Interview with Dawn Lajeunesse

Author of Star Catching

Where are you from originally and where do you reside now?

I grew up in Troy, NY and currently live in South Glens Falls, NY.

If you currently reside somewhere besides where you were born, what’s the story that lead from there to here?

Regional wanderlust? I moved from Troy to Loudonville when I married. When we retired, we thought we wanted to live in the Adirondacks, so we built our dream log home in Chestertown on the Schroon River. We soon learned how hard it is to adjust to being far from conveniences and medical services after a lifetime of urban/suburban living. Ten years after we arrived in Chestertown, we began a series of “home-seeking” moves. Our current location provides convenience without the down sides of living in congested cities or suburbs. And our home—in a development with a homeowners’ association—provides conveniences like mowing and plowing and shoveling.

What made you decide to write and publish your first book?

I’ve always wanted to write. While I was working full time, I made some stabs at it by taking writing classes and starting stories. But I dove into my first book during my last job, where traveling extensively allowed down time. While colleagues read or listened to music, I hand wrote Autumn Colors. My first two books (Autumn Colors and In Her Mother’s Shoes) were complicated love stories that found some basis in my own life but with a lot of literary license and imagination. They involved some personal emotional purging, but also fulfilled a lifetime dream of writing novels. Star Catching was my first venture into a story that required me to stretch my creativity a bit. I had read a news story about an auto accident that took the lives of three members of a family, leaving only a seven-year-old daughter, who was going to live with her grandparents. As a newly retired person, I tried to imagine that experience, both from the child’s perspective, but also from the grandparents. They loved their granddaughter and were committed to providing for her emotional and physical needs. But they also had a laundry list of retirement plans, most of which didn’t involve or fit with full time parenting. As retirees, they felt removed from the needs and experiences of young children, other than having fun with their grandchildren during visits. So they also were a little afraid of failing their granddaughter, of not being able to give her what she needed to grow into a strong, confident and competent young woman. The story explores their ambivalence and adaptations, their mistakes and successes. As with my previous two novels, Star Catching has a warm, satisfying and happy ending.

My fourth novel, The Eyes Have It, came out in September 2019. It’s a 21^st century Romeo and Juliet, and my first to have an ending that left the main character yearning for a different outcome, yet strong and determined to go forward with her life.

How would you describe your books to first time readers?

Love stories—not just romantic love, but love of family and friends, and always including dogs as part of the core family. One reviewer described my stories as emotional purges—they all have multi-tissue scenes. And the first three have unambivalent, satisfying and happy endings. The newest novel, The Eyes Have It, doesn’t have a “Hallmark ending,” The “Juliet” character continues to hope that her “Romeo” will return to her life. But it is realistic, and her experiences in the story have strengthened her for a future different from what she planned.

Who do you feel is most likely to connect with the topics you write about?

Mostly women of all ages, although I’ve received positive feedback from male readers who always seek out my new books. Really, all ages of adults, and particularly those who enjoy emotion and connectivity among characters.

What unexpected or surprising thing did you learn during the process of writing and publishing?

I think the biggest surprise about the writing process was the way I become hypnotically immersed in the story, to the exclusion of things going on around me, almost like I’m actually a part of it. As for publishing, I was surprised by the difficulty of connecting with agents or independent publishers, even enough to get my story read. I’ve taken multiple seminars on writing the perfect query letter. The problem is, what’s perfect for one agent gets tossed by another. The challenge of writing just the right query letter to win a request for some of my writing – and often never even the courtesy of an emailed “thanks but not for me.” Also, the realization that many/most agents don’t want to take on a “mature” author, because that immediately limits the life expectancy for future writings she/he could sell. Many obstacles and very few open doors.

If you could, what advice would you give to your past self before embarking on this journey?

Follow your dream at age 18 (or younger), instead of being talked into the route of a “safe” career.

How many people would you ideally like to reach with your books?

There’s no finite number—thousands? Tens of thousands? Millions?

What has been the biggest challenge and frustration during the process to date?

I love writing. The challenge and frustration goes back to the unexpected/surprising things I learned, specifically about publishing: the challenge of gaining recognition and respect, of “breaking out”. An author friend maintains a blog called “Snowflakes in a Blizzard,” a forum for writers to try to reach wider audiences with their books. Someone I like and respect (presumably unintentionally) showed his dismissal of me as an author when he said, “These days it’s so easy for anyone to be published, it doesn’t mean anything.” Ouch.

What’s your biggest strengths when it comes to book a) writing, b) publishing and c) marketing?

Writing: I can “become” my characters and feel their emotions, positive and negative. I get inside their heads.

Publishing: With each failure to secure an agent or traditional publisher, I’ve used a hybrid publisher who offers many of the services a traditional publisher would offer—for a price, of course. If I can’t have a traditional publisher, I want at least to look like (and have services like editing and marketing assistance) a traditionally published author.

Marketing: I write a great marketing plan! Before and immediately upon release, I jump into a flurry of activities to win attention for the release and to hit the ground running with sales.

When do you think you will write your next book?

It’s already a work in progress! This one is a new challenge, a historical fiction building on my Armenian heritage. I’ve been immersed in research for nearly a year and hope to begin actually writing by the middle of 2020.

Are you self-published or did you use a hybrid publisher, or a traditional publisher?

I used Dog Ear Publishing, as I have for all my books except Autumn Colors. They provide the basic publishing services to produce e-books, paperbacks and hardcovers, but also packages that include services a traditional publisher would provide, such as editing and some marketing assistance.