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Jacey Ford is the pseudonym of award-winning romantic comedy author Beverly Brandt. Before becoming a published author, Jacey earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and worked as a financial analyst in the insurance and high tech industries. Determined to escape the corporate world, Jacey wrote her first book in under three months and sold it just six months later. She has gone on to sell nine more novels and three novellas to two different publishers since that first sale in 2000.
2006 saw the release not only Jacey’s seventh romantic comedy (under the Beverly Brandt name), Dating Game, but also her third romantic suspense novel, Dead Heat. The final in a three-book series starring a trio of former FBI Special Agents, Dead Heat hit bookstores in March.
A Pacific Northwest native, Jacey now lives in Texas. She loves researching interesting occupations and locales for her books and spends most of her non-writing time curled up with an assortment of books on such topics as computer hackers, the automotive industry, plumbing, spying, aircraft manufacturing, and Southern cooking.
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How
long does it take you to write a book? |
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Three months, one
week, and one day! At least, that’s how long
it took to write each of my last three books. However,
a great deal of the writing process isn’t about
the actual time spent staring at the computer screen.
It’s about daydreaming, researching, and just
letting your brain relax and absorb all the things
it needs to absorb in order to write your story. All
of that happens before I ever write "Chapter One" on
that first page. And then, of course, there’s
the rewriting and the revising that happens once the
first draft is finished. That adds some additional
time onto the process. |
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How do you do your research for your books? |
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Mostly, I research
by reading books on my chosen topic. I also spend a
lot of time on the Internet, searching for those all-important
details that drag readers into the story. It’s
amazing how much research goes into any one book. Things
like knowing what time the sun sets in Phoenix in June,
which cities a freight train runs through on its way
from Atlanta to Los Angeles, what obstacles a wannabe
country music star might face, or what sort of things
can kill you on the Orinoco River in Venezuela are
critical to adding authenticity to my stories. A funny
side-effect of doing my research this way is the weird
recommendations I get from the online booksellers who
use my previous purchasing history to predict other
books I might enjoy. It’s always interesting
to see what obscure subjects they think I would like
to learn more about. Hmm. There may be a book in that
someday… |
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What is the most interesting research you've done? |
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 I have actually enjoyed all of the research I’ve done for my books, but
must say that the two most interesting topics I’ve been able to explore
lately are the country music industry and surviving in a tropical jungle. The
country music research was for my March 2004 release as Beverly Brandt, DREAM
ON, and it consisted mostly of listening to songs from some of my favorite artists
(Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Clint Black). That’s
probably the easiest research I’ve ever done! The jungle survival research
was for DANGEROUS CURVES, my first  book writing as Jacey Ford. The heroine of
DANGEROUS CURVES is a computer hacker who is drummed out of the FBI and lands
in the middle of a case that has her battling international car thieves, cops,
and crocodiles in her race to save the life of an innocent teen. She ends up
in the Venezuelan jungle and figuring out what obstacles I could put in her path
was really fun! |
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Did you ever want to be anything other than a writer? What? |
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I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was thirteen years old. Getting published
was a dream come true, and I can’t imagine doing anything else. Although,
before it occurred to me that I might actually be able to make a living as a
writer someday, I was thinking of becoming a computer programmer. I’ve
always had a knack for computers and loved being able to use technology to collect
and analyze data and automate routine tasks. Being a writer is a lot more fun,
but I probably spend as much time at the keyboard as most programmers do! |
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What do you do in your spare time? |
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I am going to buck
the trend of people who claim they have no spare time.
I have lots of spare time, even with a book due every
three months. I mean, I can’t
write all day every day—I’d be crippled by now! I spend a lot of
time doing writing-related stuff that isn’t actually writing. There always
seems to be something to do—delivering content for my website, creating
promotional materials, attending conferences, networking, etc. When I’m
not doing that, I like to watch TV. Yes, it’s true. I’m not going
to pooh-pooh television! All of you intellectuals out there who say you never
watch TV... well, you can all just go reread MOBY DICK or something. Give
me Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or Everwood or reruns of old movies on TCM
any day. I also love throwing big parties with lots of food and drink and good
friends. And, of course, I love to read. |
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