We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica L. Sparrow a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
It’s funny because I never think of myself as a risk taker. A risk taker, almost immediately in my brain is someone who jumps out of airplanes or loves roller coasters-like my husband. However, when I think back on all the risks I have ever taken to pull myself out of my comfort zone and to break generational curses, I sort of surprise myself. I have taken several risks most were reactive or active and others were proactive, I guess. All of which I am very proud of but my most recent one that is bringing me closer to my dream career was when I took part in the #PITMad campaign on Twitter. My good framily and fellow writer, Vaughn A. Jackson and I challenged each other to partake in the pitch campaign. Imagine my surprise, the night before Vaughn asks me if my MS is polished and ready to go and my brain screamed “Polished?!” Then I yelled it out loud as my brain said, ‘it’s gonna be a long night.” My faith in my hopes and dreams fueled me right along with coffee and several breakfasts to re-edit my MS that evening just in time to have it ready by 8am the next day. Stood awake that entire day until the finish of the campaign, 8pm, to ensure I was able to post my three tweets throughout the day and push for retweets to gain some attention from those in the publishing market. And that is exactly what happened, that is how Mariah Stovall of Trellis Literary Management found me and I queried to her and signed with her and her agency on Dec of 2021. I would also like to add, thanks to Vaughn and his fiancé Stephanie, who helped me reconstruct my pitches for twitter because I was almost losing my ability to make sentences that day-lack of sleep mixed with adrenaline and caffeine is a beautiful but strange feeling. Bigger props to my husband, Jason, for putting up with-uh-I mean supporting my writer fueled fury.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I had a passion for writing since I could form words into sentences. I use to dabble here and there with short stories and poems but never encouraged myself or ever been encouraged to publish. Left my passion on the back burner for a really long time and circled back to it when I decided to go back to college. Even through my associates & bachelors I was dabbling still. It was my MFA program that gave me the skills and mostly, the confidence to pursue my dream to be a published author and a Professor of English literature & creative writing.
I received my MFA in creative writing, in July of 2020 from Southern New Hampshire University. My graduate thesis became the first novel I ever wrote and is now a completed MS (pending publishing), Blood Behind the Walls, is a 19th-century Gothic thriller brimming with influences from my Puerto Rican cultural and bruja roots.
My writing is heavily influenced by 19th-century literature, the supernatural, and my Puerto Rican heritage.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Oh definitely. I wish I knew about all the Writer’s Associations that exists throughout the world. The writing retreats, workshops, and the continuing education courses at some Community Colleges. I’ve spent a long time of my writer’s life feeling like I was alone in my craft, that the dream of becoming a published writer was only reserved for rich privileged people and/or people who were already connected in the business. That somehow this beautiful form of creative expression was not for people like me-a little Puerto Rican girl from Newark, NJ. I wish that my teachers saw my rough talent but most importantly, my passion for writing and showed me writers beyond the course curriculum of White Europeans writers. It would have been less scarier for me knowing that other folks like me made it. I also, wish someone explained to me that making it doesn’t always mean being the next best seller with millions of dollars in royalty. It’s great and if it happens to me, I am not going to complain but success does come in many different sizes and that’s something to work towards to. Also, the biggest resource when it comes to being a writer-find your community-which you can do in conventions, retreats, etc. I did. That’s how I have an awesome set of close writing friends I call family and we support one another at all times. I definitely could have benefited from that way back when.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Every single day of my life. Aside from keeping my promises to myself, I have a lot of other folks counting on me as well. It’s not a pressure that they put upon me but it’s one of those things that when you come from a community that experienced more losses than wins you have this innate drive to push forward with everything you got because it’s their success too. I wouldn’t have the chance to strive let alone survive the way I did if it wasn’t for the village that helped raise me. I will always remember all the things that my family and close family friends have done for me to ensure that I had more than enough growing up.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sparrowsinkwell.com
- Instagram: @SparrowsInkwell
- Twitter: @SparrowsInkwell
Image Credits
Jessica Brynarsky