Jeny Heckman Interview Published on: 27, Apr 2021

Pure creativity in general. I was taught creativity by my parents. My father taught me and my sister to draw at night, after he’d get home from work. My mom, encouraged imagination in amazing ways. For example, she sewed and had these Almond Roca tins full of buttons. We’d sit down and watch Happy Days or some other show, with our tin, and she’d say create a floor plan of your future house and we’d outline the house in buttons, or draw a face or the like.  When I think back on it as an adult, they gave us the gift of their creativity. Not many kids get that. I miss those simple times when anything and everything was at your disposal if you have a little creativity and your own creative mind.

I was a voracious reader. I read everything, all genres. When I was very little they had these Little Golden Books, and they came with a mini record (aka vinyl) in them. You could play the flimsy thing on your record player, as you learned to read by hearing the words and their tempo, while you looked at the words and pictures. Essentially using most of your senses except for taste. As an adult, I don’t get to read as much, just because I’m very busy, but I do listen to books on audio, when I drive up to our boat, or do chores, etc. It’s comforting two-fold, because I get to still experience the stories while bringing back a little of my childhood!

Great question I am a re-reader with books I love! Outlander, anything by Sophie Kinsella or Darynda Jones. In fact, most of my fantasy books I’ve read multiple times. You always pick up something different each time you read it, depending on where you’re at in life. I just re-read Agatha Christie’s, And Then There Were None. I hadn’t read that since I was young and forgotten who done it in the end. I was amazed at how brilliantly she spun that tale, for as old as it is. A true story-teller, and way ahead of her time.

I’m sure I’ve written a million stories in my head. My first official story was entitled, the Catch. I wrote it just to see if I could and at a very hard time in my family’s life (my father-in-law was dying of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma). I also had two teenagers who were also busy with school activities and sports, so sat on the book for a long time until my son told me I should publish it. I did. However, at the time, I didn’t really know the craft of writing and the book was full of mistakes. After I wrote a few more books and became a little more proficient, I went back to, the Catch, and re-wrote it. That book is now entitled, Releasing the Catch. I’m thrilled it has come full circle with story arcs better closed and the writing of it more solid.

Well, the Sea Archer was the second book I’d ever written and it was picked up by a publisher. Writing not only for yourself, is more challenging. I had to get rid of things I felt made the Greek mythology connections more clear and couldn’t choose my covers and the like. So, while it’s really wonderful having people to help guide me in the craft and process, it’s also more challenging to write. In terms of writing the book, it was very easy, and absolutely flowed out of me. I enjoyed the research and even went to Kauai to do research and learn about the seals, climate, and geography, so the writing came from a place of knowledge.

From the ending of the Sea Archer to releasing the Warrior’s Progeny took two years. A large chunk of that time was going through the editing process with my publisher and being on their timeline to release it. That being said, when I released the Sea Archer, I just spent two months in the UK and Ireland and that was a trip of a lifetime. It took me a while to settle down and start writing again. So, a large chunk of time was spent there as well. The actual writing of the second book took about three months.

So, Mack has a very special place in my heart. As I said earlier my father-in-law, Chuck Heckman, was in the final stages of his life and I helped take care of him for the last three months. He was a boater, a true water soul and love being out on the sea. My dad worked in Alaska during the summers growing up to work in some of the most remote fishing areas. My husband likes to think he’s an Alaskan after living there for several months before we were married and usually taking most jobs he can get there in our married life, as does my adult son, Charlie. My favorite show at the time was Deadliest Catch and my favorite captain was Phil Harris, who also died around the same time as Chuck. So, all these men, some to a huge degree and others less so, all churned in my mind, as did conversations I had with them. Aside from Phil, they were and are the most important men in my life. So, Mack is an amalgam of them all. There is an actual conversation in the book between Faith and Mack that occurred between myself and Chuck, almost verbatim. So, Mack is very important to me.

I have plotted out the entire series. However, I create plot points then how I get there can change. Often I will think I know where the story is going then a character will have a different opinion and switch things up. It’s fine with me and created some truly excellent scenes. As long as I hit my plot points I’m cool with the changes. So, to answer the question… both.

Wow, great question. I can tell you as a kid looking at the words, hearing them in my head via records and seeing pictures gave me greater retention when I was learning. However, as I got older definitely reading alone was probably the best way. If I enjoy a book, especially in my thirties and forties, I would actually buy the book on audio, after I’d created or envisioned the characters and events in my mind. If the narrator was good, it only intensified the people and circumstance as fleshed out and fully evolved things.

No! That was so fun. I never would’ve believed the second book I’d written in my life would be up for anything, let alone win something. It was terribly exciting. My daughter Paisley was with me. Her love for reading rivals if not betters my own, and it was so fun to share the experience with her. She’s the one that turned around and said, “Mom, you won, go up there.” I just got word the Warrior’s Progeny is now a semi-finalist in the Chanticleer awards and I’m hopeful it will do just as well. It won a Crowned Heart of Excellence from InD’Tale magazine and also up for a RONE award. Releasing the Catch was a finalist for the Feathered Quill award. It is really a heartfelt honored, and makes me so happy to know my stories are well received!

Well, I wrote four books. I’m an introvert and homebody, so Covid didn’t affect my day to day life all that much. However, my husband and I travel a lot, and do things on the evenings and weekends. So, in the wake of the shutdown, I had a lot more time to write. A friend and fellow Wild Rose Press author, Stephen King, from Australia, was part of the wildfires there in early 2020. He wanted to try and help raise money for the victims of the fires and asked our fellow, Roses, to submit short stories for an anthology. The support was so overwhelming, soon there was enough stories for three volumes. I wanted to help but struggled to find a story. I talked to my daughter who told me to write about Vegas. My family was in Vegas (four inside the concert and two inside Mandalay Bay) during the shooting at Route 91 in 2017. It’s our story from four different viewpoints and entitled, Dancing Through Tears, in volume two of the Australia Burns anthology. Wild Rose Press also published, the Warrior’s Progeny in July. Celtic Butterfly Publishing published, Releasing the Catch and August 4 th , 2021 will publish Dee’s Cornucopia. That one is a novella written at fan request for the beloved character of Dee Taylor from the Heaven & Earth series. It’s her life story before the series starts.

Wow! That is such a hard question because there are so many. In the fantasy world probably Harry Potter, because it redefined the genre and ignited a passion for the genre. Outlander is another one because it did the same thing for adults. Ann Rule made real-life horrors and evil become flesh and blood. Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult made happily ever afters uncertain. The Hunger Games gave new meaning to the word game- show. Jane Austen showed us love transcends time and is as relevant today as it was then. Actually, the answer is every book.

Write organically for your first draft. Just let everything you want to say flow out and onto the page. No matter how crazy, no matter how difficult it is to connect later, don’t worry about grammar or anything just get it out. Then piece it together for the second draft, and fine tune for the third. I loved that advice because it gives you the freedom to do what you love, which is write.

I am now working on book three of the Heaven & Earth series entitled, Soul Predilection about Aphrodite and Hades and their descendants. Dee’s Cornucopia will be out August 4 th and we have the Heaven & Earth companion book entitled, The Quest, coming out very soon.

It’s been fantastic! I’d love to win a cover challenge sometime, it’s one of my goals! I have truly loved and appreciated the support. The experience has been a gift.