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

Jode, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I was always interested in the arts from the time I was a kid. At that time, I was more interested in the visual arts like oil and watercolor painting, drawing, and sculpture, and in fact, I wanted to pursue the visual arts as a career. But I was also a voracious reader of mysteries like Nancy Drew, and I loved to write my own stories. Then, as a teen, I obtained a summer job in a law office, and thinking it looked like an interesting profession, I switched gears. I decided to pursue a career in the law, which highly unusual for a female in the 1970s. Studying the law, I specialized in Intellectual Property (Copyrights, Trademarks, Music and Art Law), which allowed me to combine the arts and the law. After years of practicing law, it was a natural segue into crime fiction writing. This genre, again, combined my legal career with my literary talents to tell tales based upon true crimes occurring in the region where I live, the Hudson Valley of New York.

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 have always been an amalgam of different interests in my life: the law (thanks Harper Lee and “To Kill A Mockingbird’) music ( I was a rock ‘n roll DJ on a local radio station), art ( I watercolor paint), and literature ( I write crime fiction.) But why crime fiction? Because Mark Twain said “write what you know.” When I embarked on a writing career, that adage ran true to me. Especially because I possessed a connection to several local crimes that screamed to be fictionalized. My first award-winning mystery, THE MIDNIGHT CALL, was inspired by my high school history teacher who randomly murdered a student who was trespassing through his backyard. My second award-winning novel, HOOKER AVENUE, was inspired by the disappearances of prostitutes from the front steps of my law office in downtown Poughkeepsie, NY. The third installment in the “Queen Cities Crimes” Series, THE EMPTY KAYAK, was drawn from an internationally-known and suspicious drowning in the Hudson River.

In my situation, the desire to create a cast of series characters who lived in these “true crime” plots, was exhilarating and offered me a unique opportunity. But the transition from attorney to writer was not an easy one. As an attorney, I was a technical writer—drafting litigation and briefs. Lawyers recite the facts in a persuasive manner, not one that is particularly interesting to a non-lawyer. When a writer weaves a tale for readers, as opposed to a judge or a jury, it was necessary to learn the craft of writing. My legal writing provided a vast vocabulary and an understanding of basic plotting, but as an author, I was required to exercise different muscles. I needed to understand pacing, story structure, characterization and plotting. I had to learn how to engage the readers, not persuade them my point of view. That was quite a challenge after decades of honing my skills as an attorney.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I have always believed society undervalues its artists. I am speaking from my perspective as an attorney and author. As an artist, there are no royalties on secondary sales of your work. That means if you’re a visual artist and sell a painting for a thousand dollars, and then it is resold for a million dollars, you do not share in the increased value of your work. The same is true for books. If your books sells for thirty dollars and you sign it, hit the bestseller list, and the copy is resold on eBay for a thousand, tough luck. This is an unfortunate scenario and should be changed so that artists share in profits of their works.

I believe that without free expression, we have no society. We learn about ourselves through the arts as well as the sciences. Also, it is inconceivable to me that when school budgets look to cut curriculum, what do they cut first? Art and Music. Society and our government need to provide greater financial support for the arts, encourage to schools to support the arts and create protections from artificial intelligence illegally harvesting our works.

Also, there should be a federal law against banning books in libraries and schools. Readers should have the choice to select whatever book they desire to read, and no one should infringe upon that Freedom. Also, book banning and challenges restricts the writers who may want to address controversial topics. They may censor themselves to get published and read. The First Amendment of the UD Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and every reader and writer should be guaranteed of that right.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn to stop writing like a lawyer. I had to stop “telling” and start “showing”. As a writer, I had to learn about deep POV, and explore POV to create a connection between my characters and my readers. I needed to learn to express my characters feelings through thoughts, dialogue and physical reactions, rather than just reporting the plot.
When I first began writing in 2010, I remember sending off my first draft to a developmental editor, and of course, I was excited and proud of my product…my first novel. She ripped it to shreds, asking me “what are your characters thinking and feeling? How are they reacting?” She was absolutely correct. My first draft was a report of the action, with limited detail about how my characters were reacting to the crime at the heart of the story. With hard work, writing classes, and an excellent writing coach, my plot and characters took shape. My characters transitioned from being one-dimensional into multi-dimensional beings that readers wanted to spend time with and who they cared about.
In legal writing, we report “the facts, not the commentary.” In literature, compelling stories describe the characters’ trials and tribulations, pulling the reader and making them invested in the outcome. Achieving deep POV is a on-going challenge for me, and I think, every writer, too. Hopefully, with time, I will continue to master POV, so that my characters will live beyond the page and into the imagination of my readers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jodemillman.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodewrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jode.millman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jode-millman-0aa41013/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/worldseats
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzcm1bhfpwayRIPtY6yU72w
• Other: https://www.bookbub.com/JodeMillman

  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/64152.Jode_Susan_Millman

Image Credits

Jode Millman