We are delighted to welcome author Jake Parent to Omnimystery News today.
Jake's new novel of psychological suspense is Cristina (Modern Minimalist Press; July 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with him to talk more about it.
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Omnimystery News: How hard was it to come up with the right voice for the main character in Cristina?
Photo provided courtesy of
Jake Parent
Jake Parent: Writing a female main character was extremely challenging. Obviously, the last thing I wanted was for readers (especially women) to read the book and see Cristina as some kind of caricature. I think we've all read books where that's the case. At first, I was really nervous about how it would turn out, but ultimately I spoke with a number of women readers who basically said the most important thing was to just make her human. So that was my biggest goal.
OMN: When starting a new book, what comes first: the principal characters or the storyline?
JP: For me, it's a premise and a setting. I don't really like to plot out much, but I do like to have a sense of the emotional landscape I'm about to create. I'm always trying to write stories that I would like to read. And, for me, those emotional elements are what matter most. From there, I really try not to force the story, but instead allow my imagination to do what it does.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
JP: Any writer that doesn't have a fair amount of themselves in their work is probably not writing very interesting stuff. So, yes. I think there's a bit of myself in every character I writer, along with bits and pieces of other people/situations/perspectives that I've come into contact with along the way.
OMN: Where do you most often find yourself writing?
JP: As the father of a small daughter, my life is pretty chaotic. Cristina, for example, was written mostly with my little girl sleeping on my chest, in short but focused 1-2 hour sessions over the course of three months. And I think that suits me. Creatively, I'm not much of a rules-follower. I've always found sitting down at a desk in the same way every day to be stifling, though I'm sure it works great for some people.
OMN: You mentioned setting being one of the first things you consider when starting a book. How do you come up with the settings for your stories?
JP: My first book, Only the Devil Tells the Truth, was set in my hometown of San Jose, though the neighborhood was mostly fictional. Cristina, on the other hand, is set in a fiction town called Pleasure Point, though it's strongly based on a small California beach town that I used to live in called Santa Cruz. It's really a paradise, but the whole time I lived there, I always thought that such an idyllic setting would be the perfect place for a story where lots of dark, creepy stuff goes down.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
JP: As for best advice (both that I've received and that I would give), it has to be: just keep writing. There are very few people who make a living off writing (or any art) until they've been doing it for several years. In fact, the exceptions to this are so few that they are basically statistically insignificant. So keep going. Write every single day, even if you feel like you suck at it right now. Maybe you do. But, like with anything else, the more you practice, the better you'll get. The other thing is, you have to read. A lot. Maybe more than you write. It's amazing how many writers don't read that much, or only read one kind of book. You would never hear a musician say they don't listen to music. So why a writer would think they could succeed without studying others is kind of silly.
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Jake Parent's influences include Charles Bukowski, Stephen King, Maya Angelou, John Steinbeck, Honoré de Balzac, Ella Fitzgerald, John Sanford, Jimi Hendrix, Ernest Hemingway, Greg Graffin, Pablo Picasso, Rickey Henderson, and Mac Dre. He grew up in San Jose, CA but now lives in the Washington, DC area.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at JakeDParent.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook.
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Cristina by Jake Parent
A Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Modern Minimalist Press
Driven by a desperate need to escape her past, Cristina Rodriguez moves into a picturesque hilltop home with an ocean view. The same place where, four years earlier, a young girl was kidnapped and murdered.
At first, both the house and the scenic California beach town seem perfect. Fresh air. Fresh faces. And the ocean is just ten minutes away. But as Cristina and her daughter set about rebuilding their lives, they soon discover that the past is not about to let go so easily.
— Cristina by Jake Parent
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