Falling for Books: Pepper's book

Interview with Pepper Basham, author of Jane by the Book:

Alexis: Welcome to my blog, Pepper! I'm delighted to host you today! 

Pepper: Thanks so much for having me on your blog today, Alexis! I LOVE talking about stories and characters and…all those wonderful things.

Alexis: Why did you decide to call this story, “Jane by the Book?” 

Pepper: Well, for two reasons: Jane is a rule-follower so she lives ‘by the book’, so to speak, but ALSO, this novella involves a mystery about a journal…so another book is involved. 😊

Alexis: Jane Warwick is the heroine of your story. What are her dreams and fears? 

Pepper: I don’t think she really knows her dreams before the book begins. The hero helps her find them, but her fears are pretty obvious early on. She’s afraid of being hurt again – and being played a fool too. 

Alexis: How is life for Jane after being left at the altar by the man she wanted to marry? What led her to Simeon Ridge?

Pepper: Being left at the altar led her to Simeon Ridge. After the very public wound of being jilted, she wanted to ‘hide’ from the world, so she took a job, at first, as a maid at the inn (unassuming) and then did such a good job she was promoted over the years. Her love for control and tidiness really suits her job as housekeeping manager of the Inn at Simeon Ridge.

Alexis: Paint a picture with words of the Inn at Simeon Ridge. Why is it special?

Pepper: It’s a beautiful mountain inn featuring a stone and wood exterior with tall glass windows. The back part of the house (where the library and breakfast rooms are located) has floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Alexis: In what ways do the members of the Simeon family help heal Jane’s broken heart? 

Pepper: They provide her a ‘family’ and an opportunity to grow into her gifts. There are safety and love in them. We all heal better and more quickly when given those two things – safety and love. 

Alexis: Why does Jane go to Bath, England and what happens there that upsets her “peaceful monotony”?

Pepper: She goes to Bath to help her friend Nora Simeon’s fiancé, train the staff of his new inn. What happens to break her monotony? Titus Stewart

Alexis: Describe the meet cute between Jane and historical detective author Titus Stewart. What were their first impressions of each other? Why?

Pepper: Well, really people would enjoy this more by reading the book. It’s a pretty cute meeting. He ‘sees’ her as a fictional character model. She sees him as the nuisance who lost parts of a centuries’ old journal. It’s not the best first impression.

Alexis: Titus Stewart is the hero of your story. What is he like? Describe his looks, personality, and heart for writing. 

Pepper: Titus is sweetly odd and wonderful good-hearted. As a writer, he tends to see the world in, sometimes, a fictional way – but he’s grounded in his faith and confidence. He’s kind of trying to ‘save’ his writing at the beginning of the story, but you’ll really have to read it to get a better idea of him.

Alexis: Why does Titus work Jane into his fictional novel that he’s writing? How did she become a muse that he cannot forget? 

Pepper: He needed the perfect heroine for his fictional hero and Jane ‘fit’ what Titus was looking for…THEN, her personal mystery drew them together so that Jane became the heroine for Titus’ life.

Alexis: What role does a “mysterious journal” play in bringing Titus and Jane together?

Pepper: Titus LOVES stories and Jane brought this journal along that binds her to Bath, U.K. – so, of course, Titus wants to help her solve the mystery of the journal because he can’t stand an ‘unfinished’ story. 

Alexis: Titus is one of those authors who talks to his imaginary characters from his fictional stories as if they were real people. How does Jane feel about that? 

Pepper: As you can imagine, at first, she thinks it’s pretty weird. I think it begins to grow on her as she sees what a sweetheart Titus is. 

Alexis: Jane is strict and Titus is a total free spirit. How does that affect their relationship?

Pepper: Well, he helps loosen her up and she helps encourage his dream. At first, it’s not the most likely pairing, but they end of seeing how they work well together. 

Alexis: What do you want readers to remember most about this book? 

Pepper: The beauty of stepping out into your fears and being brave enough to try. There’s such a reward (and in this case a romance) in being authentically who you are and then being loved. 

Alexis: Thanks for the interview, Pepper! Do you have closing comments? 

Pepper: Again, thanks so much for having me here today. Jane and Titus were so much fun to write – and if any of your readers want to start from the ‘beginning’ of this little series, they can begin with Second Impressions. Bath, U.K. is a wonderful place to visit, both in real-life and through a book.

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Author Bio:

Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance peppered with grace and humor with a southern Appalachian flair. Her books are seasoned with her Appalachian heritage and love for family. 

Pepper's stories have garnered recognition in the Grace Awards, The INPSY Awards, and the ACFW Carol Awards. The Thorn Healer was selected as a 2018 finalist in the RT Awards. 

She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is the mom of five great kids, a speech-pathologist to about fifty more, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus.

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Blurb for Jane by the Book:

A Jane Austen-inspired novella

She’s level-headed and ordered. He talks to imaginary characters.

She keeps to the plan. He never has one.

Will true love find a way to color outside the lines but inside God’s love to create a story they can write together?

Four years ago, Jane Warwick escaped the shame of being jilted at the altar by becoming a housekeeper at the secluded Inn at Simeon Ridge. Predictable and quiet, the inn and large Simeon family help Jane find a place to heal but also cultivate her natural strengths for order and planning. But an unexpected visit to Bath, England, upsets Jane's peaceful monotony and sends her out of her comfort zone, directly into the harrowing path of historical detective author, Titus Stewart.

The only plans Titus sticks to are family holidays and the ones that send him careening into his story worlds, but when an uptight innkeeper stumbles into his life - and his latest novel - nonfiction begins to take on a much more interesting gleam.

With the help of a mysterious journal, will they both uncover a romance that stands the test of time?

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Buy Pepper’s book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

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Connect with Pepper:
Website - www.pepperdbasham.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pepperdbasham/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pepperbasham/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/pepperbasham
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/pepperbasham/
The Writer's Alley (Pepper’s group blog) – http://www.thewritersalleyblog.com

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