Interview with Jaycee Weaver part 2

I’m back with the second part of my interview with Jaycee Weaver!

Jaycees’ Bio:

Jaycee Weaver lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her awesome husband, three daughters, two crazy Shih Tzus, and a dwarf rabbit. When she’s not writing, she’s busy balancing the mom-wife life. Jaycee loves to read books in multiple genres, drink too much coffee (honestly, when are they going to make the coffee IV a real thing?!), sing, take landscape and floral photos, sew, cook, bake, and craft nearly anything. She considers herself a recovering perfectionist and sometimes hot mess. She does her best to live her faith in action, being open, honest, and real; letting God be Lord over the good, the bad, and the ugly even when it’s hard.

Camy here: Jaycee is one of the twelve authors participating with me in the Christian Contemporary Romance anthology, Save the Date, which releases September 15!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to preorder Save the Date for only 99 cents! The price will go up after the book releases.

Jaycee’s novella in the boxed set is Braver With You. We’ll be talking a bit about the book and also Jaycee’s family life.

And now, here’s me and Jaycee!

Tell us more about Braver With You, the novella that will be in the Save the Date anthology. How'd you come up with the story idea?

It's a funny story, actually. Within the anthology discussion group, one of our authors posted a ton of wedding dress-related ideas. I was burned out last fall and not feeling particularly creative until one of the ideas—and overbearing mother insisting the bride wear her old dress—started my wheels turning. I imagined a boy and girl who'd known and loved each other so long that their mothers had essentially planned their wedding from preschool. But what if that wedding wasn't the one they wanted? While looking at photos for further inspiration, I found a gorgeous shot of a bride running toward a hot air balloon, which is perfect because the tale is set in October when the city hosts the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Elements began to fall into place. What if Conrad is an adventurous sort, and he's always been the one to help Ashlyn find her courage? What if he's the reason she's able to stand up to her mother and fight for the wedding she wants? It's still a work in progress, but these are the questions that sparked my creativity again.

Now that I know more about your story, I can see how that book cover is so perfect!

Your heroine in Braver With You, Ashlyn, does yoga. Is there a cute story behind why she chose yoga for exercise?

Honestly, I haven't written much of this story yet, so I don't have a cute story! What I do know is that Ashlyn feels very trapped and yearns to be brave. With her inner turmoil and her overbearing mother, yoga is a wonderful outlet to keep her focused and centered.

I’ve only done a little yoga, but my husband has been doing it for a few years now, and he says the same thing, that it helps keep him calm and centered when work is very stressful.

What ministry do you do at your church or in your community? Why do you like doing it?

Everything I do is cyclical to fill a need or niche, so while right now I'm only an occasional greeter at church, I've taught Sunday school, sang on the worship team, run a church blog, been part of the elementary PTA board, volunteered in the classroom when the kids were little, among a host of other things. I love being involved wherever my kids are and wherever there's a need.

I think that’s fantastic! Our church’s deacons say that sometimes they just need someone to step up where there’s a sudden need.

What are your favorite TV shows?

I haven't really been able to focus on television in the last few years, but when I do, my tastes are eclectic! I love Virgin River, but my go-to streaming favorites are Doctor Who, Chuck, Psych, Gilmore Girls, and The Office (which I hated at first!).

I totally loved Chuck! I think I just like nerds.

If you adopted a chimpanzee, what would you name it and why?

I wouldn't. Primates creep me out. LOL!

Oops, sorry about that question!

You're off the hotseat! Any parting words?

Thank you so much for having me!

Camy here: Next week, I’ll post a knitting pattern for the yoga bag that Jaycee’s heroine Ashlyn uses in her novella, Braver with You, one of the books in our Christian Contemporary Romance anthology, Save the Date, which releases September 15! Preorder now to get 12 novellas for only 99 cents!