Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacquelyn Phillips.
Jacquelyn, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was in the fifth grade. I remember charging my classmates a couple bucks for me to read their English assignments and edit it so that they would receive an A. Although the money was nice for the snack bar after school, I really did it because I enjoyed reading what people had to say, but I enjoyed critiquing it even more! Then, in the sixth grade, my best friend and I at the time, came up with this crazy story idea (we both had crushes on Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom and we’re currently obsessed with the first Pirates of The Caribbean movie): two average teen girls meet two handsome and witty actors and somehow through a ridiculous story full of (at the time) hilarious dialog, would fall in love. I somehow lost the manuscript over the years, but I remember it being something like six hundred pages typed out and I remember being so proud of something I created. Mainly, I remembered how great it felt to write and how fun it was to escape present life in order to go somewhere imaginative.
When I was in high school, I think my outlook on life grew a little bleaker. Yes, I was picked on in middle school (I was the only girl with curly hair and when I tried to straighten it, I completely ruined it with chemicals and burns; I was chubby for someone my age; I was taller than almost every boy in my class; I was smart, which made me a nerd… the list goes on and on), but somehow my cheerful demeanor stayed true and I was able to move beyond that. High school is a completely different story. My first boyfriend broke my heart into a million pieces by cheating on me with my next door neighbor (oh, young puppy love and the pain that comes along with it *sigh*), my second boyfriend cheated on me with some girl from church camp, my third boyfriend told everybody but me that the only reason he was dating me was to get in my pants — I’m going to stop there because I’m pretty sure you get the point. Not to say I was perfect. I broke hearts, I broke promises, I broke trust. If I’m being one-hundred percent honest, having record breaking levels of low self-esteem mingled with bursts of a false bravado created a sort of a misunderstood, self-hating, introverted extrovert who was obsessed with dressing in revealing clothes in order to gain the attention of my peers in negative ways that somehow made me feel positive about myself. Confusing? Ask my parents. My dad, in particular, loves to talk about my rebellious years where his innocent little pumpkin had to break every rule in order to discover “who she was” and “why she was” that way. I like to think that I was actually a relatively good daughter (I didn’t do drugs, didn’t drink, didn’t stay out past my curfew), but looking back, I know how much of a brat I was.
But this shaped me into the person I am today. I spent my weekends playing sports and trying to convince boys that I was this flirtatious little goddess, while I spent the weekdays writing stories about teenage pregnancy, about boys only wanting girls for their looks, about true love between two people from two completely different worlds. Sometimes, I felt like I was living a double life. However, no matter how many mistakes I made throughout high school and no matter how many months I spent crying over some silly boy, I never did give up on my writing. I would still eagerly critique my friends’ papers and would pass around the latest chapter of my newest novel to my classmates instead of listening to our teacher drone on about math or history. I would obsess over my English teachers and the books they forced us to read, my mind wandering to my own ideas rather than focusing on the plots and themes in our summer reading requirements. Writing became my escape from everything — fights with my parents, emotions I wasn’t quite ready to face, my fear of looking in a mirror, my teachers’ incessant nagging about my inability to pay attention in class, friend drama and cheating boyfriends. I created characters that were raw pieces of me, exposed and naked on a piece of notebook paper. I discovered through my classmates that those characters, the ones that forced me to look into dark places I wanted to escape, were the characters everybody wanted to know more about.
In college, things changed for me. Love wasn’t so easy anymore. Friendships were a lot harder to maintain. Trust was so easily broken. The rebel from high school disappeared into her cocoon, morphing into an anxiety ridden, depressed mess who wondered if the world would be a better place without her. I entrusted my emotions to the wrong people. I pulled myself away from socialization. I drowned myself in my studies. I did everything I could to try to keep the darkness at bay. Through this, my parents and I grew closer than ever. My dad encouraged me to keep a diary — to at least start writing again — in order to be proactive. With this in mind, I began writing a story that delved into topics people didn’t necessarily like to talk about: cheating in a relationship that isn’t marriage and how it still should be considered a sin, trusting friends with all of your secrets only to have them use those later on for ammunition, feeling like you’re nothing but a disappointment to your family, and probably most important, the inability to truly love anybody else because you don’t have the capacity to love yourself.
Fast forward beyond earning a degree in English and Comparative Literature, fast forward beyond earning my Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing, and here I am. I began my own editing business, A Lady and Her Pen, when I helped coauthor my father’s business/self-help/memoir, “Orcastration.” I helped other individuals with their assignments, helped other business men write books, helped new authors by editing their manuscripts, and even did some freelance work where I helped create website information for businesses so that their mission was more clear. Within that business, I decided to self-publish my novel, my baby, “Cat and Mouse.” After six years of writing and rewriting, I was ready to share it with the world. I self-published on Amazon with A Lady and Her Pen as the publishing house, sold something like one hundred copies right out of the gate, and continued my best to market to my best abilities. I reached out to professors, I attended local author events, I gave out free copies — I must say, marketing is not easy.
And then one day, out of the blue, I googled myself. It was then that I knew maybe I marketing was working because I found my book, “Cat and Mouse”, for sale on the Barnes and Noble website. Sure, it was print on demand, but the fact that my favorite book store in the whole world had MY novel in it pretty much made my entire year. About a week later, I happened to go into Barnes and Noble to find some new books to read, and the woman who helped me at the register magically asked me why I was buying so many books. When I mentioned I hadn’t read in a while because I was too busy writing a sequel to my first novel, she asked me about it. When she found out it was on the Barnes and Noble website, she looked it up, printed out the page, had me write my email and phone number on it and invited me to a local author event at the end of March. That event has by far been the highlight of my writing career — being featured in a Barnes and Noble has been my longstanding dream! With another event just around the corner, I must say that the need to write is greater than ever, but I can’t wait to sit in front of another crowd of people and read from a story that comes straight from the heart.
People may not always understand this about writers, but each chapter, each page, each character, has been peeled off of our hearts and stuck to the paper in the hope that someone else will understand our heartache, our joy, our pride, our exhaustion. Writing is, and always will be, the passion of life that keeps me moving forward no matter how difficult things may get in the process.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’ve had plenty of people tell me that having an English major will get me nowhere in life. I’ve had people tell me that I read too much, that the books I read are trash, that if it isn’t some sort of classical literature, it’s not worth reading. I’ve also been told that my story doesn’t matter, that the stakes aren’t high enough, that people won’t be able to relate to the main characters. My advice is to take what people have to say with a grain of salt. I’m a very sensitive person. My mom can’t believe I’m a writer because I cry at the most ridiculous things (like when watching Battle Bots and one of the Bots gets destroyed and I have to walk out of the room because I feel bad even though it is an inanimate object) and being a writer is extremely difficult. People LOVE to critique and criticize. They like to tell you where you excel, but really like to focus on what you do wrong. Don’t let those people slow you down. Surround yourself with a group of individuals who love and support you, no matter how “crazy” they may think you are for wanting to be a full-time writer. My book was rejected at least twenty-five times before I decided to self-publish and I’m still planning on sending out my second book to agents, fully expecting more rejections, but even more hopeful that someone will pick it up for me. The path to success is never an easy one and I’m far from reaching the end of it. Success really is a bunch of failures that you learn from. It’s going to sound SUPER cliche, but don’t give up. Oftentimes, people’s negative words have pushed me to work even harder because I’m the kind of person who wants to prove them wrong. Be strong. Be vulnerable. Be you.
We’d love to hear more about A Lady and Her Pen.
A Lady and Her Pen is an editing service for those who need their manuscripts read, for students looking to get a better grade on their paper, for businessmen who have great ideas but don’t necessarily know how to write them down. I really want to help others achieve their writing goals, whether they be as small as a website description or as large as a five-book fantasy series.
I really do specialize in writing novels. It’s my passion. If I could quit my job and write full time, I would do it in a heartbeat. My fingers itch when I haven’t written. It truly is a part of me.
I think that my drive and determination sets me apart from others. When I set my mind to something, I do it, and back when I was in the sixth grade writing that ridiculous novel, I told myself I was going to be a bestseller one day. I will never give up on that dream. Same goes for my clients. I want them to achieve their dreams as well.
On another note, my novel, “Cat and Mouse”, is about Roxanne Vaughn, a premed drop-out turned poet who wants to be a raging party girl like her roommates but is suffering from serious anxiety and social awkwardness. The summary of the book can be found below:
My name is Roxanne Vaughn. Most people just call me Roxy. My parents call me a disappointment. I’m not gonna lie — I hate how much they detest me, but I’ve learned to embrace their skepticism. What better way to write poetry than to feel like an outcast?
Insecure. Ugly. Stupid.
Even writing about my failure in pre-med has earned me some notoriety in my creative writing classes. Although some people believe I should write fiction, I don’t know if I could do that. It would probably end up being some distorted version of my own sick reality.
I’m originally from San Diego, the daughter of two well-known doctors, and the younger sister to the perfect God-send of an offspring. I moved to Rohnert Park to attend Sonoma State, to escape the pressures related to living with my parents and in the hope of creating some friendships along the way.
I just so happened to meet two extremely different boys — one in San Diego, one in Rohnert Park — on this journey to self-discovery.
I just so happened to fall in love with the wrong one. I’m not one of those “typical” party girls. Well, at least I wasn’t. My three best girlfriends converted me to their religion of drinking and bad decisions every Thursday through Saturday night. I guess you could say I live two lives. Possibly three, if you count hiding in my bedroom from societal pressures one of them.
I’m just a normal girl who puts her pants on one leg at a time. Except, I’m sleeping with two different guys every time I put on said pants.
Life could be worse. I could be striving to live the life of a penniless poet, bussing tables to afford an education my parents refuse to pay for. I could also be in a relationship built off of a foundation of lies. But, who am I to judge?
I’m just a simple twenty-something-year-old girl looking for her place in life. Maybe you’re in the same position as me. But, if you’ve already found out who you are — all that soul searching crap — don’t rub it in my face. I’m working on it. It’s just taking me longer than expected.
I’m a poet. I’m a bad daughter. I’m a good lover. I’m a loyal friend. I’m a hot mess. But, is there more to life than just that?
Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
Absolutely! I know that I have a cynical outlook on life — maybe it’s because I’ve been in the food industry for ten twelve years, maybe it’s because I’ve lost too many friends for cruddy reasons, maybe it’s because I’ve worn my heart so obviously on my sleeve, people took advantage of me — but I think that has helped me with my dark humor in my novels, and I think it has given me this sense of perseverance because I want to be better than the person I was yesterday. My parents have been an extremely important part of this process. Although maybe not so keen on it at first, they have supported me nonstop, promoting my book to their friends, bragging about my writing to coworkers and clients, giving me compliments that I’m still not so sure how to take because they’re my parents and I always feel like they want something more from me. Without their love and support, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to be who I am, and I most certainly wouldn’t have been given the chance at a great education, which certainly improved my ability to write over the years. They were also always there after every heartbreak, sopping up my tears, wrapping me in hugs, giving me ice cream, tucking me into bed. When you love as hard as I do, losing someone feels like you’ve lost a limb, and having my parents there to pick me up after every bad breakup helped me see things in a different light, and gave me a chance to write about them in a way that was humorous, but also extremely gut-wrenching.
Pricing:
- “Cat and Mouse” on Amazon.com: $19.99
- “Cat and Mouse” on BarnesandNoble.com: $19.99
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ladyandherpen.com
- Email: jmphillips0009@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aladyandherpen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catandmousenovel/
- Twitter: @ALadyandHerPen
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Mouse-Games-We-Play/dp/0692762809
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
