The Inside Scoop!

Janice Thompson

and her contemporary romance

Every Girl Gets Confused

Revell

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I grew up in… Houston, Texas. I’m a Texas girl, through and through!

I was inspired to write my first published novel by… reading Bobbsey Twins books in elementary school. My first book was a Bobbsey Twins adventure. (I knew nothing about plagiarism at the time, so I stole the characters and made them my own. I took them on an adventure to the seashore.)

The books that have most influenced my life are… The Heavenly Man by Paul Hattaway. I’m also very taken with a novel by Linda Nichols titled At the Scent of Water. Brilliant and touching.

My biggest challenge when writing is… Focus! I’m A.D.D. by nature, so staying focused is tough, especially with so many different things pulling at me at once.

One of my favourite authors is… Lisa Wingate. Why? She inspires me to be a better writer and to keep my stories fresh and unique. I admire her ability, of course, but I also admire her spirit and her great love for other writers.

If I wasn’t a writer, I would be… a baker. I run a bakery out of my home and put out hundreds of cakes, cupcakes and cookies a year!

The superhero talent I would love to have is… the ability to function without sleep. I’m halfway there already!

Every Girl Gets Confused

Katie Fisher and Brady James may be a match made in heaven, but that doesn’t seem to guarantee them a happily ever after accompanied by angelic choirs. In fact, the sounds being heard at the bridal shop where she works are on the contentious side lately, as a bride- and groom-to-be try to mediate the growing rivalry between their basketball-obsessed families in the middle of play-off season. On top of that, Katie’s parents are nagging her to get out of Dallas and come home to tiny Fairfield where her former boyfriend Carson is waiting for her, ready to rekindle their relationship. Oy vey! What’s a girl to do? And will she ever be able to wear that gorgeous wedding dress she won?

My latest novel can be described by these 5 adjectives… Fun. True-blue-Texan. Girly. Wedding-ish. (Is that a word?) Yummy.

My main character is… Hoping to experience her happily ever after. She’s motivated (at first) by the desire to get married. But her situation changes when she moves to Dallas and starts working at Cosmopolitan Bridal. At that point she realizes how foolish she’s been. She’s also very motivated by family. Family is everything to her!

My main characters resemble… I’d have to say that Katie probably resembles Reese Witherspoon’s character, Melanie Smooter, in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. She’s a small-town southern gal with blonde hair, freckles and a great love for sweet tea and DQ (Dairy Queen). My hero is a pro basketball player, strong in his faith. He’s a Tim Tebow (only on the basketball court).

A previously unknown fact about this novel is… it was inspired by my sweet octogenarian friend, Eleanor Clark, who lives in Fairfield, Texas. She’s the matriarch of her family and I wanted to pay homage to her with this story.

My story’s spiritual theme is… we don’t always know what’s coming around the next bend (and not knowing can be overwhelming) but we can grow in our faith when we let go and trust God.

While writing this novel I was challenged by… Our family has been through a lot over the past year. My youngest granddaughter (Jenna) was born with a neurological/muscular condition that makes it impossible to swallow liquids without aspirating. During the writing of this book we were hard at work, getting her on disability, finding proper doctors and getting the exome (genetic) testing she needed. None of this was easy, (and we still don’t have all of the answers we need) but the book got written and we are still moving forward with Jenna’s care. God is good.

The title was chosen by… This is the second book in a series, so the title had to go with the first book’s title. The publisher came up with this one, and I love it! It fits the story well.

As an author, the hardest scenes for me to write are… kissing scenes. Why? It’s too complicated to get into publicly, but I’ve been through a lot of heartbreak in my personal life, so writing the kissing scenes is tough.

The story I’m currently working on is… I’m about to dive into edits of the third/final book in the series: Every Bride Has Her Day. What a fun way to wrap up the series! Katie and Brady are planning for their big day, but chaos ensues!

You may not know this about me, but I… I have eight grandchildren. I know, I know. . .I don’t look like I could be old enough to have that many, but it’s true. They are the loves of my life. I adore them. They also provide great fodder for my stories.

If I could be a character in any novel, I would want to be… Scarlet O’Hara. I’m great at pushing things off till tomorrow.

Thank you, Janice!

Relz Reviewz Extras

Character spotlight on Tessa (Queen of the Waves)
Character spotlight on Kat and Scott (Stars Collide)
Reviews of The Icing on the Cake, Picture Perfect, The Director’s Cut, Hello, Hollywood, It Had to Be You, Fools Rush In and Swinging on A Star
Character spotlight on Bella & DJ

Get to know Janice
Visit Janice’s website

Buy at Amazon: Every Girl Gets Confused or Koorong

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