We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J’nell Ciesielski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J’nell below.

J’nell, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is a rather interesting concept, depending on who you ask. Some might say it means fame, having your name in lights and flying around on private jets. Others might say it means money, or never failing, or reaching that goal you’ve set for yourself. I think it can be all those things, but to say that’s all success is would be rather limiting. Would I like my name to jump to the top of the bestseller list? Absolutely! Would I enjoy royalties flooding in? Sure. But success to me is something personal, a deep satisfaction in creating the kind of stories I want. Not what the market claims is hot this minute, not what social media is clamoring about, but stories that feed my soul. Stories that take pieces of me and put them out into the world for others to read. And to be able to keep doing this over and over is true success because I’m doing what’s true to me by believing in my own creativity and voice. And that’s a feeling you can’t put a price tag on.

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’ve been a lifetime lover of books. Any story that whisks me away to adventure and romance and I am in heaven. Until I got to college and suddenly heaven was not so easily achieved. Characters and plot lines were just not behaving the way I thought they should. Fine, I thought. I’ll write my own story and the characters will say what I want them to say and the plot will flow in the way I think best. So that’s what I did and what I’ve been doing for oh … twenty years now.

My greatest passion is weaving together heart-stopping adventure and sweeping romance into tales of times gone by. Dashing spies, loyal soldiers, princesses on the run, socialites, and surly lairds all find themselves in a world of trouble with a few lessons to learn about love along the way before all is wrapped up for a happily ever after. And yes, there is always a happy ending. It might be bittersweet getting there, but ultimately true love conquers all because I believe the world needs more happy endings.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Ever since I started this journey into writing, I’ve set goals along the way. At first it was to finish a manuscript which is not easy when you’re a full-time student and working part-time. After that came the goal of getting an agent, then a contract, then being published, and eventually becoming a bestselling author. Now, on top of securing that next contract I’ve also added the goal of landing on the NY Times bestseller list. Lofty? Indeed, but there’s nothing wrong with shooting for the stars.

So while these are all amazing goals and I have not taken one for granted, I have said from the very beginning that even if I never have another book published that I’m going to keep writing. I’ll write a book, then another, and another. Even if I’m the only one to ever read them because my ultimate drive is not to fill bookshelves (though it’s fantastic to do so!) but rather to tell these stories that are burning inside me. They need to come out because I feel like I can’t breathe until they do. Putting down word after word is how I take the next gulp of air, it’s what keeps me alive. I don’t know how to exist otherwise.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

There are hundreds of how-to books on writing that list all the rules, character arcs, plotting in three acts, dialogue tags, and every other possible bit of information you need to craft the perfect story. And I read all of them when I first started out. I studied these rules, absorbed them, recreated charts about them, and by the end assumed a masterpiece of the written word would be forthcoming. Eh, not exactly. More than anything, these live or die rules were more like guidelines (credit Pirates of the Caribbean for that bit of genius), and once I knew them, I knew how to break them properly. Why break the rules? Because they might not always work in favor of the story you’re trying to tell, in fact, some stories need to go against the grain. But more than simply being a rebel, I’ve learned that the process is not the same for everyone. What works for you may not work for me. And that’s ok! Every writer and artist has to find their own groove, and the groove that allows the creativity to flow and flourish is the correct one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jnellciesielski.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jnellciesielski/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jnellciesielski
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/jnellciesielski/ https://www.goodreads.com/jnellciesielski