Louisiana Saturday Night with Author Jeff LeJeune

I have an enormous amount of respect for writers who hold full time jobs and still manage to turn out books. I know there's a drive and passion inside them that every writer must have to succeed. So...it gives me great pleasure to introduce Louisiana author, Jeff LeJeune--a very busy man with a passion for writing.


1) Tell us a little about yourself and your book. How does living in Louisiana influence your writing?
My first book, The Final Chase, is more of a parable and includes stock characters that combine to create the desired allegorical effect. Since it is in parable-form, the symbols and settings used are not Louisianian, though of course the human elements can be applied anywhere. My second book, Postmarked Baltimore, set for release this summer, does have some surreal elements to it, but it is much more based in a real-world setting than the first book. Baltimore was chosen because of the main character’s affinity to Edgar Allan Poe, but the main character is actually from Louisiana. His parents divorced and he moved to Baltimore before the story’s beginning to get a fresh start. My father’s stories of milking the cow before basketball games when he was a child provided the inspiration for the scene where Perry (the main character) talks to Noel about his days on the farm. No other Louisiana influences are readily visible, but I do hope to tap into the rich culture and heritage of our state in future novels.

2) Tell us about your path to publication. Was it difficult or was it a breeze?

It was terribly difficult. I originally tried to get published by sending manuscripts out on my own, but I received a lot of stock responses, pre-prepared letters I think every author has had to read at some point or another. “If you like my book so much, why don’t you publish it?” is, I imagine, the common question we ask ourselves. A domino-effect started in the spring of 2003 when a colleague of mine introduced me to a man in Houston whose nephew is a literary agent. I was introduced to this nephew, and he worked for a year before SterlingHouse Publisher finally made contact and an offer. I was at the end of my rope in terms of hope for the book ever being published, but I truly had faith that God would see it through if it was his divine will. A comforting tagline to grasp when you’re floating in life, I guess, but it sure does work.

3) You chose the self-publishing route instead of traditional publishing. Tell us how you came to the decision to go that route, and do you have any regrets? I was fortunate enough to sign with SterlingHouse Publisher, which, though independent, is a traditional publisher.

4) How much do you know about how your books are going to be structured, who the characters are, and what the plot is going to be, before you actually start writing, and how much comes to you during the writing process? In other words, are you a plotter or do you sit down and just start writing to see what happens?
I’d say it’s about half-and-half. Certainly, there is a plan in mind, but without freedom to breathe, characters will become stale. It is one of the things I struggled with with my first book because I needed to keep the characters in a somewhat static form to keep the parable-form of the novel in tact. With Postmarked, two stories going nowhere—A Gentleman Named Lucifer and The Candlewax Romance—were combined in the initial stages to form The Phoenix Always Rises, an early version of the novel that will be released in June. Two major and two minor revisions and a title change later, I have what I think is a first-rate story I can be proud of.

5) If you could go back and talk to yourself when you were a beginning writer, what advice would you offer?
One thing would be to not let my personal life get in the way of the revising process. Once the book goes to press, that’s pretty much it, unless you become really famous and can dictate whether or not you want to run a second edition of your book. I allowed some emotional distress to distract me and it made me apathetic to the changes that I needed to make. Another thing that I would do, something I did well with, I think, in the second book, is to let go of some material. Sometimes I spend so much time working on a story or even a paragraph that I don’t want to delete it when the revising time comes, no matter how much I know it doesn’t belong. I think that’s the creator’s nightmare, to destroy that which took so long to create, but it must be done. A tip to beginning writers that helped me get over this: create a “cuts” file that you can cut and paste into. That way, you can convince yourself that you may “use it later” in this novel or another. Even though you know deep down inside that you’re never going back to that file again, you’ll know that at least you didn’t have to completely dispose of it. It’ll always be there, never to be read, but there.

6) Do you have or have you ever had a critique group? What advice do you have for those writers who live and breathe critique groups?
I have never been a part of a critique group, but I would like to join one. I’ve sometimes wanted to ask colleagues of mine to look at my work, but they have their own 130 papers to grade and I really don’t want to take their time away, knowing how valuable it is. As far as living and breathing a critique group, I think an author has to have a healthy balance between being willing to accept constructive criticism and knowing when to trust his or her creative instincts.

7) Do you blog? How does blogging/MySpace and websites fit in with your writing and has it helped you market your writing? Can you tell if your website/blog has raised your profile as a writer? If you don’t do any of this, then share your favorite marketing advice with us.
I just joined a Writers Group on Facebook and ended up getting 50 personal friends on the regular account in just a few days. It is quite nice to chat with former friends, but it is difficult to get into marketing the book when it has been so long since I’ve talked to them. I’m hoping the Writers Group, originated by some of my publishers’ employees, will stimulate some interest for my book in more states and in more networks. I am still learning the marketing business of my book, but I do know that word of mouth and simply requesting that your friends email news updates to their networks helps a great deal in getting the word out there.

8) What piece of writing advice have you been given that you still bring to mind each time you sit down to start a new book?
It’s funny, but I actually remember advice that I don’t end up following. I watched this movie once called Finding Forrester, and the writer in the story tells his young apprentice to write first, think later. I have tried to be less meticulous as I write, to let chapters sit as rough drafts for some time before I get back to the novel as a whole for revisions. It’s just really difficult for me to do that, and I admire people that can. I often find myself rewriting a chapter for a couple days before moving on. I guess this is better than I used to be; I used to spend several days on individual chapters before finding the guts to move on. Maybe that was it: not necessarily overwriting, but postponing the inevitable plunge into foreign ground in the story, which can always be daunting.

9) Do you have a career or job outside of writing and if so, give us a typical day. How do you fit writing into your schedule?
This is one of the frustrations of my life, that I enjoy teaching 11th grade English at St. Louis Catholic High School and going back to McNeese for my Masters Degree so much that oftentimes new writing projects are put on hold. It takes all of my energy to teach, grade, write and read for school, try to market the upcoming novel, and, oh, yeah, love my wife. A typical day has me waking up between 6 and 6:15 and showing up for work at 6:45. I meet with any students who have missed class or have to make up tests until 7:45. I teach until 2:40, when, during the winter and spring, I go to track practice (our Girls won the state championship this year, 2008). After that, depending on the day, I go to class, do homework, grade, work in the yard, or spend time with my wife, all things I must do around eating and cleaning and praying, which I don’t do enough of, I must confess. It’s bedtime at around 10, and I usually wake up at around 1 am for a refreshing hour of thinking about teaching or new novel ideas. I need to work on that last one; it’s about the only thing I don’t enjoy in my day.

10) What is the last book you read and why did you read it?
I finished Paul Austere’s Travels in the Scriptorium for a review I had to write in my graduate-level class. I re-read I Am Legend in order to be refreshed on the story enough to teach it. The last book I read for pure pleasure was It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium, a memoir written by John Ed Bradley. All three are books I recommend.

11) What professional organizations do you belong to and why? Or how have they benefited you?

Unfortunately, I am not a part of any professional organizations. Maybe that’s the next step in marketing myself as an author.

Tell us what's new on the horizons for you, any hopes or dreams or goals you want to achieve, where we can buy your book, whatever you want us to know. :) I love writing stories and I hope to be able to do more of it once I relax some of my load in teaching and finish my Masters Degree plan. I do have two stories working right now, one in particular that is over 70,000 words in. Right now, already, it is longer than either The Final Chase or Postmarked Baltimore. I hope to find time to finish it this summer. My dream to see my novels go to film, as I am a very visual person interested in art and film. I realize that to do that would take either a lucky break or a whole bunch of people buying the books, so if anybody reading this wants to help out, please feel free! If you’re not a web-buyer, the books are available through any bookstore.

Thank you for taking the time to read a little bit about me.


Check out Jeff LeJeune's website where more information can be found about him and his work.