Meet Jodi Bowersox

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodi Bowersox.

Jodi, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
If there is one defining characteristic in each of us, I’d have to say mine is creativity. I’ve been making, drawing, sewing, writing, acting, directing, building, tiling, and designing my whole life. And while the principle ways that I make money these days is writing, art, and sewing, the other things are no less important to me. And those three things have ebbed and flowed throughout my life. At the moment, writing is where most of my time and energy goes.

One of the first writing “jobs” I had was as the News Reporter for several different 4-H clubs in grade school. I was good at it. I got purple ribbons for it. And most importantly, no one else wanted to do it. I pushed through a period of very bad poetry and wrote a play in college that I directed for my senior project. I then stumbled into a twenty-year niche of writing skits, children’s productions, and women’s programs for my church. I have compiled these into one book called Chosen, and other productions, programs, and skits.

After writing a couple of children’s books under the name J.B. Stockings where I also got to use art in illustrating, I tried my hand at writing a novel. So I have to back up here a moment and acknowledge that it was my mother who actually pushed me into writing that first book. She was a big romance reader and insisted I could write better romances than were out there. I regret not putting my fingers to the keyboard for that purpose until she had passed away, but I give her credit now for the whole new life her suggestion gave me. From the very first sentence, I was hooked. Obsessed. Needed to write every single day. That was 2011, and my first book, Interiors By Design, is still one of my highest rated books on Amazon.

I’m currently working on my fourteenth novel, which is the third in a Sci-Fi Romcom series called Tripping on Mars. I also have a time-travel series set in the Manitou Springs/Colorado Springs area called The Lightning Riders, and a faith fiction series I call my Rocky Mountain series. But wait, there’s more! I have a couple stand-alones as well: a small town Nebraska story called Horses, Adrenaline, and Love, and a romantic suspense titled Cinnamon Girl Explains It All. I hope you’ll check them out on Amazon or my website: www.jodibowersox.com

Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think publishing is ever a smooth road, whether you go the traditional route or become an independent author. Unless you’re outrageously famous, you still have to do marketing, and unfortunately, that’s a different skill set than crafting fiction. Almost no authors enjoy the marketing side of things.

Since I’m an artist also, I quite often compare the two. I can do a pet portrait in 3 or 4 days and have immediate kudos for it. The book process usually takes around six months, and then you have to convince someone to give you 8 or 9 hours of their life to read it. And about 1% of the people that read it review it. Seeing that you have a new review is both exciting and terrifying. It could make your day or destroy your week.

There are of course, highly successful writers, but most don’t write for the money or the pats on the back. They do it because not to do it is too painful.

We’d love to hear more about your art.
As an artist, I specialize in watercolor pet portraits. As a seamstress, my specialty at the moment is making women’s vests out of men’s ties. As a writer, I’m known for writing in a number of different genres under the big umbrella of clean romance.

I think what I’m the most proud of is also what sets me apart: I don’t get stuck in a genre, and I don’t use overused tropes and plot lines. You won’t catch me writing fifty Highland romances that only vary slightly in plot. Neither will I ever write the accidentally married story, a marriage of convenience story, a billionaire romance, the navy seal bodyguard story, or the Pride and Prejudice retelling (unless I can somehow put them all in one book! I have considered it). The romance genre is absolutely overflowing with this lack of creative thought, and I refuse to add to it. My motto is Real Life, Real Love.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love Colorado Springs! Easy to get around with beauty beyond compare! We have a little something for everyone–from theaters and museums to miniature golf. Plus there are places to hike right in the middle of town!

Pricing:

• My books range from $10 to $14.50, although the digital versions are only $3.99
• My pet portraits are $250
• My tie vests are $50

Contact Info:

• Website: http://jodibowersox.com/
• Email: jodi.bowersox@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JodiBowersoxArtistry
• Twitter: twitter.com/jodibowersox
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/jbartistry1015

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