Write What You Know—But Not Exactly!
My second novel, Just One Look, tackles the subject of first love, a universal theme. At will, I can summon the face of my first love and the intense waves of desire and longing that claimed me so many years ago. Channeling those feelings helped me write the story of Dani Marek, who fell in love at thirteen, as did I. From there, our stories diverge; my heartbreak bears no resemblance to hers. So, while I write what I know about first love, I do not regurgitate my own story.
In my writing, the character is paramount; I savor the process of getting to know her, developing her story, and creating her world. From appearance to habits to quirks, my character becomes real. I hold conversations with her, ask questions, delve into her innermost feelings, create her family, even dream about her. At times, a line of dialogue falls from the ether, and I know I will use it in the novel. I cherish those gifts from the muse.
Ah, first love! For a few lucky souls, it may be lifelong, but more commonly, it is not. Sadly, for Dani Marek, the main character in my novel, it didn’t turn out the way she hoped and planned.
In 1965, Dani Marek grows up a little too fast in her Southside Chicago neighborhood. At thirteen, she’s struck boy-blind by John, a tall, handsome newcomer from Tennessee; no other boy stands a chance. For six years, their love blossoms as well as her certainty and belief in a beautiful future—until the Vietnam War ends John’s life. Instead of enduring the painful journey through grief and emerging on the other side, Dani decides to wreak revenge on the male population of her city. Her ill-conceived plan doesn’t end well.
The challenge of telling Dani’s story comes in keeping her sympathetic and relatable despite her selfish and misguided escapades in the singles bars and clubs on Chicago’s Rush and Division Streets. Her heart is granite. She’s convinced herself she’ll never love again and sets out to prove it. Deep down, she knows her actions are wrong, but she can’t stop—until circumstances force her hand.
After breaking hearts—her new favorite sport— Dani takes the easy way out and marries a man for money, not love. She operates without self-reflection and only an occasional twinge of conscience. When Dani discovers she’s pregnant after a brutish and unwanted sexual encounter with the husband she’s planning to leave, her Catholic upbringing won’t allow her to consider an abortion. The decision to bear the child is the one saving grace in her otherwise venal and manipulative life.
Her marriage ends, but not in divorce. A widow at twenty-four, she matures, although the siren call of the singles bars drags her back—until one day when she receives a phone call from Noah, John’s childhood friend who served with him in Vietnam. But Dani’s lack of acceptance of John’s death leads to problems in what seems like an ideal match. Read Just One Look to find out what happens.
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Advance praise: Author Joanne Easley has a knack for grabbing readers attention from her catchy first lines and holding on tight until she closes with her poignant ending. Easley writes a quick-paced story of love and redemption. Dani is an engaging character, and the reader will cheer her on, through thick and thin. With a satisfying ending, readers are sure to love this timeless story.
Advance praise: In an engaging, deep-seated story, the hurt of the past haunts both present and future but author Joanne Easley guides us, with laser-sharp insight, into that which moves us forward.
JUST ONE LOOK is available for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the publisher, Black Rose Writing.
Just One Look, Joanne Kukanza Easley
“Easley writes a thoroughly gripping story, set in the sixties and seventies, of a woman’s loss and grief, and how, after a series of trying events, she learned how to heal her heart again.” –Sublime Book Review
In 1965 Chicago, thirteen-year-old Dani Marek declares she’s in love, and you best believe it. This is no crush, and for six blissful years she fills her hope chest with linens, dinnerware, and dreams of an idyllic future with John. When he is killed in action in Viet Nam, Dani’s world shatters. She launches a one-woman vendetta against the men she seeks out in Rush Street’s singles bars. Her goal: break as many hearts as she can. Dani’s ill-conceived vengeance leads her to a loveless marriage that ends in tragedy. At twenty-four, she’s left a widow with a baby, a small fortune, and a ghost-make that two.
Set in the turbulent Sixties and Seventies, Just One Look explores one woman’s tumultuous journey through grief, denial, and letting go.
BUY HERE
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Bio: Joanne Kukanza Easley, born in Chicago, Illinois, has adopted Texas as her home. She lives in the Texas Hill Country on a small ranch with her husband, three rescue terriers, and abundant wildlife. Retired from a career in nursing—with dual specialties in the cold, clinical operating room, and the intense, emotional world of psychiatric nursing, she devotes her time to writing fiction about complicated, twentieth-century women who eventually figure it out. Her debut novel, SWEET JANE, was named the winner in adult fiction at the Texas Author Project and was a finalist in the 2021 Sarton Awards. JUST ONE LOOK, set in her native Chicago, will be released on June 24, 2021. Her current work-in-progress, I’LL BE SEEING YOU, tells the story of Lauren Eaton, a character in SWEET JANE.
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Just One Look: Easley, Joanne Kukanza: 9781684337262: Amazon.com: Books
Just One Look by Joanne Kukanza Easley, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
Category: On Writing
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