Jasinda Wilder interview

NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, WALL STREET JOURNAL and international bestselling author Jasinda Wilder is a Michigan native with a penchant for titillating tales about sexy men and strong women. Her bestselling titles include ALPHA, STRIPPED, WOUNDED, and the #1 Amazon and international bestseller FALLING INTO YOU. You can find her on her farm in Northern Michigan with her husband, author Jack Wilder, her six children and menagerie of animals.

As a multi-category romance author, in your opinion, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about the romance genre as a whole?

That romance is nothing but “genre fiction”, which is usually meant derogatorily, as if by writing mere genre fiction, we’re not serious authors and artists. We are. We put our hearts and souls into our books, our stories, our characters.

I’ve also made a bit of a career around defying rules. I killed the main character and love interest in the fourth chapter of Falling Into You; my characters are often shown engaging in sex with more than one character in the same novel—this is always part of their journey, but it’s shown, not just hinted at, another no-no in the romance rule book.

What’s the best line from a book, movie or TV show that you wish you wrote?
I’m really not sure I could pick just one.

​Jack and I both really love the movie P.S. I Love You, and there’s this exchange between Hillary Swank and Harry Connick Jr., whom I absolutely LOVE, and this scene, it’s just…I don’t know. It’s just soooo good, but not in the way you’d expect.

Source from below text:

Daniel Connelly: You've been thinking about me?

Holly Kennedy: Because you've been a real friend through all this.

Daniel Connelly: Have you ever thought of me in the nude?

Holly Kennedy: [laughing] No.

Daniel Connelly: Not even with my shirt off?

Holly Kennedy: [still laughing] Gerry, stop it.

Daniel Connelly: Daniel, I'm Daniel, are you ever gonna feel the way you felt about Gerry with anyone else, or do you need one of your letters to figure that out?

[He leaves]

Holly Kennedy: Where are you going?

Daniel Connelly: [He comes back] I really like you, but I can't be the Invisible Man. I'm tired of being the shoulder, I want to be another body part. I want to use up a woman so she's ruined for all other men.

Holly Kennedy: You don't want to do that.

Daniel Connelly: No, I don't want to do that. I want to date a woman who actually likes men, I want to be somebody's Gerry.

[He gets up to leave]
​
Daniel Connelly: Honestly, I don't blame you. It's not your fault, it's mine. I didn't plan on liking you, it just sort of happened that way, I'm sorry about that.

​​If Falling Into You were to be made into a movie, who would you want to play Nell, Colton and Kyle?
I’ve always wanted Amanda Seyfried for Nell. Who I want for Colt and Kyle changes, honestly. If I had any say, the music would all be done by the actual actors, not voice-over, so Colt would have to look the part AND sing. Now that he’s grown up and…erm…filled out a bit, Zac Efron could probably do a good Colt, even though he’s not really big enough to fit my mental image of that character, but we know he’s got the singing chops…Can Channing Tatum sing? Kyle I think would be best done by an unknown actor chosen to look sort of like whoever is playing Colt.

If you could co-author a book with anyone you haven’t worked with before, who would it be and why? (feel free to time-travel on this one—it can be any author, living or dead)
Oh boy. You don’t ask easy questions, LOL. I love Anne Rice. She’s such an incredible writer, she just has this magical prose and a way with philosophy and religion and the essence of life, and Lestat is just this iconic, classic character. I’d love to be able to work with her.  

Becoming a NYT and USA Today bestseller is no easy accomplishment. What advice do you have for all the authors and aspiring writers out there who hope to someday achieve your level of success?
Honestly, don’t think about those lists, hitting those marks. They don’t automatically sell more books, don’t gain you more fans. Hitting the NYT or USA Today is always this huge goal for authors, and it was for me, but once I hit it, I was like…oh. Um, okay? Now what? Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of those accomplishments, and there’s always a part of me that wants to be able to put “#1 NYT bestseller” on my books. But instead of pursuing that goal, I focus instead on writing the best story I can. I focus on my audience, on satisfying them and making them want more. So my advice is to focus on the next book, on the characters, on the prose.  

The zombie apocalypse has hit (as we all knew it would one day). Which TV or movie characters do you want as part of your crew? (no superheroes…that’s cheating)
Um, duh. Darryl, Michonne, Rick, Carol, Glen, Maggie, Abraham, Carl…the Walking Dead gang. If I had to pick just one, it would be Carol. She’s such a badass.

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