Introducing Jessa...

When I started writing short stories at a table in my junior high school library, I had yet to meet Jessa Masters or her eventual husband, Nate. I had yet to start a novel and stop, start and stop. I just enjoy the process of writing. Such innocence. Such naivete. I loved the process of conquering that blank page and spin a story, of bringing characters to life. It was college before I met Jessa. Only she wasn't Jessa Masters. She was the no-nonsense Jessa, who swore like a sailor with a dumb, muscular, eye candy husband. Jessa definitely was the brains of this relationship. I knew I struck gold with Jessa when my eighty-two-year-old, creative writing teacher loved Jessa and did not want anything bad happening to her. The issue was that I could not find a story suitable for Jessa. I put Jessa away for a while. I tried to write novels, but I never seemed to be able to finish them. That's when I revisited Jessa. It took several drafts before I found a story for Jessa. She had always been a large and in-charge, type of character, living in space, but now she was a Federal Agent solving crimes while running a StarVessel. Only something still was not right. I kept sensing that Nate, her partner, in the novel seemed to want something more. When I switched her love interest to Nate, that's when Jessa's backstory and the plot for the first novel started to take shape. Like any author would tell you, I had to wait for the character to tell her story, to surround herself with the right people and the right plot. Now she has told twenty stories and has more to tell. I cannot rush the process, but I can enjoy the ride.