Interview with J.A. Hennrikus

I know you are woman of many hats, so tell me about your three series. What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?

My first published series is the Clock Shop series, which I wrote as Julianne Holmes. There are three books in that series, which is about Ruth Clagan, who is a horologist who lives in the Berkshires and runs her grandfather’s clock shop. My next two series happened around the same time, and each needed their own author name since they were with different publishers, so I decided to choose more JH names. The Theater Cop series is actually the first series I ever tried to sell, and I decided to use my name, J.A. Hennrikus. My new Garden Squad series is for Kensington, and it debuted this year with Pruning the Dead. I write that series as Julia Henry.

My tag line for JH Authors is one woman, three names, many books. All of the names sound like Julie, so I can keep track. And the JH means they are all near each other on shelves. Pruning the Dead was my fifth published novel. In 2019 I have two more books coming out. With a Kiss I Die is the second in the Theater Cop series, and will be out in April. Tilling the Truth is the second in the Garden Squad series and will be out in August. 
(Click here for a review of Pruning the Dead.)

How did you develop your character and choose your location?

I set all of my series in Massachusetts, where I live. I make up towns, but they are based on places I

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visit, though I have been changing the coastline of Massachusetts a bit in the Garden Squad series. When I’m creating a series, I usually visit a place to inspire me, or find one if I need ideas. Characters start rattling around in my brain, and I let my imagination pull them together.

For my new series, I had the prompt “gardener”. I decided to base the town, Goosebush, on the town I grew up in, Duxbury. We moved from Duxbury when I was going into high school, so I was driving around with my writer brain, and noticed a house set back on a double lot. I decided to use that house, and all of a sudden Lilly Jayne, who’s in her mid-sixties, entered the picture for me. Though she’s at the center of the series, she has friends who garden with her, and they all came into the story fully formed as well.

What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?

Let me tell you what I’d like a day in the life of an author to be. Waking up, doing author work (emails, blog posts, answering questions), then I sit down and write a couple of scenes. I’m a plotter, so I do have a sense of what I am going to write. Then I would turn off the computer at six, put my feet up, have the cats sit on my lap while I read.

Now, the reality for me is this. I do try and write for an hour a day at least. I’d love to add to that, but I’m opening an online business school for artists, Your Ladders, and my days are full. And, because I got in the habit of writing around a job, I find inspiration hits at around 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock at night. I’ve stopped trying to fight that, but do hope I can train the muse to visit me in the afternoon soon.

The other part of the author life is dealing with the publishing pipeline. Right now copy edits of Tilling the Truth are being done, I’m launching Pruning the Dead, all while the plotting of Book #3 is getting solidified. There are a lot of steps to writing.

Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know?

Sully Sullivan, in the Theater Cop series, is the most like me. I do use inspiration from how someone looks, or a character affect they may have, but I don’t really base my characters on people. That would limit what the characters would do, and characters take on a life of their own.

I will name a character after someone. For instance, my friend Steve asked me to name a character in my Garden Squad series for his mother, so Portia Asher became a character who is part of the series. I told him I wouldn’t promise she’d be like his mother, or that I wouldn’t make her the victim or the guilty party.

Creating characters is a fun, interesting thing to do. They do take on their own personalities, and as a writer, I need to let that happen. I know that sounds a little odd, but the nice thing about being a writer is that you’re never alone.

If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?

What a great question! For the Garden Squad series, Meryl Streep would make a great Lilly, and Angela Basset would be a great Tamara. But other actors could certainly play the roles, and I know that readers cast the characters themselves.

Who is your favorite author?

I can’t pick one! Certainly, in the mystery realm, Agatha Christie has had an enormous impact on me. There are so many, too many, modern mystery authors I read to choose one. I’m also a Jane Austen fan, and have been thinking about how her books could influence a story line for a mystery. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and I am grateful to the many authors who have given me hours of pleasure.

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?

Agatha Christie. Jane Austen. Ida B. Wells. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Michelle Obama. All women who’ve inspired me one way or the other.

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?

What is interesting about this path is that, like other folks I know, I have a portfolio career to make my life work. I have worked as an arts administrator for over 30 years, mostly in the performing arts. As I mentioned, I am working on opening Your Ladders, an online business school for performing artists. I also teach arts administration as an adjunct professor at different colleges. I know so many artists and writers who have to work several jobs to make it all work. I’m grateful that I have equal passion for all of my careers, though long term I see my writing life follow me into retirement and beyond.

Thanks so much for some thoughtful questions!

Julie blogs with the Wicked Authors. She can be found at JHAuthors.com, on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.