YANKEE IN ATLANTA - Jocelyn Green

Welcome back, Jocelyn. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?

Oh my, has He ever! Right now I’m finishing up the manuscript for the tenth book in five years, and I’m nearly gasping for breath. This is the first time in several years that I don’t have another deadline looming. I’m looking forward to a bit of a break from writing to spend time with my family and to re-evaluate where I should invest my writing energies in the future. I’ve done six nonfiction and four novels (the fourth is coming March 2015), and I can honestly say I love both genres, but for very different reasons. I’m not ready to give up either one of them.

I want to schedule that book on my blog, too. Tell us a little about your family.
I’m married to the most supportive husband a writer mama could ever ask for. J Rob is the Web developer for the University of Northern Iowa library (starting August 11!) and is also in grad school for a master’s in Instructional Technology. Our 8-year-old daughter loves to read, ride her bike, write stories, and play violin. Our 5-year-old son loves anything with wheels on it and is more athletic than my husband and I combined. I home school the kids, and we are looking forward to a great school year ahead!

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?
Yes. I read a wider variety of genres and authors now, looking for new and different ways to tell stories. It also broadens my vocabulary! I underline and scribble in the margins of whatever I’m reading, normally in appreciation for a shining passage. If I’m reading on Kindle, I’ll highlight whatever strikes me. I also read more with a view to get a better grasp on human psychology and character motivations. I’m very blessed that reading good books is professional development for my career as a writer.

I love that part of writing as well. What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m writing the final chapter of Spy of Richmond! It’s the fourth and final book in my Heroines Behind the Lines Civil War series, and will release in March.

What outside interests do you have?
I enjoy gardening, baking, knitting, and scrapbooking, although I haven’t had much time to do those things these last few years. Maybe after Spy is turned in! But as a home schooling mom, I’m also very invested in my kids’ education. I’m excited to teach a history class to girls this fall through our home school co-op, and I’m also on the board of a new troop of American Heritage Girls we’re starting in our area.

How do you choose your settings for each book?
With my Civil War series, I chose the roles women played during the war first, and the settings fell into place. Wedded to War was about the first band of trained professional nurses, so that took place in New York City and Washington. I wanted to also show how civilian women were affected by battles close to home, so Gettysburg was a great setting for book 2. Yankee in Atlanta combines two different roles—that of the female soldier, and the secret Unionist in Atlanta. I chose Richmond for the setting of Spy of Richmond because the most famous spy for the Union lived there on Church Hill. My heroine, Sophie Kent, works in that spy network.

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?
Abigail Adams. She was such a strong woman, and influenced her husband and thereby the country during an extremely tumultuous time, while mothering her children.

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?
That it would require far, far more time and energy than any nonfiction book I’ve ever worked on!

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?
Yesterday I told someone that I really hate conflict, and I feel awful when I have to do something really mean to my characters. Sometimes I even feel physically ill, and once I cried. “But,” I explained, “the characters would have no need to rely on God if their lives were easy. Or they need the trials to refine their character and strengthen their faith.” After that conversation, I realized how much this sounds like God. He never throws disaster at us just for fun, and I believe He weeps when we weep. But He doesn’t waste the valleys. The pain is for a purpose. He knows the end of our story, and He is faithful to take us through the steps to get us there.

That is so true. I spoke on that at the North Texas Indie Christian Authors meeting this weekend. What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?
Read, read, read. Work on your craft even when you’re not in the mood. Find creative ways to market—and one way to do this is by joining associations that foster cooperative efforts.

Tell us about the featured book.

In Yankee in Atlanta, Caitlin McKae hides from her past to find a future—and lands on enemy soil. When Caitlin wakes up in Atlanta after being wounded in battle, the Georgian doctor who treats her believes Caitlin’s only secret is that she had been fighting for the South disguised as a man. In order to avoid arrest or worse, Caitlin hides her true identity and makes a new life for herself in Atlanta as a governess for the daughter of Noah Becker—on the brink of his enlistment with the Rebel army. Though starvation rules, and Sherman rages, she will not run again. In a land shattered by strife and suffering, a Union veteran and a Rebel soldier test the limits of loyalty and discover the courage to survive.

Please give us the first page of the book.
Saturday, May 31, 1862

The Virginia Peninsula

Not now. Please, not now. Rebel bullets ripped through the sulfurous fog hovering above Caitlin McKae’s head. Her middle cramping violently, she prayed her anguished bowels would not betray her. Not now.

“Don’t let them take my leg, please! I’d rather die on the field!”

“We’re getting you out of here, Marty!” Caitlin fairly shouted as she and the other three stretcher bearers carried the wounded soldier a quarter mile to the rear. Sweat poured from beneath her kepi and itched across her tightly bound torso. River water from the rain-swollen Chickahominy soaked through her brogans, and she faltered more than once in the red clay quagmire.

Head pounding like a fusillade, Cailtin slogged back through the mud to pluck more wounded comrades from the spongy earth. She scrambled after the other stretcher bearers and wondered how long this desperate battle for Richmond had lasted so far. Had an hour passed? Two hours? Three? Suddenly spent, Caitlin doubled over, gripping her knees. Her stomach heaved, though it had no contents to vacate.

But her body wasn’t through. Her insides churning, Caitlin was left with no choice but to break away to the furthest pine tree she could make it to and find relief in relative privacy behind its trunk.

Before she could reach it, a lead ball tore through her arm. The twisting pain in her middle paled as fire blazed through her right bicep. The bullet had ripped completely through.

As she dropped to her knees, Caitlin’s thundering pulse dimmed the sounds of battle. With fumbling fingers, she unbuttoned her jacket with her left hand, wriggled free of it, and wrapped it around her bloody shirtsleeve. I could go back. I can still hold the stretcher with my left hand. But she couldn’t. Strength sapped from her body, her limbs felt as though they’d been filled with lead.

Flat on her back now, Caitlin tried to steady her breathing. The sky is still blue, she told herself. Somewhere, far above me, where bullets cannot reach and cries cannot be heard, the sky is still blue. The haze of gunsmoke thinned, and she caught a glimpse of Professor Lowe’s balloon Intrepid hovering in the sky, with Lowe inside, reporting Confederate troop movements to General McClellan. Her eyelids drifted closed and she imagined herself there. But if I were, I would cut the lines tethering it to the ground and sail away, far away from war and disease and death. If only it weren’t for Jack. Her thoughts trailed away, into a blank expanse as welcoming as the sky.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

www.jocelyngreen.com

www.heroinesbehindthelines.com

www.facebook.com/jocelyngreenauthor

www.pinterest.com/jocelyngreen77

Thank you, Jocelyn, for sharing this new book with us. I will start reading it today.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Yankee in Atlanta - Christianbook.com
Yankee in Atlanta (Heroines Behind the Lines) - Amazon
Yankee in Atlanta (Heroines Behind the Lines) - Kindle

Christian Book Store

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