Episode 69
When Real Life Inspires Fiction
Jill Hannah Anderson first began writing in eighth grade when a friend gave her a large notebook with Donny Osmund on the cover. She started using it as a diary, and added several more diary notebooks over the years. She also started writing notes for stories in notebooks. Cruddy, haphazard plot ideas… but the writing bug had burrowed in.
Then “life” happened. Marriage, kids, owning a business, and a day job. She took a few writing classes, and in 2006, when she was at the busiest point in her life, she stumbled upon a women’s magazine that she wanted to write for. While working full-time at a Communications company, part-time bartending (to help with her eldest daughter’s upcoming wedding and three more kids in college), and training for her first half-marathon, Jill wrote the first of thirty articles/stories for the Minnesota women’s magazine.
A few years later, shortly after the last of the kid’s graduated college and Jill quit bartending, her best friend was dying of cancer, and it planted a seed of a story in Jill’s head. The idea of losing your support system when you need them most transpired to become Jill’s first book, The to Hell and Back Club. Jill hit the writing ground running, wisely quitting the magazine side job after ten years and focusing on books. The following year, Crazy Little Town Called Love was released, and in 2022, A Life Unraveled was published.
Closer to Home debuted in March, and by the time this podcast is live, Jill will have submitted her fifth book to her publisher. She has been a proud member of WFWA (Women's Fiction Writers Association) from its early stages before it was an association, back when it was a Yahoo email group!
You can learn more about Jill on her website: www.jillhannahanderson.com and follow her on Facebook, the best social media place to get book updates from her: https://www.facebook.com/jillhannah.anderson/
Get your copy of Closer to Home here: https://amzn.to/3VEqiLN
or
support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of Closer to Home at https://bookshop.org/a/90599/9781958231432
A little about today's host-
Kristi Leonard is a modern Renaissance woman deeply rooted in the book world. When she's not immersed in crafting novels, she's orchestrating writing retreats through her business, Writers in the Wild, or lending her voice to non-fiction audiobooks. She leads the Women’s Fiction Writers Association as the president of the board, and interviews her writer pals as one of the hosts of the Author Express Podcast. She will start querying her first book in 2024.
Beyond the realm of words, Kristi embraces the Florida sunshine by hiking with her writer-hiker group and leisurely walks on the beach. She and her husband juggle a couple side businesses and take turns sharing the couch with their goofy Golden-doodle, Maddie. Kristi enjoys travel adventures with her twin sister and living vicariously through her grown children. You can learn more about her and connect at: https://linktr.ee/kristileonard.
Be sure to follow or subscribe to Author Express wherever you listen to podcasts and to follow us on Instagram @AuthorExpressPodcast
Learn more about our hosts, the guests we've had, and their books -
Transcript
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Kristi Leonard [: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, Kristi 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 [:Jill Hannah Anderson writes about women determined to reclaim their lives, stories of family, friendship, forgiveness, and fortitude. Jill lives on a lake in Minnesota where she and her husband love having their kids and grandkids come to visit. Jill's latest book, Closer to Home, will be out in March 2024. She's also the author of A Life Unraveled, Crazy Little Town Called Love, and The To-Hell-and-Back Club. When Jill isn't writing or reading, she enjoys curling and pickleball in the winter and golf and anything lake related in the summer, and time with their 16 grandkids. They're even better than chocolate, and she does love chocolate.
Kristi Leonard [:Welcome, Jill.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Thank you, Kristi. I'm glad to be here.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, my gosh. I'm so glad to have you. So, I have had the pleasure of knowing you for about 3 years from our online writing dates through the Women's Fiction Writers Association.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes.
Kristi Leonard [:It's hard to believe. 3 years we've been doing that.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I know. Thank goodness. It got me through this next book.
Kristi Leonard [:Did it? Did you do a lot of the writing during the write ins?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I did. I actually started this first draft for Closer to Home on November 1st of 2021, and signed up for the NaNoWriMo. And so, that's when I was on the Zoom sessions quite a bit, you know, because several of us were doing that. That's the only time I've done it, but that was a really good incentive to get a good chunk of that first draft done.
Kristi Leonard [:That's amazing. So, we always start with the same question. Tell me the most interesting thing about where you're from.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I grew up in the Twin Cities, but I have lived in the town I live in now for more than 40 years, and the population is less than the high school I attended. And because we live out of town, I honestly see more wildlife than I see people every day.
Kristi Leonard [:No way.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:We've had turkeys, bears, foxes, snapping turtles, just everything well, a ton of deer, obviously, in our yard all the time. We had a sandhill crane that was lost. I mean, it was trying to get in everybody's houses because it would see itself in the windows. It lost its mate. So, yeah. And we live at the end of a dead-end road, so I often don't see if I don't go anywhere, I don't see people for days.
Kristi Leonard [:Well, then good thing we had those write ins.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. Yes. And it's a good writing environment. I mean,
Kristi Leonard [:Your own personal retreat. And I believe you live on a lake. Am I right?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. We actually are on a lake and on the other side of our house is another lake. We're kind of on a little peninsula. So, you can see a lake from pretty much every window on our main floor. I love it. Except for in January, February, March, not as much.
Kristi Leonard [:No kidding. I can imagine. I bet it's still pretty beautiful.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:It is. It is.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. Do you have siblings?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I do. I have 3 brothers, and I'm the only one left in Minnesota. My dad, when he got out of the service when he was in Vietnam, we settled in Minnesota. I actually was born in California. And, over the years, all of my brothers have left, you know, for one reason or another, and my parents moved to Texas 2 years ago. So, somehow, me, the California girl, is the only one left in Minnesota.
Kristi Leonard [:So, how would one of your brothers describe you as a child?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Oh, dear. If you ask my older brother, I was a huge inconvenience.
Kristi Leonard [:So, where are you in the line?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I'm 2nd. 1 older brother, 2 younger brothers.
Kristi Leonard [:Got it. Okay.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:And my older brother kept on asking my mom when they were going to take me back to the hospital because I was really a crimp in his style.
Kristi Leonard [:I can imagine.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yeah. Now, we're really good friends, but he wanted nothing to do with me until he went in the service after high school.
Kristi Leonard [:Wow. And then you have 2 younger brothers. How would they describe you?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:They probably think I'm a little better because I babysat them a lot. They would probably find kinder words. I'm definitely the gabber.
Kristi Leonard [:The gabber. Well, you have a lot to say. You have 3 books out. How many more are you working on? I'm sure you've got many going on.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:My 5th one, my goal was to get it to the publisher March 1st, but that's been pushed back a little bit because of all these last-minute things with Closer to Home. So, I hope to get it to the publisher in March, though.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, that's amazing. So, now we get to the part that I really love to talk about, your book. I did get a chance to read it. It was so good. I really enjoyed Joleigh. What a great character.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Thank you.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. How would you summarize your book in one sentence so that everybody can catch up and know what we're talking about?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Well, I struggled with this. I had a hard time trying to come up with one sentence because the publisher wanted that for the cover of the book. And I'm throwing out everything under the sun, and finally, she took everything I was saying and came up with running from her past, she finds her future. So, that one line is actually on the cover of the book.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh, I like that.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:And it's a good description, because Joleigh is, she doesn't want to leave her comfort zone in Missouri because she struggled to find a home and finally found one. And then once she's forced to leave, she keeps on wanting to go back there until she realizes that's not her home anymore.
Kristi Leonard [:Wow. So, what do you hope that readers take away from reading your novel?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I have to say this was probably my favorite book to write so far, and it sounds crazy to say that I fell in love with the characters. I mean, I created them, but it's like, you know, any writer knows. They just show up, and it's weird. Like, oh, I just love, you know, I loved Bits. I love mister Nielsen. I loved Ruby. You know? And I think, well, I wouldn't even know where they came from other than Bits was loosely based on a kinship partner that I had years ago. She inspired and actually, I had Bits as a minor character in my second book, Crazy Little Town Called Love. She was in there initially. Very similar story to how she is in Closer to Home. But when I was trying to cut the story as with my talking, I talk this much and I only need this much, you know, for a book. And so, at the time, I had 2 critique partners through Women's Fiction Writers Association. And so, they were trying to help me cut words, and they both agreed that, well, Bits, even though they liked her in Crazy Little Town Called Love, she wasn't a necessary part of the story. So, I saved her, and she was perfect for Closer to Home. Joleigh needed Bits; Bits needed Joleigh. So, as far as what I want people to take away from the book is that you can find your people anywhere.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:You know, they don't have to be in your comfort zone. You know, maybe you need to leave your comfort zone to find the people you were meant to be with, and they don't have to be blood related. I think that's a lot of it. My 2 younger brothers are adopted, and so from, you know, the time I was young, my parents instill, you know, your family is not, I mean, I know a lot of blood related people that want nothing to do with each other, you know. So, I just want people to think about the possibilities that are out there and that there's a lot of good people everywhere, and Joleigh finds that.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. I know it's such a hopeful book. There's a lot of heavy stuff, but it is such a hopeful book that really resonated with me. So, another connection that we have, you and I, is that you were my writing mentor through the Women's Fiction Writers Association. I know everybody's figured out that that is our connection. So, this next question should be pretty easy. What do you want to tell others who are dreaming about writing a book? Because you've got lots of experience.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. And, actually, I started out I mean, I can go back quite a way. My first writing, I took some writing classes at night to our junior college nearby. Well, when I say nearby, it's an hour away because I live out in the middle of nowhere. But I did that at first because I always loved to write. I loved writing in high school. And anyway, so I did that, and then I took an online course for writing children's books. That was my initial plan.
Kristi Leonard [:Really? That's so awesome.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yep. And then I started writing for Minnesota Women's Magazine and that gave me the confidence to try writing a book. And, you know, that first book, you're not on a deadline, so, I mean, it took me a long time, and I was actually working a full-time job and a part time job then. So, it took a long time to get it done. But I think that's the thing. Don't give up, and don't expect that it's all going to come together in the 1st draft or second draft. And the game changer for me really was when I stumbled across Women's Fiction Writers Association because I found out about them when they were still a Yahoo loop. We were just in email loop.
Kristi Leonard [:Oh my gosh. Back at the beginning.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. Before we were even associated.
Kristi Leonard [:10 years ago.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. I found out because I was following a blog of Amy Sue Nathan's. And I didn't know her, but I emailed her. And I'm like, you're featuring books that are, like, what I want to write. They're not romance. Like, what are these? And so, then she told me about that Yahoo email loop, and she said, maybe you want to join it because they're going to form this association. So, I did, and, I mean, like, Mary Kubica was in there then. Her first book was going to be coming out. So, it must have been about 2011 or 12. And so, that was a game changer. I mean, that really was a game changer for me because I found my critique partners through there, and, you know, they have all of the online classes you can take. Because where I live, the nearest writing group, again, is an hour away and they would meet during the day and I was still working back then. So, I say for anybody that wants to write, find your group. Like,
Kristi Leonard [:Find community. Yeah.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Like we did. I absolutely could not have gotten anything done without WFWA.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. The community is pretty amazing.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. Supportive and informative and cheering, you know, each other on because it's so easy to give up. So easy.
Kristi Leonard [:Yeah. Absolutely. That's true. So, we always like to ask people where is the best place for folks to find you. I assume your website. And is that a good guess?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:My website, yes. But I would say the best place is my author Facebook page. Because everything, you know, any news that comes out is on there, far more often than I ever have my website updated. So, anytime that I'm posting, like, you know, when my print book will be available for pre order, anything like that, that news is going to be on Facebook. That's probably the number one place.
Kristi Leonard [:And do you have a newsletter?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I do have a newsletter. Yes.
Kristi Leonard [:So, if people wanted to get it more directly, they could go to the website and sign up for your newsletter.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Yes. Yes.
Kristi Leonard [:Okay. And then we always end with the question, what book or story inspires you the most?
Jill Hannah Anderson [:There are several that inspire me, but if I go back to what made me think I, little old me, could write a book I mean, because really, we all think that, like, we somehow imagine that these authors were somehow born with a pencil in their mouth, you know, that I mean, honestly. So, I think what did it for me well, the writing for the women's magazine and the response that I got for I think I've had 30 articles published, helped give me the confidence. But there's this author from Minnesota. She actually grew up in a town not that far from where I live now. Her name is LaVyrle Spencer. She was huge in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and then she retired from writing and I was devastated. I'm, like, how can you do that? But I would read about her in the newspaper and how she just started writing, you know, sat down in front of her typewriter, and she was just a normal person, you know, like me. And,
Kristi Leonard [:Right.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:And I loved her books, And I thought, well, if she can do it, why can't I?
Kristi Leonard [:That's right. Absolutely.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:So, I would say her books inspired me.
Kristi Leonard [:Her books. Yeah. Awesome. It has been a very quick 15 minutes.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:I can't believe we're done already.
Kristi Leonard [:We are at the end. I know. Isn't that crazy? We just get a little taste, and it's really nice for folks to dig in a little bit to who you are and a little bit about your book. And it's just been so great to chat with you, and hope everybody goes out and gets the book. It's really good.
Jill Hannah Anderson [:Thank you. Thank you so much, Kristi. I really appreciate it.
Kristi Leonard [:Absolutely. Thank you.
Kristi Leonard [: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.
