I’m thrilled to introduce you to fellow local author and Virginia City Writing Retreat regular, Jacci Turner.

Let’s Meet the Author

​Jacci loves chocolate, babies, and coffee with friends. She’s worn many hats in her lifetime: therapist, school counselor, campus minister, spiritual director, and mother. Her favorite hats are her writer and grandmother hats, which come in wild colors and don’t fit too tightly.

Jacci’s first fantasy series for young adults is the Tree Singer Series. It has three things she loves: trees, a good quest story, and a young girl who has to find her voice to bring her gifts to the world! Tree Singer was a Wishing Shelf Book Award finalist and has a fantastic Kirkus review. It is available on Audible with the incomparable Barbara Bond narrating.  

Let’s Get Started

Thank you so much for chatting with us, Jacci. Can you share how you got started on your writing journey, and who or what was your biggest inspiration?

Thanks for having me!

I was a reluctant reader until my best friend introduced me to horse books! But from the time I was little, I loved theater. I used to charge the neighborhood kids a nickel to come see the plays I created. This love followed me through high school, college, and into the community where I did plays with my kids. Then, when life got too busy, I realized theater took a lot of hours and looked for another outlet for my creative storytelling and started writing. But it took until I was fifty to have the patience to do the rewriting and editing. 

I’m inspired by a good found family story. I loved books about orphans when I was young, like The Box Car Children, Anne of Green Gables, Annie, and Pippi Longstocking, where there were no parents to interfere and the kids could have adventures. That idea is where my Finding Home Series came from.

I love this origin story–nickel plays Awesome! As was brought out in your wonderful bio above, you explore multiple genres, age groups, and themes in your writing. Where do you find ideas for your stories? What inspires you most?

So many things inspire me, but it usually starts with a “what if” question. Once I was at a retreat center staring at a redwood tree and thought, “What if a girl could sing to the tree and help it grow?” That’s where the Tree Singer Series was born.

Things I read also inspire me. I read an article about how boys were using Snapchat to get girls to send them pictures of their breasts. If the girl said no, the boy would post a picture of someone else’s and say it was hers. If she said yes, he’d post hers. Either way, she got slut shamed. It was so unfair it drove me crazy. That is where Snapped came from.

What have you found to be your favorite settings in which to explore your themes? What elements in the various genres have you had the most fun with while you write?

I loved writing my fantasy series because you get to create an entire world and your own magic system. I am passionately in love with nature and grew up near Santa Cruz, so writing about trees and the ocean was a lot of fun for me.

My soon-to-be-released book, Railroad Women, is my first Historical Fiction, and I thought it would be hard to do the research, but I had a blast. For one thing, it takes place in Virginia City, and as you know, I go there often, so it was a great place to find out about the history. For another, the internet makes googling questions so easy! It was fun.

I’m so inspired by your involvement in the local writing community, giving talks, teaching classes. You have expanded that to the wider online writing communities as well. Is public outreach something you’ve been active with from the beginning, or how did it evolve?

When I turned fifty, my daughter gave me a membership to a local writer’s group. I went with my finished manuscript and sat down next to a guy who got me involved in a critique group for finished work, where I learned SO MUCH. I found the monthly meetings inspired me to keep writing, and I met people who became my support system.

Ever since then, I’ve tried to give back to the local writing community. I have a Facebook page called Northern Nevada Writers so we can share information and encourage each other. I helped start the Sierra Arts Literary Community and am involved with a few others. Whenever a new writer asks me for advice, I tell them, “Join a writer’s group.” IMO it’s the most important thing a writer can do.

I love being part of the Northern Nevada Writers group on Facebook. So much happening! What advice can you share about outreach, either in person or online? What are the benefits? Where/what platforms have you found to be the best places to spend your time and energy?

Everyone needs to find where they fit. If you write romance, find a supportive romance writers’ group. For me, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (“SCBWI”) has been a fantastic organization to be a part of. This is where I found my critique group and some of my closest friends. They have free online training, in-person conferences, and mentor programs. I got to be a mentor in the last series and really enjoyed it.

My favorite social media platform is TikTok. They have fantastic support for book lovers under #booktok and #authortok hashtags.  I’ve built a great community there. People read and review my books, invite me to live interviews, and I’ve found an editor and three narrators there.

Wonderful. Thanks for the fantastic resources, and speaking of mentoring, I enjoyed your class on character development at the Virginia City Writing Retreat this May. I’d love it if you could share your top tip with us here.

I’m a character-driven writer and as you know, a therapist. People are fascinating to me. The best advice I can give is to read the book GMC: Goals, Motivation & Conflict, The Building Blocks of Good Fiction by Debra Dixon. You have to know what is motivating your character, and it has to be BIG enough to make them take risks and make stupid decisions.

Ooh, I might have to add this one to my resource library… Where can we expect to see you give a presentation next?

I’ve got no presentations lined up at the moment although I do plan to be a mentor again next year with SCBWI. They will be taking applications soon for next year. You need to have a completed manuscript. You can check out their offerings and find your region at https://www.scbwi.org/.

On the technical side, what are your best resources for publishing, marketing, and artwork, and where or how do you go about finding them?

I have found most of my editors through Lucky Bat Books, a local publishing company where you pay for what you need – they offer editing, formatting, marketing, and cover designs. Since I’ve started, I’ve learned to do my own formatting using Atticus. It’s a great program with a pay one time and have it for life philosophy. They have good tech support. I found my cover designer on 99 Designs and absolutely love her. Her business is called Merc Studios. If you’re in a writer’s group, you can ask your friends. Everyone has favorites.

Thanks again! I have Atticus and need to explore it. I keep hearing good things, but it’s hard to switch from how you first learned to make your manuscripts, even if it isn’t the most efficient process. I’m glad for the reminder. Now a little more on your writer’s life. What is your writing schedule like, and do you have a favorite writing spot or routine? What techniques/practices help you stay creative and productive?

It always bothered me when I went to writer’s conferences and heard, “You must get up at four and write for two hours before your children get up.” That is foolish and damaging advice. I say, find out what works for you. When I was working full time, I wrote on Wednesdays because I had that day off. I’d go to the library for two to three hours and write. That was all I had in me. And I wrote my first ten books that way. Now that I’m mostly retired, I can write when I want. I’m very internally motivated, but if you need accountability, you can get some folks together to have a write-in, or go to a writing retreat, or set a timer for a writing sprint. Find what works for you.

What’s your best advice on balancing your creative time with day-to-day life?

Living life is the most important thing. I’m always telling writers, who tend to be introverted and isolated people, to get out of the house! Go for a walk, have coffee with a friend, jump out of a plane. Anything to keep the creative juices flowing. Otherwise, you’ll get burned out, and I think that’s where writer’s block comes from.

Great advice, although coffee and walking are more my pace, and in that order. 😁 How many books have you published to date, and can you share what’s in the works?

I have sixteen books out now, two more in the wings. The last book in the Tree Singer Series is Heart Talker and the historical fiction Railroad Women. It’s about four young people who meet at the joining of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 and end up starting new lives in Virginia City. 

I also have two audiobooks in the works: the second book in the Tree Singer Series, Wind Catcher, and one for Railroad Women. I adore audiobooks and can’t wait to hear them. Last year I released the audio for Snapped and Love Virus. Love Virus is adult fiction about three women, ages 16, 35, and 75, who help each other through the pandemic. It was read by three women of those ages. So fun!

What a fantastic body of work, and congratulations on your upcoming releases! Where can we follow you to stay updated?

You can find me at https://www.jacciturner.com/ or on most social media @jacciturner my email is Jacciturnerauthor@gmail.com

Thanks again for visiting my Spotlight, Jacci. It’s been a blast. What parting advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Thanks for having me. If you’ve read this far you know what I’d say. So, just have fun. Writing should be fun. Editing, not so much, but writing yes!