Jacqueline P. Walker Interview Published on: 10, Jan 2024

I miss the sense of community, living in a small neighborhood where everyone knew everyone, shared resources and helped each other.

I embarked on this effort due to a job change and my recognition of the need to validate or attest to my knowledge/skills versus merely relying on my work history or job experience. The effort influenced my career as an author because it made me take more time to focus on balancing my work to consist equally of a strong technical structure and a creative/inspirational message.

Psychology has helped me gain insight into personalities and character traits. English (literature) contributed to the structural “know-how” of crafting stories. Communication arts influenced my recognition of how others interpret or receive information and feedback. The three together have been critical in weaving storylines that meet current interests, using characters that others can relate to, using language, or delivering a message that is easily understood.

I was initially inspired to write to share my culture, heritage, and legacy to encourage future generations of my family and others to persevere despite trials and build bridges across our cultures and backgrounds. Also, I like seeing others overcome and succeed — being resilient. My books always have an air of resilience and include a touch of my cultural influences.

I am from a very close-knit Jamaican family, and at many of our family gatherings throughout my life, we heard stories of family experiences, failures, accomplishments, challenges, and history from the preceding generations. These stories gave me insight into their journey — good and bad. They also helped to prepare me to handle trials, accept responsibility, work hard, and build relationships. Through this experience, I was entertained, encouraged and educated, and now endeavor to do the same for the coming generations.

Every professional certification has enhanced my writing my giving me a foundation to use in crafting either the career of my character or identifying how best to depict or demonstrate events or activities for readers through my words. These certificates have also been useful in my effort o handle the “business” of authorship in promoting my work, planning for launch, and analyzing cost of my work or sales.

I don’t have a particular routine or habit. I do jot down notes most everywhere I can as ideas come to me or I see/hear something interesting that I want to explore in my writing. Daydreaming is the best thing to get me into the creative zone. Fleeing reality (for a moment) and letting my mind wander helps me to explore ideas, and identify topics for my work.

A Season of Disruption is a memoir. I changed character names and names of the cities and towns, but the events are written exactly as they occurred. This work was envisioned as a gift to honor my mother and to pass down her legacy for generations to come so they better understood their heritage and the foundation she built for this family. But the work also gives others great insight into the Jamaican culture and allows others to relate similarities from their own cultures as well as better understand the differences.

My biggest challenge as a self-published author is in marketing. It has been difficult getting my work widely circulated or recognized. I do find that partnering with other authors who write in a similar genre or use a similar voice is helpful as it allows us to “cross-market” and expose our following to each other’s work to build our base of readers.

Ensure you are meticulous about getting professional editing. Also, using beta readers to get reaction before you publish can help with knowing if the story is marketable. I would also advise upcoming self published authors to focus on upfront launch planning. Having a plan in place and executing it can make all the difference in getting sales, interest, and readers.

As a child, my father had us memorize song lyrics that included the following: “ No Man Is An Island, No Man Stands Alone; Each Man’s Joy Is Joy To Me, Each Man’s Grief Is My Own.” I am not sure who wrote the lyrics, but I know they stuck with me for life. I developed a true caring and concern for the community and others that was fostered by my membership with Alpha Kappa Alpha and other organizations. The thought of the needs of others is a thread that also permeates my work as you will find characters who struggle, some who reveal selfish traits (making us all reconsider our own decisions and choices), and some who set the standard of kindness that many of us wish to attain.

I don’t have an author or book that impacted my writing style. But, the author who spurred my writing interest years ago is the great Langston Hughes. I admire him for writing and expressing himself in the manner that he was comfortable with and not simply writing to please the critics or those with power in the industry. I would also mention that Terry McMillan’s ability to depict “real-life” as I knew, understood, and could relate influenced me to tell my stories from my perspective, wrapping my culture and experience together to weave tales that entertain, encourage, and educate.

My diverse academic background allows me to use strong technical, analytical, and creative mechanisms to craft work that:

Captures the public interest because it hits the pulse of what is happening or things we are concerned about.
Consists of a storyline that is organized, well-structured, written, and edited.

In the coming year, I plan to continue developing inspirational posts or blogs that fuel resilience. I am also working on a children’s book to encourage the “storytelling” habit in youth. Additionally, I am also working on a novel that draws from my professional trials and successes, the complexities I’ve experienced or witnessed in family and personal relationships and reflects the lasting outcomes (good and bad) of our choices.

All Author has been extremely supportive and active in promoting my work. The platform has introduced me to many new writers and allowed me to showcase my efforts to build my following and grow my readership.