MJ: (Smiles) Many things influenced my storyline. My love of history and fascination for this time period mostly inspired me. And World War II was also part of stories my maternal grandparents used to tell me as a child. So I guess it was only natural for me that one day I would write a romance story set in war time England and France.
Jody: MJ I saw you have a trailer, a video for Forever Yours, on YouTube. That is a great marketing tool. Can you talk a little about that? What company did you hire, or maybe you completed it yourself?
MJ: Sure. Well, I saw that many of my fellow authors used this method. So, I created a video for my book. Basically, I took a PDF file creator and put images together with a brief synopsis of my book, and mixed in romantic background music.
Jody:You worked with Eloquent Books out of New York. Is your book considered self-published? What promotion tools did Eloquent Books include with your book price?
MJ: My book is a Joint Venture which is a non-traditional option for new authors. This means that I share with Eloquent Books the decisions and profits for my book. They offer many promotion tools such as organizing book signings, search engine optimization, Amazon listing, etc.
Jody: Your Heroine, Liz Williams, is a female pilot in Forever Yours. This was highly unusual for this era. Did your research lead you to find female R.A.F. pilots during WWII and if so, could you tell us a little about them? ( Refill on your tea?)
MJ: (Thank you for the refill on my tea.) I knew the RAF used female pilots during the war. It was unusual and not very well accepted by the men. But, during my research, I found that the Royal Air Force formed what was called the Woman’s Auxiliary Air Force. They were a bunch of courageous women despite their difficult tasks and harsh words from their fellow male pilots. And in my book, I do show at the beginning how my heroine and her fellow female pilots are not welcomed by the men. But, I wanted to push the idea further, and show that these women were as good as any male pilot. And I loved imagining that one of them succeeded in going a bit further to fight against the enemy and join reconnaissance missions.
Jody: MJ, thank you so much for joining me for tea, answering my questions and sharing your book, Forever Yours with us here at Romancing the Pubs. I really appreciate it. We wish you luck with your book debut and hope for mega-sales of your book.
MJ: Thank you for letting me share my debut novel with you.
Jody: This is where you leave us with your website addy, a few bookstore locations for Forever Yours, and the link to your video trailer.
