for this book, and the rest of the books in the series, came from my knowledge of Jewish holidays. The holidays all have different themes to them. For instance, one of the themes of Purim is about hiding one’s identity. For Passover, which is the holiday found in Miriam’s Surrender, it’s about freedom and starting over. As I looked at all of these themes, I thought they would lend themselves really well to romances.

I like that the characters in the story are Jewish. I liked reading about their preparations for Passover. If you don’t mind us asking, are you Jewish?

Yes, I am Jewish and I don’t mind you asking. There aren’t a lot of romances that involve Jewish characters, especially if you ignore the Chick Lit category, which I don’t write. I’ve read mysteries with them—Faye Kellerman is one of my favorites—and the Jewish aspect is blended in seamlessly into the stories. That’s what I wanted to do when I decided to write this series.

I think you did a great job blending in the Jewish aspect. Is there a message in your story for readers?

Well, I don’t believe anyone should have to change who they are for someone else. That being said, I do think it’s necessary to bend a little, compromise a lot and learn to trust the other person. I hope I was able to show readers how my characters did that.

And I guess the other message for readers is regarding diversity in books, and how it’s interesting to read about all different kinds of people.

That is a great message!

The hero and heroine shared Type A personalities. That struggle for control made for some tense scenes. What personality type are you? How are you like Miriam, or would you say that you’re not like her at all?

No, not at all. Part of the reason for that is that both of them were secondary characters in the first book in the series, The Seduction of Esther, and I knew I wanted them to get together in the second book. I just didn’t think through how difficult it might be to get them both to bend. J

I’m pretty much a Type A personality, too. Not that Miriam is me, but I was able to portray her characteristics based on how I thought I might react in similar situations. I think I’m less rigid than she is, though, and hopefully not as much of a control freak! Please don’t ask my husband that question, though.

I won’t ask your husband, as long as you don’t ask mine! Lol!

What authors have influenced you as a writer?

I love the descriptions both of scenery and emotions that Lynn Kurland writes. Faye Kellerman for her Jewish characters. And Judith McNaught for some of her humor.

What is a typical day like for you?

Well, I have two teenage girls who leave for school early in the morning (despite their best efforts to convince me to let them stay home). When the weather cooperates and meets my ideal conditions, I meet up with a friend and we walk our dogs around the lake. Otherwise I go back to bed for a little while as I’m not a morning person. Once I’m up and ready, I do a few errands and then sit and write or edit until my girls come home. Then I’m overseeing homework, driving them to activities and getting dinner ready. If I can, I get a little more writing or promoting in. Then I relax at night with my husband, watching TV or reading.

What do you see as your biggest challenge as a writer? What part of writing do you love the most?

Motivation is a big challenge for me, as well as keeping up my confidence. There’s always a part of me that thinks I’m not good enough to be doing this, so I really just have to plow through that and sit and write. My critique partners are great motivators and they help me solve problems when I get stuck.

The part I love the most is getting to disappear into my characters’ worlds.

I think we can all relate to having doubts from time to time. I’m glad you have a support system.

What are you working on now? Do you have an upcoming release you would like to tell us about?

Well, I’m working on Book 3 in my Women of Valor series right now. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a title for it, which is odd for me, because I usually have the title almost from the beginning. But this time, I’m stuck and hoping I can come up with something soon. It’s going to include the holiday of Rosh Hashanah and the characters meet while speed dating, which was so much fun to research!

I’m also working on a single title contemporary small town romance, not Jewish, that includes this gorgeous Victorian mansion I walked through, but that’s in the early stages yet.

We’ll look forward to those! Again, let me say thank you for dropping by. I truly appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.

I was happy to do so! Your questions were great and I loved answering them. Thanks again for having me here.