Authors Interviewing Characters: Echoes of Us by Joy Jordan-Lake

by Joy Jordan-Lake

ECHOES OF US

From the bestselling author of Under a Gilded Moon comes the soaring story of an unlikely friendship of three men and one extraordinary woman and the legacy they built—if their own secrets don’t destroy it.

In the midst of World War II, a Tennessee farm boy, a Jewish Cambridge student, and a German POW forge a connection that endures—against all odds.

But now everything that Will Dobbins, Dov Silverberg, and Hans Hessler fought for is at risk as their descendants clash for control of the corporation they founded together. In an attempt to remake its tattered corporate image, the firm hires event planner Hadley Jacks and her sister Kitzie to organize a reunion for the families on St. Simons Island, Georgia, the place that changed all three men’s lives forever.

As Hadley and her sister delve into the friends’ past, they uncover the life of the courageous young woman who links them all together…and the old wounds that could tear everything apart.

Told in dual timelines spanning World War II and the present, Echoes of Us follows the ripple effects of war, the bonds that outlast it, and the hope that ultimately carries us forward.

—

Joy Jordan-Lake, Author: Seriously, they chose you, the one with the most secrets, the most at stake, the one with the most potential spoilers for me to interview?

Character (about 20 years old, stretching out her long legs): You’re not going to introduce me first? And, listen, it’s not like they gave me any warning, either. I might’ve dressed up. Or not. 

(The character nods down at the man’s button-down shirt she’s tied at the waist, the high-waisted white shorts with some sort of machine oil smeared across the front, and a pair of old, frayed Keds. Her face, though, even without makeup is striking and her hair, though windblown and tousled, falls in thick, brown waves to her shoulders: a Rita Hayworth level of good looks, though she seems utterly unconscious of this.)

JJL: You’re fine, really—dressed just right for the opening scene. (Turning to an audience of readers.) Friends, this is Joannie DuBarry, native of St. Simons Island, Georgia, coming to us as she appears in one of the early chapters of my new—”

Joannie: Ahem.

JJL: That is, I guess our new dual timeline novel Echoes of Us set in 1942 and present day. Joannie’s a main character in the 1942 story and she’s …oh dang, how much can I say? She’s a female aviator. Very spunky. Very feisty. 

Joannie: But you’ll remember that sailing was my first love, even before flying.

JJL: Which is why you appear for the first time in the World War II storyline on the boat you refurbished. Sailing, I might add, a tiny boat farther offshore than you were supposed to be, especially given that dark was falling fast.

Joannie: I’ve never been good at “supposed to.”

JJL: No kidding. I had trouble keeping up with you most days.

Joannie: Women in my era didn’t learn to fly planes to help the Allied cause in a world war because we were “supposed to,” you know. 

JJL: Listen, don’t think I don’t admire you. Hugely, in fact. I started out intrigued by the Women Airforce Service Pilots and ended up in absolute awe.

Joannie: Thanks. But we didn’t do it to impress anyone. We did it because we were desperate for a madman not to gobble up any more countries than he already had. And, honestly,  also because we loved flying. Which reminds me to say: I noticed you started the whole novel inside a German U-boat. With Hans, of all characters. Not to question your artistic choice but…seriously? 

JJL: The stakes are pretty darn high, wouldn’t you say, if a submarine is sitting off the coast of the enemy country, within easy sightlines of the buildings there, all still lit up bright and happy because the island’s residents naively thought Hitler’s navy could never reach this far across the Atlantic, that sub just waiting to fire its torpedoes? And the guy looking through the periscope not only spots a young woman on a little sailboat but also is incredibly conflicted about his loyalties to that madman you mentioned, Hitler.

Joannie: I’ll give you that. It did feel like high stakes in those years. Every single minute of every day—”love and laughter and peace ever after,” as one of my favorite songs said, the fate of the whole world at stake. But how many readers do you think will be riveted by the workings of a German sub?

JJL: It’s the character inside the sub we care about, all his inner turmoil and the decisions he’ll have to make—and, of course, his spotting you.

Joannie (concedes this with a nod): Fair enough. Although you did choose to have me share the pages with an entirely different storyline eighty years later. I wondered how that would turn out.

JJL: It ratchets up the suspense—at least, that’s the hope. When Hadley and her sister take on planning the reunion of the three families of those three men…

(Joannie, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, looks away.)

JJL (softening her voice): those guys who were your friends, all three of them. The Tennessee farm boy…

Joannie (speaking hardly above a whisper): William Shakespeare Dobbins.

JJL: And the brilliant Cambridge student in physics, Dov Silverberg, who was Jewish…

Joannie (voice still low and somber): Yes. Yes, he was. And it meant the world to him, his being Jewish. It meant…but then, you know all about that.

JJL: And then the German prisoner of war Hans. 

Joannie: The three of them becoming friends after all that. 

JJL: And all three of them connected with you.

Joannie (looking up sharply): Yes. Yes, they were. We…changed each other’s lives, I guess you could say. We made a difference in our own separate ways to the course of the war. We fought for what we believed in. And we changed things. In the world. And in each other. (She brushes the back of her hand over a cheek.) Sorry. I never cry. It’s just….

JJL (giving Joannie a few beats to recover herself): It’s all good. People of remarkable courage like you can still tear up, you know. 

Joannie: Not if you’re a woman in 1943 and you’re in the sightline of one of the colonels who think women can only ever stay home and have babies.

JJL: Fair enough. But we’ve evolved a little since then. Women can fly planes now and still express emotion without being seen as weak. At least, okay…some of the time we can. Listen, Joannie, about the love story thread of this story….

Joannie: Which one? Mine’s complicated, as you might’ve noticed, and you said no spoilers. That Hadley–from the present day timeline—she’s got her own, if you ask me. Though she’s too focused on her work to notice.

JJL: Let’s see…now who would that remind me of?

Joannie (suddenly glancing at her watch): My brother Sam is waiting on me for a practice flight—today I’m slipping in some barrel rolls. 

JJL (looking stricken): Your brother. Sam. He’s here?

Joannie: Of course. What’s wrong?

JJL: It’s just that…. Never mind. Tell him hello from me. And, Joannie?

Joannie (turning, her face already flushed with the excitement of flying): Yep?

JJL: Just know I’ll be thinking about your story—and your three friends’ stories—for a long, long time. Thank you for what you’re doing. 

Joannie (pausing, then, impulsively, giving the author a hug): I don’t often cry and I don’t often hug. But today looks like an exception. And don’t worry. I’ll be around. Invite me to the book clubs or lunches or wherever it is you writer types speak and I’ll come when I can. Just ask them—the readers, I mean….

JJL: Sure. Ask them what?

Joannie (quietly): Just ask them to be merciful when they talk about what I’ve done or anything I will do coming up, would you? Just ask them to put themselves in my shoes.

JJL: Of course. Of course I will.

(Glancing down at her frayed Keds, Joannie turns, snatches up a long, white aviator scarf, then jogs away, the author watching her go.)

BUY HERE

—

Joy Jordan-Lake is a #1 Amazon bestselling author of thirteen books. Her most recent works include the  ECHOES OF US, a dual timeline novel set on St. Simons Island, Georgia, during World War II and present day; a historical mystery A BEND OF LIGHT, set on the coast of Maine, as well as the bestselling A TANGLED MERCY, a Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choice selection; UNDER A GILDED MOON, chosen by Humanities North Carolina as one of five books for the North Carolina Reads 2023 statewide book club; and the Christy Award-winning BLUE HOLE BACK HOME. Her novel-in-progress is a dual timeline story set in present day and WW2 on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. It will release in fall of 2024. In addition to academic books and other nonfiction for adults, Joy has also published three children’s picture books, ALL THE LITTLE ANIMALS, SIR DRAKE THE BRAVE and A CRAZY-MUCH LOVE.

Having earned two masters degrees as well as a Ph.D. in English literature with an emphasis on the 19th-century, Joy currently writes full time and teaches some semesters as an adjunct professor at Belmont University. She is also a mom of young adult children, hiker, dog-lover, traveler, gardener of all things that need no coddling, and a recently-rededicated—though sometimes backsliding—runner.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing