Interview with Jennifer Echols

You now have multiple Young Adult and Adult titles out in the world. Has your writing process or experience changed or developed between novels?

    JE: I’ve become more of a pantser. I used to plan everything out a little better, but now I prefer to start writing and see where it takes me. The problem is that I now sell books on proposal, which means I have to plan them out and tell editors what they will be about before I write them. So I whine to my agent a lot and then do what I have to do.

Your main character, Leah, is torn back and forth between two brothers. Was there a brother you favored while writing the story?

    JE: Grayson, all the way.

Was Such a Rush always the title for the book? Or were there different work-in-progress titles? If so, can you share?

   JE: Originally I was calling it Free Falling, but that seemed very catastrophic to me. I was relieved when I came up with Such a Rush instead, but that was pretty early in the process.

Flying is a huge part of Leah's life, a necessity to her sanity. Do you have any personal experience with flying? If not, what kind of research did you do to translate these feelings so well?

   JE: My dad got his pilot’s license when I was five and flew his plane out of a tiny airport like the one in the book. So I had a lot of experience with the setting and the feeling of going up in a small plane. But when I decided to write this book, he generously took me flying several more times and talked me through what he was thinking as he flew.

Is there a character in this novel that you relate to the most? Is anyone based off of someone in your life?

   JE: I don’t write books about real people, but Leah’s best friend Molly is probably the character closest to my own personality and experience.

The cover for this novel is beautiful! Did you have any say in the cover making process?

   JE: Thank you so much! I think so too. We had another pretty cover that portrayed the airplane and a couple lying in the grass, but it looked a bit sleepy and didn’t seem to go with the title. If you have the hardcover, you’ll see they took the airplane off that original cover and put it on the back, which I appreciated, because airplanes are characters in this story. J

Silly question: What was the last thing you said (out loud), listened to, ate and watched?

   JE: I listened to and talked with the pest control guy. I told him I’m going to an Auburn University football game with my family tomorrow and he said--I am not making this up--“I took my daughter to a concert at that stadium when the New Kids were on the Block.” I watched the first ten minutes of What Not to Wear, which I do pretty much every day (I love that show), while I ate four wheat crackers and an ounce of brie.