Reality Bites! Let's Get Lost!: Author Spotlight: Interview and Giveaway with Jay McLean

with Jay McLean

Jay McLean is the author of the More Series: More Than This, More Than Her, More Than Him and soon to be released, More Than Forever. She also has two standalones coming soon The Road, in December 2014 and Combative release date to be determined.

Jay is an avid reader, writer, and most of all, procrastinator. When she's not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, or devouring some tacky reality TV show.

She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her smile, make her hurt, and make her feel.

Reality Bites loves and supports author Jay McLean! We are very happy that she took the time out to join us for a quick Q&A session. The following questions will mainly focus on the characters and/or how they are created.

Which character in the More series has been the most fun to write for?

The most fun for me has been Logan, because he's been the most challenging. Drunk Lucy comes a very close second.

You do an AWESOME job with involving the parents in the lives of your teen characters. Do you model the parental units from your books after people you know personally? If no, what inspired the parental characters you created in the More series?

Yes and no. Logan's dad, Allen, is based after my step dad. My mom and he met when I was five and split when I was seven. But my stepdad is very much my rock, and is y go-to for everything. He's the reason I am who I am today. Mark--who you'll meet in More Than Forever, is also based on someone that has influenced my life. As far as the close-knit parents like Jake's... I guess they are just derived from dream parents. lol.

You have a few secondary characters that have caught your readers attention. Whether it be in a bad way or in a good way we tend to all want more. Ethan and Megan for instance. Do you plan to give us more from them in the future?

I've thought about giving Megan a story, but it won't be until right at the end of the series, IF I do it, it would be quite dark, and a lot different to the MORE series. There is a character in More Than Forever that I've kind of fallen for, so we'll see where that might take us.

What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing More Than Forever? And how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge was definitely the pressure. Lucy and Cam seem to be a reader favorite, and that's just from the few lines they've had in previous books. The problem I had was people's expectations. There are so many elements to Cam and Lucy that people are wanting -- Drunk Lucy, Kinky Lucy, Quiet booknerd Lucy. Cam, whose love and support is never ending, but he's also loud and cocky. I'd get two chapters down and then question it and have the same conversations with my BFF, Debbie, that would go like this: I hate it, people will hate it, I don't love their story, I need to re-write it, I'm scrapping the book, this story is okay, I like this story, fuck i love Cam and Lucy, I LOVE THIS BOOK. All that in about three minutes. I imagine her rolling her eyes and pulling out a piece of paper with a list of cliche responses for needy authors. At the end, I wrote the story that I wanted to tell and I hope that the readers will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Have you ever written a scene or completed a book and realized that one of your very own characters taught you something about life? If so, what book and which character?

I think they all do. For me, I like to write books that leave you thinking. With Mikayla, it was to 'not let bad people dictate what should be a good life' - be strong, move forward. With Logan... and this is one that's close to home -- "shadow passes, light remains."

- A lot of More series fans are not happy with Heidi. In fact every one seemed to turn on her quickly after More Than Him. But the fact is we don't know her story. We have no clue why she made the choice that she made however we see the aftermath of pain which had her lashing out. Do you think her story needs to be told?

Ha! You're gooooood! Her story will be told. Not sure to what extent though.

I want to conclude the interview with me starting a sentence and you, Jay, finishing it.

Cameron is.... a boy that shouldn't just exist in the pages of a fairytale.

Lucy is.... real.

Jay McLean is.... still unsure of how I ended up with the support of people like Alexis, and the readers that make me wake up every day and be thankful for the life y'all have given me.

Links to my reviews for:

More Than This

More Than Her

More Than Him

Get Jay's Book's here