The BRAVE Interview #13 August 2017: Jennifer Davies

Please enjoy this month’s interview with Jennifer Davies!

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, I’m thrilled to be here as a featured guest in the Brave series. Thank you Karen for inviting me! A few facts about me; my name is Jennifer Davies, and I’m a fifty something mom with four boys, two cats, a dog, and a husband in tow. I have been married for twenty-one years this August to my best friend and strongest supporter. I’m originally from Wales in the UK which is why I have a funny accent, but I now reside on the East Coast of America in New England.

I have lived in North Andover for the past 14 years, and it’s a perfect distance from the city of Boston, the coast, and the mountains which I love. Living in New England has been a huge source of inspiration for me, but I find inspiration from many avenues, my family, my life, traveling and my persistence to keep writing. As a result, I always have ideas for future books.

I’m a former registered nurse/midwife. I am always battling my weight, but as I’m addicted to chocolate, it’s not a fight I will win anytime soon. I adore Grey’s Anatomy. I love yard sales and get excited at the purchase of old furniture that I can recycle. My goal is to be a NY Times best seller—one day!

MY BRAVE STORY

Well, it’s actually hard to choose which piece of my life to reveal that would showcase something BRAVE that I have done! I believe to be BRAVE you have to face something that is painful, fearful or difficult, and my life has contained many instances that would fit that definition.

Most recently, the one I still process is the loss of my mother. Even now, six months later I miss her. My mom, lived with Alzheimer’s, and had for the past almost five years. Living overseas made it difficult to provide the care I wished to, but in the early stages I could help by having mum visit through the summer and stay for several weeks at a time. As the disease progressed, even that wasn’t an option. Feeling frustrated and needing to do something, I started a support page on-line called ALZHEIMER’S SUPPORT, which still provides help to those going through the painful and heartbreaking experience.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/291824310860629/
In December 2016, my mother entered full-time nursing care and shortly after her renal disease deteriorated to the point that we knew we were entering the final stages of her life. At Christmas, my wish and prayer was to be able to care for mum in her final days. God answered in a strange way that enabled me to spend four weeks with my mum in the UK until her passing on the 29th January. Even now, I have tears as I write this because knowing your loved one is dying is devastating no matter the age or the situation. Being a former nurse, I knew what to expect to a degree, but I wasn’t prepared for the emotional trauma and loss as I watched my mum slip away.
The memories of her final four weeks are ingrained on my brain, good and bad. I remember the days that she slept, and we weren’t sure if she would make it through the next twenty-four hours, to standing next to her in the make-shift church singing hymns in shock at her complete turnaround, to holding her hand as she took her last breath. Those final hours were heartbreaking, and I have no regrets. In life, mum had always been there for me, and this was the least I could do no matter how hard or painful it was to ensure she wasn’t alone as she made her final journey onward to my dad.

All through the night there was a panic that I wouldn’t be able to face the end that I wouldn’t be able to find the words of comfort as her condition changed. In the early hours when the built up fluids became noisy, “death rattle” I lost it. Tears poured, and an overwhelming sense of panic and futility washed over me. I wanted to leave, but as I watched mum, I couldn’t let her down. I needed to be strong and to be there for her right until the end. I hated the thought of her being alone, and now, it gives me comfort to know she was surrounded by love, and her death was peaceful. My mum enjoyed a long and happy life, she was a brave woman loved by all her daughters and grandchildren. She is missed every day.

MY LIFE

My mum was always a strong supporter of my dreams to become a romance author, and her encouragement kept me going. I’m now a multi-genre author, and I’ve been writing full-time for the last eight years.  Every good and bad moment of my life has helped shape me as a writer. Throughout my life, I have always been an avid reader, and from that stemmed the desire to create my own stories.

My Latest Release THE WITCH’S HEART is the second book in the Rise of Orion series.

I love to hear from readers and these are the ways you can contact me…

FB Author page https://www.facebook.com/Jennifer-Owen-Davies-YA-J-M-Davies-Adult-1421409368089313/

Website            http://www.jenniferowendavies.com/
Email                 Jendaviesuk@gmail.com
Twitter              https://twitter.com/jendaviesuk
Instagram        Jengal124
Blog                  https://welshjensblog.blogspot.com

Thank you, Jennifer!!

Read the other BRAVE interviews here: https://kwrites.com/?s=The+BRAVE+Interview

If you would like to be interviewed for this series about something brave you have done in your life, email me at kmcwrites@gmail.com!

BOOK REVIEW: The Vineyards of Allegretti by Jennifer Davies

I loved this story about Vivian and Michael, who have known each other most of their lives, but have been apart for a period of time and as the book opens, they are just coming vineyards-of-allegrettiback together. They love each other, but have not admitted this to each other. Heck, they have barely admitted it to themselves! Complicating things are paramours from the past. Each of them have a ‘bad guy/girl’ in their dating history that puts them both at risk.
Full disclosure: I was predisposed to love this book! The Vineyards of Allegretti is full of Italian things: food, wine, countryside, and beautiful people, and I myself am Italian, and love all things Italian.
I identified with Vivian’s tendency to try to fix everyone and everything in her life. Vivian at least has the presence of mind to realize that she probably isn’t qualified to give advice since her own life was (at the moment) a train wreck.
The romantic interludes are the perfect escape for your afternoon that is otherwise filled with dishes and laundry.

You can find The Vineyards of Allegretti by Jennifer Davies here. Read this book!

Top 10 reasons to attend The New England Authors Expo

I went to The New England Authors Expo this week at The Danversport Yacht Club in (you guessed it) Danvers, MA. It was a hot summer day, and I was hopeful that the masses would like to get out of the hot sun and into the cool a/c, but not a whole lot did. The good news Expo swagis that the readers who did make the effort to attend were amazing! We all appreciate it so much (thank you Robin, Sheila, Chrissy and Scott!) when our friends come out to support our writing!

I also am so blessed to have the support  of my family. My husband, Bill, and my daughter, Izzy, spent the entire day with me, helping me get set up, keeping me fed and watered, and helping me connect with readers (yep; still shy). My son, Anthony, encourage me from afar via technology. Thank you so much!

Plus I made several new friends and met many terrific writers. I love how my book, One Brave Thing, has connected me to so many other people (and books!) that I might never have known otherwise.

I am loving every minute of this!

Maybe you should come to the next Expo.

Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Next New England Authors Expo:

  1. You will learn a lot.
  2. Your isolated writer-ly life will be broken open.
  3. Colleagues! You have them! They are at The Expo! (Jennifer Davies, Jennifer W. Smith)
  4. Attend panel discussions! You will always learn at least new thing. I took pages of notes that I am looking forward to reviewing (Hello, free time? It’s Karen. I miss you…).
  5. See what your fellow authors are doing to market their writing.
  6. Show other authors what YOU are doing to market YOUR writing.
  7. Get cool author swag (Check out the photo above)!
  8. Learn some new social media strategies–and what to avoid doing.
  9. You can offer to trade books (and reviews!) with other authors and then you have some excellent reads for the near future!

And the top 10 reason is:

10. You will have so much fun!!! 🙂

I came away from this event so inspired with ideas on how to market my book and to help my readers. I received an invitation to a free online webinar (note to self: register for free online webinar!), so the learning continues even once you get home. I met Gayle C. Heney, who talked to me about her program Write Now. I received an invitation to be on Be My Guest!, a program for writers hosted by Jan Lewis (stay tuned for details as the become available).

Inspiration? It’s a wonderful thing!

Here is a video from an Authors Expo from years past, to give you a flavor of what it’s like: