The First Interview of Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel, Following Release of "The Granite Rock"

            (My close friend Christine wanted to interview me following the release of this book)



Christine/ C :   "So I read that "The Granite Rock" is the sixth book and third novel.  Have you pretty much settled on writing novels for the foreseeable future ?

Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel/ JAK:   "Not really. I once said that I write what I think needs to be written, or needs to be said. Sometimes that takes the form of telling a personal story, or a biography, or a self help book, or a novel.  When I get a concept for a book, and it begins to take shape, it might be a novel, but it could be something else.  There are two or three other books I would like to write which would be biographies of amazing women, but I don't have enough personal information to write them. If this changed, then I might do some biographies.

C: " The book about your father, "Lawrence DeWolfe Kelsey: The Life of the Explorer" was very much a biography."

JAK:    "Yes, and in a sense, "What I Learned from Daniel" was a biography not only of my youngest son Daniel, but a biographical look of our family in that period of time."

C: "So tell me about "The Granite Rock" and where that concept and those characters originated.

JAK:  "Well my family and I do spend time in Nova Scotia, and as I conveyed in "The Granite Rock", there are legends and stories, particularly about the sea. The sea is quite mysterious, even to those who are experienced with it, or who live nearby.  There is also a rock that very much resembles the rock in my book.  The genuine rock actually did act as a platform for people who were exiting sinking ships on several occasions within a few hundred years, and I thought that was fascinating.  I began to wonder if the rock could actively help people rather than passively help them, during life's hardest moments, when their own survival was at stake."  "As for the characters themselves, it has long been said that a good novelist uses everything and everyone they know in the construction of their places described, and characters that grow in their novels. These characters have features and attributes of a number of people I know, and also, of myself."

C: "So there is truth in this novel?"

JAK: "There is a lot of truth in this novel. In fact, one technique in selling the reader on believing your novel is to load it with a great deal of truth. I research or have experienced many of the things I related in this book, in one manner or another."

C: "Why did you make the husband and wife in the story a psychiatrist and a psychologist ?"

JAK:  "A good friend of mine is a psychiatrist, and I have psychologist friends also. They are often very bright, creative people who have a lot of interests. I thought it would be interesting for the couple, who most of the time are very down to Earth, to be required as a result of happenings within the story, to deal with a concept or a possibility that cannot be explained. I think that makes the story more interesting."

C:  "Are you working on another project now ?"

JAK:  "No, not yet.  It has taken me some time, since 2012, to learn the process of writing a book, or at least the process that works for me.  I get an idea, then I develop it, research it, outline it, and then I begin to write. After the initial draft there are multiple revisions and then people who read it and provide feedback.  Thus far, it takes me about a year to have the book itself ready.  Most of the time, I also have a concept idea for the cover and so either I, my daughter who is an artist and photographer, or my husband, take cover pictures.  Then once the book is out, time must be spent, no matter who you are, in promoting your efforts. The competition is fierce, even for the well established authors.  Traditionally, I have found promoting my books unnatural for me, and challenging. I need to learn to budget time and energy for it, following each project.

C: "So you are presently in the promotion phase of "The Granite Rock".

JAK:  "Yes, that and the recovery phase from all that writing and those revisions. 

C:  "Thank you for taking the time to talk. I didn't realize that you research even the novels, and that you try so hard to make them reality based.

JAK: " Well, I think of all that we have discussed, we may just never have touched on that before. Thank you for interviewing ME.  Yes, I think the greatest compliment paid to me in a recent review was that the reader wondered if "The Granite Rock" was actually true."