Joshilyn Jackson is nifty and thrifty...plus a book giveaway

Photo by EV Jackson

We're pleased to have Joshilyn Jackson here to celebrate the recent publication of her latest novel, The Almost Sisters. Thanks to HarperCollins, we have two copies to give away!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of seven novels and a novella: The Opposite of Everyone, Someone Else’s Love Story, gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and the novella My Own Miraculous. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, three times been a #1 Book Sense Pick, twice won Georgia Author of the Year, and three times been shortlisted for the Townsend prize.

A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, has made the 2012 Audible All-Star list for highest listener ranks/reviews, and garnered three Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly. In 2012 Jackson began reading the audio versions of books written by other novelists, beginning with Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer.

She serves on the board of Reforming Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to providing theatre infused liberal arts education to women who are under carceral control in Georgia. Through their education-in-prison and reentry programs, Reforming Arts fosters the development of critical and creative thinking skills, encouraging students to build livable lives. Joshilyn volunteers inside Lee Arrendale State Prison, teaching creative writing courses and facilitating a new literary magazine/newsletter that the students are producing. You can find out how to help support this organization HERE. (Bio courtesy of Joshilyn's website.)

Visit Joshilyn online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter

Synopsis:
Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

Current favorite place to shop: 
Finders Keepers. It is a string of consignment shops near my house. I am very...um...thrifty when it comes to clothes and furniture and such. Some might even say CHEAP. But I say wise and frugal, because I would almost always rather DO something than HAVE something. I think I spent maybe 200 bucks on clothes for all of us in the last year, and right now, with the money I saved, we are learning to scuba dive.

Walmart or Target?
Target, but I go there maybe 6 times a year? It is very far. Most things I get at Publix, or a drug store, or I go to the in-town Ace. It is this BIZARRE hardware store with a popcorn machine that makes it smell like carb heaven. About the half the store is saws and lightbulbs and blinds, and the rest is stuffed with a random trove of wonders: old fashioned soda, 1950’s candy, handmade soap and lotion, Maraschino Cherries in bourbon, yarn shawls, weird handmade yoga pants. I like to go there and just explore. In fact – I may like the in-town Ace more than Finders Keepers!

Would you consider yourself a shopaholic? 
Not really. 90% of shopping is a chore---a thing I put on my to do lists next to “Clean the bathroom.” But I do love thrifting and junk shopping and garage sales and art fests. That 10% is a pure pleasure.

Do you like to purchase souvenirs when you travel? 
If so, what do you usually get? One of the benefits of being, er, thrifty, Is that we have money for the stuff we really like---and one of those things is travelling. I used to get refrigerator magnets, but when we moved our new house came with a silver fridge that won’t hold them. Alas! Ever since then, we try to get things we will use. When I wear my blue scarf, I remember San Francisco, for example. We got two surrealist paintings from an art auction on the way home from London, and they hang on our walls along with a rusted road sign my son found at a flea market in Poland. From France, I brought home several bottles of wine and a pair of simply enormous pink harem pants I found in a box by a dumpster in Paris. Those pants are magic. I call them my Francey-Pants, and whenever I am stuck on a chapter, I can pull them on and they make my writing brain wake up. (For the record, I did wash them in boiling water a few hundred times before I put them on.)

What is something you purchase on a regular basis (excluding stuff you need)?
BOOKS! I am a JUNKY. And I like old, regular, paper books that I can handle. My house is stuffed with them, and I keep getting more. I love the smell of them. I can pick them up and remember the story so much better than if I just thought about them. I have hard time giving any up. I tend to loan them out instead and hope they do not come back, so I have room for more.

What would be your main character's favorite place to shop? 
Oh, that’s easy! Leia Birch Briggs is old school geek. She would hang out in comics and gaming shops.

Thanks to Joshilyn for visiting with us and to HarperCollins for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends July 18th at midnight EST.