Interview with Jayna Breigh & a Giveaway

Please welcome Jayna Breigh to my blog this week! Jayna and I were both 2021 ACFW Genesis contest finalists in the Contemporary category, so I’m excited to see her published now.

I hope you’ll enjoy learning about her debut novel, The Hunted Heir.

Be sure to comment below by January 28 for a chance to win a paperback copy! (US resident only)

Welcome, Jayna! Start out by telling us a little about yourself and your family.

I grew up as the civilian equivalent of an Army brat. My dad worked for IBM, and we moved all over. I have a total of 8 schools under my belt, K-12. I’ve lived in 6 different states and spent extended time in many others. 

I eventually went to college in Massachusetts, law school in Virginia, then packed up my Chevrolet Cavalier and drove across the country to practice law in Los Angeles. 

In LA, I met my airline pilot husband. I retired from the practice of law. We moved across the country to the southeast, set up shop, and started a family. We hybrid homeschooled our kids until they were older, and now one is in college, and one is on their way next year.

Wow, you’ve had lots of experiences over the years. Do you have any hobbies? Have you incorporated any of them into your books?

Writing is my hobby, and I love it. I enjoy thinking up stories, untangling knotty plot problems, and refining sentences. I also enjoy the marketing aspects. Instagram is my addiction, and it is so much fun interacting with readers and writers there. I’m also co-host of the Facebook group Eating Our Words, and it is wonderful how that reader group has embraced me and encourages me.

How and when did you start writing?

This is a great question. I thought I started writing in 2016, but looking back in my files, I started in 2012. The time has flown by. My first finished novel was a historical piece set just before the Civil War. It focused on the Methodist Church’s split over slavery. 

After finishing the second round of editing, I realized I didn’t have what it takes to write in the historical genre. My hat is off to all those diligent writers. I started that book because I was reading Amish and historical Christian romances, and I was trying to craft the equivalent type of book with Black protagonists.

I don’t think I could write historical books either. The research might do me in. LOL. What genre do you write and what inspired you to write that particular genre?

The next genre after I failed at historical was contemporary Christian romance. I knew it would have a legal angle, but it was not a legal thriller. A wise counselor advised me to lean into the legal side of my writing more, and make sure the legal plot thread had equal page time with the romance. That’s when my genre, Romantic Legal Drama, was born.

I didn’t even know that was a genre, but I like it! I’ve always been interested in books, shows, etc. revolving around law and the courtroom. Let’s talk about how you incorporate Christ and hope into your writing.

It has been important to me that there is a character who has a spiritual transformation—from lack of faith to faith, from a season of doubt to assurance, from distraction to commitment. Also, I love “the sage archetype.” Wise individuals organically come alongside my heroes and heroines to speak spiritual wisdom to them. One character in The Hunted Heir is what lawyers call a “laughing heir.” 

My firm was not specifically an heir-hunting firm, but during my practice, I worked on cases where the passage of time, interceding family deaths, and geography resulted in estates passing to heirs the deceased neither knew nor anticipated. These individuals are called “laughing heirs” because they laugh all the way to the bank, cashing their unexpected windfalls.

That’s so interesting! What is the setting of your current novel? Is it a real location or fictional? Tell us about it.

My current novel is a love letter to my adopted hometown, Los Angeles. I practiced law in Downtown LA and in Beverly Hills, and I loved living in Southern California. In LA, people try not to “fangirl,” but it was a rush seeing TV and movie stars two or three times a year out in the wild. Teri Hatcher stood beside me in a Starbucks and struck up a brief conversation about a cute mug!

That’s cool! How did you select the names for your characters?

For the main characters, I just feel it. I make sure the name of the heroine and the hero balance each other, so both names won’t have three syllables, for example. I want their names to be unique, but pronounceable. 

For secondary characters—bad guys, opposing counsel, etc.—I take the Dickensian approach. I give people names that evoke their poor character: lots of hard consonants, names that evoke evil villains from the past. I pulled up a list of Disney villains and people tried in the Salem witch trial, looking for evocative names that give a hint of the person’s character.

Do you have any pets? Do they find their way into your stories?

I have no pets, but I strongly believe in having animals in books. There are various dogs in The Hunted Heir, and in my next novel, there’s a cat who rules her entire household. I read a post once that said Cuff and Link in the movie Rocky instantly humanized Rocky’s character, and tell us he’s someone to root for, so I try to have pets in every book.

Makes sense. How do you tackle research for your novels?

Researching my first historical novel, I borrowed over 50 books from the library. If I found something online, I would save the URL to my home screen, then save that in a folder. It was all too much. Now, I save the URL in a document with a notation of the point I need that information for. 

As an example, if I cite a legal statute, I find the current version and save the URL in a document to use when I have to go back and fact-check the book. Sometimes I’ll watch YouTube videos. I’ve read other legal thrillers to see how they handle the transitions between the legal parts of the book and the romance side.

What advice would you give an aspiring author?

Embrace critique—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Put your work in front of other people for their thoughts, in a group, via contests, or through paid critiques. After the initial zing of the honest critique no longer stings, look closely at what the reader said, weigh it, and if it is good advice, implement it.

That’s solid advice for anyone, writer or not. Thanks so much for sharing on my blog, Jayna. I wish you the best with your book launch and all your future writing endeavors!

Join the conversation. Does the Romantic Legal Drama genre interest you? Do animals in a story add to your enjoyment of the book? What questions or comments do you have for Jayna?

Be sure to comment below by January 28 for a chance to win a paperback of Jayna’s book! (US resident only)

Please share Jayna’s interview on social media to help spread the word about her debut novel!

If you missed Heidi Gray McGill’s spotlight last week, FIND IT HERE.