J. Bengtsson Interview Published on: 30, Jul 2018

I graduated college with a Communications degree but was lucky enough to be a stay-at-home-mom for twenty years. Once my second child went off to college, I started worrying about what I was going to do once my youngest (still three years left in high school at the time) left home. It never occurred to me that I’d become a writer as I’d never once considered it. In fact, I had no idea I could write until I did.

Honestly, I’m not much of a romance reader because I’m so picky about the characters in this genre. They have to be very real and relatable. I like wounded but functioning heroes and strong, funny, capable heroines. In other genres the character development isn’t as important to me but in romance, if I can’t relate to the characters right away, I won’t finish the book.

Family is my most enjoyable pastime. I love hanging out and laughing and talking. I also enjoy walks with my dog, online shopping, cruise ships, and watching The Bachelor/Bachelorette TV show for the past five years with my now twenty-one-year-old son. I like to tease him and say everything he knows about women comes from this show – he would beg to differ.

Only four – so far. Cake was released just over two years ago and I’ve been working hard to add onto the series. The good news is I’m not done yet. Eventually I’d like to write a story about all the siblings (Luke included) but, as you might know, I write long books so it will take some time to complete this series.

Aside from Cake: A Love Story, which was a breeze to write, each of the subsequent books have been a challenge for different reasons. The Theory Of Second Best (book two) was difficult because I wasn’t sure if I even knew how to write a book. Cake just flowed so naturally and there was no pressure so it seemed effortless. There was such high expectation for book two that it was a bit terrifying for me. Fiercely Emma (book three) was scary to write because she was probably the least liked character in the series but her point of view was necessary to advance the family’s story. And finally, Cake: The Newlyweds was hard because I was writing about loved characters and wanted to do right by them.

Just before writing Cake, I’d actually read a non-fiction story about a woman who was abducted as a child and I found it both fascinating and sad that she had to live with the stigma (and subsequent fame) of something so horrible - something she had no control over. That became the inspiration behind Jake.

With only one child left at home, I started reading because she was busy all the time. One day I read a bad rockstar romance and it bothered me so much that I decided I could do so much better. So just for fun, I wrote Cake: A Love Story. I didn’t tell anyone in my family I was writing the book, not even my husband, and when I finished, I released it on Amazon just to get some feedback on the story. I planned to pull it off Amazon once it got a review or two but then it unexpectedly took off and suddenly I had a new career I’d never planned on.

Once I finally told my family what I’d been up to (about a month after I released the book) they were completely shocked. The common response was, ‘I didn’t know you could write’ and my response was always, ‘neither did I.’ They are very supportive and proud of me now, although my kids are horrified that their mom writes sex scenes.

Even though I don’t read romance often, I love it if it’s done right. Everyone has different tastes in what they like to read but, for me, what’s important is feeling the connection. Too often I see the guy fall in love with the girl in a matter of minutes but for the life of me I can’t figure out what he sees in her. Why is she different than all the other pretty girls? Why is he different than all of the other hot guys? That’s what I want to read – their path to happiness. Striving to write what I consider to be the ‘perfect’ romance is what inspires me.

I grew up with brothers and have two boys of my own. I have a bit of a frat boy sense of humor myself and think I have an idea of what makes a guy tick (I’ve even been accused of being a male author in disguise more then once and I love that. It’s quite a compliment). The fact that I have a surprising number of male readers inspires me to get them sounding as authentic as possible. The female characters may seem easier to create but I actually find them more difficult. I’ve found that us women are often not as forgiving of other women as we are of males… and that goes for fictional women as well. Any perceived flaw can be very off-putting to female readers so I try hard to make my female characters as relatable and fun as possible while still allowing them to experience the giddiness and joy of falling in love.

My children are now 23, 21, and 18. My two oldest are boys and they have not, nor will they ever, read anything I write that contains a sex scene (their words, not mine-haha). My daughter has read the first two books but that’s only because several of her friends have been reading them (after I gave a talk at her high school) and she wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

Wow, I was so surprised and honored to get the nomination. I think back to two years ago and how much my life has changed in that time. Never could I have predicted such a thing to happen to me. It really is like my very own Cinderella story. I’m still wrapping my brain around the success this series has seen. People are so invested in the McKallister family and I love these characters as much as they do.

When I first wrote Emma in Cake, I knew there was more to her. Because of her age at the time of Jake’s abduction, I felt she would be the perfect person to focus on for the McKallister’s backstory. Some find her a difficult person to like but I think she’s just misunderstood. There are reasons for her chilly demeanor. She wants to be loved but due to circumstances from her youth, she’s afraid. I really loved Emma’s growth in this book but I also liked that she stayed true to her sarcastic, slightly OCD self.

Currently, I am working on a standalone novel unrelated to the McKallister clan. Once that’s complete (hopefully by the end of summer), I will go back to the Cake series and write another story on one of the siblings.