One of my favorite aspects of writing a story is a rather anthropological one: deciding what beliefs my characters adhere to. In Industrialized, my characters follow Columbiana, a deity they don’t realize is something we know now as the Statue of Liberty. In Peace on Earth & Mercy Mild, my upcoming novel that will release later in 2024, Abrahamic stories set the backdrop for two main characters who are Catholic and Jewish. Diving into the histories of Sephardic Jews in Spain has been a treat like no other, and I’ve especially enjoyed sharing tidbits of real-life historic events throughout the course of the story.
For Jennifer J. Coldwater, allyship and advocacy is a much deeper mission, and she has an incredible story to tell. Though she was born and raised in a United Methodist household, her fascination with religion has transformed her outlook on life… and the way she writes her stories. (And, as a bonus, this awesome lady makes her own almond milk. We don’t go into that in this interview, but let me know if you think we should have her back on the blog to share her process.)
Nikki: Thank you for joining me, Jennifer! I’m so excited to hear your story. I usually kick things off with bookish questions, but you have such a fascinating background that I want to hear about. Can you share a bit about your journey to Judaism with me?
Jennifer: I was asking questions about God and religion as early as first grade when I got a red-letter Bible from my parents’ pastor. I was fascinated by (confused by, worried about, asking my parents why) the words of Jesus were written in red ink.
As I grew older, that search for knowledge led me to wonder about translation: how and why are there so many different versions of the Christian Bible? In my early 20s, I bought a Jewish Publication Society Tanakh because I was obsessed with how much research went into that translation of Hebrew and Aramaic into English.
Partially because it was the closest thing I could find to a career in questioning (and partially because I remembered teaching is what I always wanted to do!), I started teaching English, journalism, and creative writing at a public high school in San Diego, California, in the late ‘90s. I continued to read about Judaism (Yitzchok Kirchner’s The Art of Jewish Prayer, To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking by Harold S. Kushner, a revisiting of the Chaim Potok novels she read in college) while I taught (and, let’s be honest, while I dated a nice Jewish boy).
I love how much of this journey was intertwined with reading and storytelling. Was there an event that brought you closer to Judaism? What ultimately made you pursue your path?
One sad summer in the early aughts, I lost my father to pancreatic cancer, divorced my husband (not the NJB, but a nice boy just the same, we were just a bad match), moved to Los Angeles, and started a new teaching job at a large private high school. One of my first acts as an Angeleno was to reach out to the American Jewish University in search of a conversion course. In the absence of my beloved father, and seeking comfort after all that loss and change, I felt it was time to follow my heart to Judaism.
As I was wrapping up my conversion coursework and fulfilling the personal commitment requirements of the process, I was granted a teacher-exchange trip to Israel with my dear friend who happened to be a rabbi. I asked my rabbi-friend if she thought I should “finish converting quickly before our trip” — she was wise enough to laugh at me and advise me not to rush into anything.
I traveled to Israel full of questions, and at Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, I found so many answers.
Holy cow. That must have been so humbling to experience in person.
It was! Yad Vashem is designed to change lives. No one can witness the atrocities suffered by six million Jews and not be moved. As a teen, I toured Dachau on a class trip. I taught Night by Elie Wiesel to my English classes. I took a teacher seminar at the Holocaust Museum in LA. I genuinely thought I was prepared to visit The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
I was not.
Among the many things I learned at Yad Vashem was the term “righteous gentile.” As the tour guide told us stories of the Righteous Among the Nations, I listened intently with tears streaming down my face. While I am obviously not Righteous, I live my life as an ally and an advocate for the Jewish people.
A small sliver of that allyship and advocacy is embodied in my collection of contemporary romance novels based on the “Badass Women of the Hebrew Bible.”
Oh my gosh, we’re just starting our conversation and I’m already floored. I’ve read Night several times, and it’s so poignant. Visiting Yad Vashem must have been an experience like no other. Okay, I need to force myself to shift gears, or we’ll be on this topic all day. Tell me about your publishing journey!
I never imagined I would self-publish – and now I cannot imagine doing this any other way. When I set out to query agents and publishers, I had very little to show for myself. I saw self-publishing as an opportunity to build a following. Turns out, I love the process; it appeals to my personality. I loved figuring out all the steps with Holland and Ivy, and then leaving myself breadcrumbs for my next three books.
I love self-publishing, too! And since I also have a journalistic background, I have to guess it comes from our innate desire to find that inside scoop and learn how everything works. When you first started on your publishing journey, did you have anyone who helped you along the way?
I had a ton of help shaping Holland, My Heart — from my friends, family, and new friends I met along the way. The journey of retelling Ruth’s story as a contemporary romance was a joyous ride for me partially because I shared it with friends:
My bookseller buddy Emma Wdowik told me we needed to see Kai right away (so we could know if he’s good enough for Holland).
My friend and business coach Janae Broadway taught me that men abhor being grilled on a date — a lesson I have yet to learn in real life.
My cousin Lisa Blazer had some shaping suggestions (I mean, some Real Talk — I’m so grateful she gave me the good stuff) that are now tightly knit into the finished product.
When I thought I was finished, my writer friends Arlys Avery, S.F. Henne, Dan del Villano, and N.M. Garrison helped me realize I was nowhere near done.
I designed my own cover and then asked my graphic designer friend David Burney to help me polish it.
It really takes a village! While we’re talking about authors, what indie authors are you obsessed with right now?
So, so many! First and FOREMOST, I want to read Industrialized!
The other authors nominated for Best Romance in the Indieverse Awards make up the rest of my current TBR. Right now, I’m listening to Helen Rygh-Pederson read her book The Briar Crown as an audiobook! She should be a full-time narrator. She’s great!
I already was a huge Mariah Ankenman fan, and her book Perfect Imperfections is nominated. I’m excited to read Kristina Carmela, Bridget Van der Eyk, Genesis Bird, Varsha Chitnis, Ivy Beck – all of them! There are a dozen nominees in this category. My goal is to read them all before voting begins on November 1.
Oh my gosh, you’re too sweet, and that’s an incredible goal! So you’re an Indieverse nominee with two books out – Holland, My Heart and When Ivy Met Adam. What’s next from you?
I have two works in progress – it turns out I’m not only a mood reader, but also a mood writer! Decision in Favor is a sexy enemies-to-lovers detective story rom-com with a clairvoyant heroine (and some polyamory rep). Hannah’s Song is an emotional, problems-in-paradise, witty, sexy romance with a M-F-NB love triangle that is sometimes too emotional for me to work on.
I love your dedication to including representation in your stories. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always been a writer: short stories when I was a kid, a daily (and very funny if I do say so myself) blog back when they were first popular, rants and raves in my journal. When the world shut down in March 2020, I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a plethora of rescue dogs. (In case you’re wondering, a plethora is two dogs more than a pack. This is not science, but it is a fact just the same.) (laughs) In the absence of the time suck of commuting, the noise of the day-to-day, and anyone to talk to other than my roommate and our canines, I started writing a novel based on one of my favorite stories: the book of Ruth.
It helped that my write-or-die BFF Arlys Avery was drafting her first YA novel at the time. Kissing Owen Darcy is a retelling of Pride & Prejudice. It never occurred to me to write a retelling! She’s the smartest.
For as long as I can remember, the story of Ruth and Naomi has resonated with me.
But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the LORD do to me if anything but death parts me from you.”
Something about Ruth’s unremitting devotion to her mother-in-law grabbed my heart and would not let go. I think my own mother is the reason I am so connected to this story. As a military brat raised by a military brat, I can say with certainty wherever my mom goes, I will go. And yet, she also taught me that anywhere I am, she is with me. When you regularly have to pick up everything to move thousands of miles away, you learn to keep the important people in your heart. Wait. Did I answer the question?
I think you answered it in such an authentically writer way! (laughs) That is so fascinating, I love the story of Ruth, so it’s really neat to hear you digging into it for inspiration. Let me ask, when you sit down and start building your characters, do you typically like them?
This question fascinates me. Until I wrote these two novels, I wouldn’t have even understood what you’re asking. But now that I’ve lived with these people in my head, I completely get it.
I adore Holland and everyone else in her book – even Holland’s horrible mother was fun to write. She’s based on a friend from high school and it was very fun to channel a lot of old anger into her. (laughs) I fell head over heels for them all (especially Kai–he’s my OG book boyfriend).
I also love Ivy and Adam and all their friends. Ivy’s mom is no peach and writing a homophobe was no fun. But it was necessary for the story to make her so horrendous. But everyone else is lovely.
All of which is to say… I started writing Hannah’s Song way back in 2022, and the longer I worked on that book, the crankier I got. I was procrastinating and it just wasn’t fun. I had a dream one night that my main character was killed off (by whom?! I’m the writer!) and it was such a relief. It wasn’t until that moment I realized I hated her guts. So I rewrote her completely and now I am back to wanting to write it. What a trip!
Ha, don’t get me started on the nuances of killing off characters! Industrialized, Part Two was almost a very different story. But I won’t go into that. Let’s talk about something more magical. If you could live in any fictional world, which would you choose?
If I could live at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, I would be happy forever!
Jennifer J. Coldwater is not my given name. It’s the name I have given myself – I named myself after my favorite character in all of the written word, Quentin Makepeace Coldwater. I have read The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman an embarrassing number of times — I have read all three novels in their entirety no fewer than 15 times. I’ve read most of The Magicians, the first book, many more times than that. (Don’t judge—how many times have you re-watched an episode of Friends? This is my version of that. My literary The Office, if you will.) George R.R. Martin famously said, “The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea . . . dark and dangerous and full of twists.”
That is so cool. Note to self — ask future guests about their pen names. Let me ask more about your author career… what’s the best thing a reader has told you?
Several moms of queer kids have reached out to tell me that When Ivy Met Adam means so much to them. Both main characters in that book are queer, and it hits readers in the feels that they find each other and love each other so hard.
That’s beautiful, and it takes your writing from something personal to something magical. I want to pick your brain some more. So, I often see literary agents talking about their “dream book.” Do you have a dream book as a writer or reader?
No one has ever asked that, but yes. I have a book that lives in my heart. It’s the story of a 20-year-long, on again-off again, will-they-won’t-they love affair that ends with the FMC walking off into the sunset with her rescue dogs. Alone. (But it’s still an HEA, I promise!) It doesn’t live in my head yet because I am not ready. But someday I will be ready. Everything I write until then feels like practice.
I love that. I won’t give away too much, but one of my upcoming books concludes with the FMC walking into the sunset after realizing her relationship isn’t right for her. I keep joking, “margs over men!” Let me ask you one more writing question, and then we’ll wrap things up. How do you feel about the Oxford comma?
As a journalism educator (my day job), I am not a fan. As a fiction writer, I see how necessary she is!
Ha, totally aligned! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you for this. Bookstagram has been the greatest thing to come out of this journey. Indies supporting indies. Readers who’ve become friends. Writers collaborating instead of competing. I have had the best luck. Meeting you tops the list! Thank you so much.
Jennifer J. Coldwater is an author with a big voice and a slew of incredible stories to tell. She’s nominated in five Indieverse Awards categories, and voting opens November 1, 2024, so now’s the time to get to know her! Be sure to give her a follow on Instagram to keep her works on your radar.
Want to learn more about other indie authors to know? Keep an eye on my Indie Author Spotlight Series for more.