We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jordan Brooks Hill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jordan , appreciate you joining us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

I think it’s essential for a writer to have a good support network. I ask my friends and family to read my drafts and offer feedback. This is incredibly helpful as they can spot things that are unclear or inconsistent. My writing is definitely better with their help.

Jordan , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Growing up I liked to write short stories starring my friends and family members. They convinced me to try writing an entire book, and I’m now working on publishing my first novel. It’s a steampunk mystery about bounty hunters hunting a ghost in 1895 New York City. I love history, I love ghost stories, and I love steampunk, so I’m excited to be able to bring everything I love into my novel.

In 2021, I entered the BookLife Prize and scored a perfect ten, placing me in the top 5 for YA fiction. Since then, I’ve been working on getting it published and I’m so excited to be able to bring it to market.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

After I became a semi-finalist in the BookLife prize I was so excited. I was certain that winning this award would prove the value of my book, and that I would get picked up by a publisher. Instead, I was rejected by …everybody. I knew rejection was part of the creative process. Every author has stories about rejections, What’s different now is that technology has made it easy to self-publish. I’ve decided to go ahead and self-publish and achieve my dream that way.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was in school, I took a creative writing class. The teacher told me that my stories were too silly and that if I wanted to be a writer, I would have to learn how to write in a more serious way. When I tried to write the way she wanted, I was miserable and my writing was awful. I took this to mean that I was a bad writer, and I stopped pursuing it as anything other than a hobby. It took years to finally realize that I had a unique voice and that my “silly writing” was actually a rare talent for humorous writing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanbrookshill/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crimsonfallhq

Image Credits
Ashley Savage Photography