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Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:03

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Christy Leonard, owner and host of Writers in the Wild Retreats, nonfiction voice over artist, and president of WFWA. I'm excited to share with you a little about today's guest.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:00:35

Jen Sinclair writes contemporary fiction that explores complicated relationships, love, loss, and the messiness of life. Jen is a freelance writer who lives in Saint Augustine, Florida with her husband, kids, and spoiled puppy. When she isn't working out story elements, belting out songs from one of her many Spotify playlists, or having conversations with imaginary friends, she enjoys spending time outside walking beaches and trails, paddling waterways, or driving around with the top off her Jeep. There's Always a Price is her first novel. Welcome, Jen Sinclair. Hi. Thank you. Oh my gosh.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:01:15

I am so privileged to have walked some of those beaches and trails with you as part of the writer hikers.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:01:22

Yes. I know. It's weird to think that we've known each other for you've known me through this whole process now.

Kristi Leonard[: 00:01:27

I know. I know. I'm even more excited to talk about your first book. This is so exciting. So we always start with the same question. Tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from, and it can be where you're originally from, someplace you've lived.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:01:45

I'll give you a couple. So my I'm originally from a little town in New Jersey called Toms River. It is not so little anymore. Most people know it because if they watched MTV, they know the Jersey Shore was filmed a few miles away. Our little league team usually is one of the best, and Amityville Horror was also filmed. So those are Tom Germany Jersey's claims to fame. As of now, I would one day like to be hopefully known as a claim to fame for Tom's Germany Jersey.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:19

There you go. Excellent. I love that. Well, Jersey Shore. I don't think I ever watched that, I'll be honest.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:02:27

Yeah. I didn't either, but I lived it. Like, it was very but Seaside Heights, anybody who's ever been there and has lived there will be like, is yep. That's what it was.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:02:41

Wow. Okay. So let's get to know you a little bit. This is gonna be a hard question, but hopefully, you're gonna rise to the occasion. If you could go back in time and observe any moment in your life, what moment would it be? And I'm assuming you're a writer, so it potentially could be fodder for, you know, writing a story.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:03:01

I think I would like to go back to when I was very, very little because I was the I'm the youngest of 5 kids, and I'm the youngest by a lot. My oldest sister got married, and my mom was pregnant with me. So there's a huge gap in our ages. So I spent a lot of time by myself as a kid. I was a latchkey kid. It was the eighties. Like, in New Jersey, my mom worked and right? At home when I was 9 and was home by myself all day. No cell phone.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:03:29

So I think I'd like to go back. I was so much more confident in my creativity. I had zero fear of making my friends perform plays that I wrote. We made up dances, and I was totally fearless. Like, I made my family sit down and watch any number of these things.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:03:49

Mhmm.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:03:50

As we get older and life kind of, you know, throws us curveballs, we kind of lose some of that fearlessness. And I would love to go back to when I was 5, 6, 7 and just see myself sitting in my room right with my dolls and making up stories and things for them to act out and just that whole like, I'm gonna call my friend Donna, and we're gonna totally put on a play. And we'll put it on we used to do stuff like in the front of my house, and people would walk by and clap. And we were like, yeah. Yeah. So I would love to go back and observe that because I'd like to absorb and appreciate that fearlessness I had Yes. At such a young age.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:04:28

Absolutely. I think that paints a pretty good picture of the storyteller that you are, for sure. Well, now let's get to the fun stuff. I wanna talk about your book. So I wrote a review. I think you actually quoted my review that described your book as sexy, emotional, and twisty.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:04:49

So for our listeners, how would you summarize the book in one sentence? We like to make things hard on this podcast.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:04:57

You do. You do. And I you know you know me from the past couple years, how many times we've talked about the books we're writing, and I always say, like, don't ask me. So I think I would summarize it. I'll just use the hook. When Cassie gets a job offer from her husband's powerful investor, she accepts it without really knowing that there's a secret deal between the 2 men that has nothing to do with business and everything to do with her. And that's the little twisty part.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:05:27

Well, I think that sounds pretty sexy, emotional, and twisty. I'll be honest. It's such a good book. So let's dig a little deeper into this book. What is an emotional or dramatic moment in your book that was particularly challenging for you to write?

Jen Sinclair [: 00:05:49

There were a couple, and there's one that happens 3 quarters of the way through. This book is told from 3 points of view, Cassie, who's the protagonist, and it's mainly her point of view, she takes up a 70% of the book, One of the points of view is Lucas. He's the morally gray character. You're not quite sure how to take him. You don't go into his point of view until towards the end, and that was intentional on my part because I want people to not understand him and to kind of have a preconceived notion of who he is and where he's coming from, from Cassie's view of him. And I think there's a scene with him at that last third mark of the book that was really hard to write. It was extremely emotional and I you probably know which one I'm talking about where he's just I do. Finally, like, confronts all of these things of from his past and he's trying to deal with it.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:06:48

And that was really hard to write, but I I felt really good about it. Like, when I was done with it, I worked on it, and I reworked on it, and I rewrote it. That was really hard to write, but it was so fulfilling once it was done. Like, I knew when it was done too. I was like, okay. Now we're done. And it did exactly what I wanted it to do, and I think it really works for the story.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:11

What would you say is the most rewarding part of finishing your manuscript? So how many books have you written? Now, obviously, this is the first one you're published, But how many books have you written? Like you have I'm sure you have some in a drawer. Right?

Jen Sinclair [: 00:07:24

I do.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:07:24

We all do.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:07:25

We all have those. I have, as of now, that I can think of, I've written 5 other books Mhmm. At some point in my life. My first one, you know, was my the one I did the summer between middle school and high school. I wrote an entire draft of a book.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:07:45

I think every person I've interviewed has one of those.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:07:48

Yeah, it was a detective mystery. But I still have that. Like, I have the printout of it because, of course, back then, it was floppy dry floppy disc. So impressed. And I saved the printout of it on dot matrix paper, and that's like the only copy of it. But, yeah, I've got 5 other books that I've written, and there is this was the one I guess it was not an obvious choice for me to release first, but it it was the one that was calling to me to work on more. You know, I actually started writing this book when I had outlined and planned to write a different book. And I had the whole outline done, and I was starting November national writing month.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:08:25

And I had this whole thing planned, and then all of a sudden, I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna write this one. This one's the one that was calling to me, and I I did it. I wrote this one. Instead. Yeah. After spending weeks outlining, I'm not a planner.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:39

Right.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:08:40

That's not part of my process, and I think part of it was I spent so much energy planning that book that it no longer had the magic, and this story had magic to it. And so it was the one.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:08:52

That is so awesome. Well, let's talk about your process a little bit. How do you find inspiration when you're feeling stuck or unmotivated?

Jen Sinclair [: 00:09:01

There's this whole thing that we've all heard of, right? All writers, everybody called write what you know. And I remember being in college and hearing my professors say that and being like, but I don't wanna write what I know, like, what do I know? I'm in college, like, what am I gonna do? Write college stuff. And I think as I've evolved and grown, I realized that's not a literal write what you know it can be sometimes. Right? Yeah. But it's more like write from your experiences. And those are so varied and it you know, you don't have to actually write let me I don't know what it's like to meet a billionaire bachelor. I don't know what it's like to live in New York City, but I can I know what it's like to feel locked, and I know what it's like to feel like I've made really bad choices, and I how am I gonna ever make good choices, like, not trusting myself? Like, I know how those things feel, and I know how it feels to lose somebody. So I think when I get stuck, I just have to kind of come at it.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:09:59

Okay. What am I trying to accomplish right now? And is there anything in this that I can draw from my own experiences to kind of move the needle a bit? And then usually, you know, it's a lot of thinking. It's a lot of darting out of the shower. Because like, you know, when you think about something too hard, it is that much more elusive. Yes. But in those moments where you're driving, or you're just about to fall asleep, or you're thinking of something else, a solution presents itself. Isn't that the truth? It is. Yeah.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:10:32

Tell me about habit, like a writing habit or a routine that you've developed that has been really effective for you. Like, do you have a writing group that you write with every day or something like that?

Jen Sinclair [: 00:10:44

I might have a writing group I write with. So before I joined Women's Fictions Writers Association, I just believed that I would be writing for myself, and writing was a hobby, and nobody would ever read it. And I was scared to death, like, to publish anything. I didn't want anybody to see anything. And you know this because you knew me at this evolution. You met me right as I had started publishing, like, my first personal essay. Which that wasn't long ago. So you I've gone from being scared to publish a personal essay to now be totally confident enough to publish a book.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:11:22

And I have to say that the only difference in me then and now is I have this group of women who I can rely on the rider hikers, you, Sheila, Madeline, tamp, like the OGs, and then Zoom meetings, which you and Sheila actually forced me into doing.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:11:43

Literally forced you. She was terrified. We were all together, and we were going to join this video Zoom right in. And she's like, no. I'm just gonna sit here. I'm not gonna get on the on the video. And we're like, that's ridiculous. And so we we forced her, and now she's the one Sheila and I rarely are on those write ins anymore, and she's the one who's on it every single day.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:12:07

I am. I'm on, like, 2 or 3 sessions. I know it's wild. And I it's something about just having that community and coworkers. And it gets me like, okay, I now is my time to work. Right. And there's so much to do as a writer that I didn't even know about until I I started exploring this path. And at any given one of those write ins, I could be working on a multitude of things.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:12:30

And so, yeah, those are like my coworkers. Everybody's kinda become a coworker. It's I love that.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:36

Never thought of it that way, coworkers. Yeah.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:12:39

Coworkers. Yeah.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:12:39

That's super great. So we are approaching 15 minutes if you can believe it. This goes by very fast. I have 80,000 more questions that I could ask you, but we do like people to be able to find you. So I believe you have a website. So is that the best place for people to find you?

Jen Sinclair [: 00:12:56

It is. Yeah. www.jensinclairwrites.com. There, you can find my book. You can find you can sign up for my newsletter, which I love putting out. You can find me on all social media. That's the one stop shop.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:08

And you have lots of articles that you've written, which are pretty awesome as well.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:13:13

Yeah. And I haven't done a personal essay in a while because I've been so focused on this. It's kinda hard to I am not a good multitasker.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:20

The last question that we ask everyone is what book or story inspires you?

Jen Sinclair [: 00:13:28

I will go with, like, a personal memory.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:31

Okay.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:13:32

For me, and that is my mom. So I had the chicken pox when I was in 1st grade, and my mom bought me little house on the prairie box set. Nice. My mom always read to me, and she worked hard. She worked 12 hours a day. She was not home during the day, but she was always home to tuck me in, and we had dinner. But I remember having chicken pox, and she bought me the box set, and she would come home on her lunch hour and read to me.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:13:59

Oh, that's so nice.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:14:01

And she would read to me. So I just always, like, I don't know. That memory always kind of comes back to me whenever I think of, like, you know, what is something? I love those books, and I just Yeah. I think part of why I love those books is because I love that whole I can still remember it very clearly. So inspires me.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:14:17

That is super awesome. Well, this has been quick, but it has been phenomenal, and I have so enjoyed having you on the show. I think the only one I haven't had on the show is Tammy of our little writer hiker group. So she's gotta get her next book published so I can get her on here.

Jen Sinclair [: 00:14:36

Right? Or, like, publish a special alternate ending to her current book.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:14:41

There you go. Something like that. It was lovely having you. Absolutely. Thank you.

Kristi Leonard [: 00:14:52

Thanks for joining us. We hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform, and we'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.