Joshilyn Jackson: On Celebrity Obsession and Social Media
New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson discusses the inspiration behind her new suspense novel, With My Little Eye.
Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 10 other novels, including gods in Alabama and Never Have I Ever. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. A former actor, Jackson is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband and their two children. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this post, Joshilyn discusses the inspiration behind her new suspense novel, With My Little Eye, her hope for readers, and more!
Name: Joshilyn Jackson
Literary agent: Caryn Karmatz Rudy, Defiore and Co.
Book title: With My Little Eye
Publisher: William Morrow
Release date: April 25, 2023
Genre/category: Suspense
Previous titles: Never Have I Ever, Mother May I (Suspense) and 9 Southern Fiction titles including gods in Alabama
Elevator pitch for the book: Working LA actress and single mother Meribel Mills takes a job in her hometown of Atlanta to escape a dangerously obsessed fan, only to realize you can’t go home again—and that her stalker has followed.
What prompted you to write this book?
I’m a former actor—I still work on and off as a voice actor, reading my own audiobooks as well as books by Patti Callahan Henry, Lydia Netzer, Christopher Swann, and more—and I wanted to set a book in that world. The endlessly open eye of social media plus our unhealthy national obsession with celebrity seemed like a fun, fascinating backdrop for a book about a stalker.
I also fell in love with two characters—Meribel and her daughter, Honor Mills. Honor is 13 and on the spectrum. I am on the spectrum, as is my daughter. We present very differently from men on the spectrum, and I wanted to write about the female experience. ADS can often be attached to savantism, so it comes sometimes with great big gifts—but equally big price tags.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took me about a year and a half to write, which is normal for me. The idea didn’t change, but the book changed hugely. This is also very normal for me!
I am what they call a “pantser.” I love plot, but my books are character driven, and my greatest joy in writing is when I hear that inner click that takes me off whatever outline I have foolishly tried to perpetrate. I rabbit hole down after this character or that, and I emerge with a much stronger book.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Well, I learned how wonderful the thriller/suspense writing community is. I changed genres quite by accident—probably because I was reading so many thrillers—and this happened in the pandemic.
I knew a lot of Southern and women’s fiction writers (glorious people) but not a lot of thriller writers. Now that people are moving about again, literary events are happening, I began to make friends in this corner of the writing world. I am so grateful for the warm welcome, and for the willingness of even the biggest names to be supportive and kind to a newcomer. Amazing community.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I’m always surprised at how my process never changes from book to book, and yet each time it feels like diving off a cliff into a darkness. It’s as if the act of writing the middle and the end of a novel wipe away my understanding of how to begin one. The terrors and travails are the same every time, but experientially, it is all new.
The embarrassing part is, to observers, my process is clearly a pattern. Writing this book, I was weeping and in a froth about how it would never be done, and I couldn’t write it and what was I thinking, etc., and my husband said, “Ah, you must be one third of the way through.”
Yeah, I was.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
A good time! I write page turners with plot twists and fun reveals, so if you want to take With My Little Eye and a fruity drink down to the beach and lose a few hours, great. Have at it.
For readers who want more, it’s there. This is a book with plenty of fodder for book club discussions. With My Little Eye explores issues of privacy and vulnerability in the Instagram era, the graying of the lines between love and obsession, the pressures women are under to stop aging and live up to unrealistic beauty standards created by photo editing, filters, and medical procedures that are only available to the wealthy and the famous, and the joys and challenges of parenting a neuro-divergent child.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Read, read, read. Fiction is a conversation; you need to listen at least as much as you talk if you want to be good at it.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
