Joyce Godwin Grubbs has a knack for turning real life tragedy into fiction with her set of suspense novels.  She explains why working in groups and with writers’ co-ops has been her chosen method of marketing.

1. Pretend for a moment I’m a reader looking for my next book.  Pitch me one of your books in five to ten sentences.

Jason’s Love is W.A.R. (Suspense): Sgt. Jason Hammer returned to the Army to serve his country believing his best friend, Sgt. Kendall Bruce, would continue in the Army as well: the two were to be ‘lifers’.  He was stunned when his re-upping party before deployment to Afghanistan coincided with her going away party.  Her plan: to go into hiding to avoid prosecution for a felony.  The saga of military family and personal family are in conflict as the soldiers reveal the good, bad and sacrificial in the lives of today’s military.  The camaraderie, love and loss of today’s soldiers is epitomized by Sgt. Hammer and his example of what is best in our volunteer army and all that it means to be “Army Strong” – even with feet of clay.

2. What motivated you to become an indie writer?

My mistake was saving my body of work for retirement and thinking publishing would be my project.  I soon found that the interested publishers had date projections for my novels (seven at that time) that would extend until I was possibly senile or dead!  I also had control issues with editors who when told the novels contained real cases fictionalized into suspense books (to protect identities) would tell me after reading the content, “This would never happen.”  I would have to remind them they were “real cases fictionalized, so it had already happened.”

3. Have you been traditionally published?  Why or why not?

I withdrew my works from consideration to self publish; then later independently published through an organization.  “The Trula Godwin Project” puts high risk victims underground and maintains an underground mail system for victims.  It is a good fit as I write about strong women and their issues and this organization was begun posthumously to recognize the life of a pioneer policewoman who went from victim to survivor.

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