About Jessie
Jessie Garcia is an award-winning sports journalist who has risen the ranks in television news, first as an anchor/reporter, then to newsroom management.
She is the News Director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee. Her non-fiction books, “My Life with the Green and Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting” and “Going for Wisconsin Gold: Stories of our State Olympians” won Midwest Book Awards, and her documentary “Leaps and Bounds: The Men Who Changed Track and Field” was featured in over a dozen film festivals. She also taught journalism at four universities. A native of Madison, WI, Jessie has two adult sons and resides in Milwaukee with her husband, dog and cat.
Could you tell us a little bit about your background, and when you decided that you wanted to lead a literary life?
I knew I wanted to be a writer in about second grade. I have always loved words and stories and I used to walk home from school in Madison, WI making up all kinds of tales in my head. The first mystery I penned in third grade was called “The Adventures of Q”. I wish I still had that work but alas, it’s long gone.
I turned to journalism for many years and wrote several non-fiction books in addition to my work as a television sportscaster and newsroom manager. I had an itch for fiction though and decided to give it a go. Thrillers and mysteries have always been my jam and I gravitated immediately towards that genre.
Is there a book that most influenced your life? Or inspired you to become a writer?
The writer Ellen Raskin was my first inspiration. She wrote children’s mysteries in the 1970s that I devoured. My favorites were “The Westing Game” and “The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel).” I read each one at least a dozen times and I can remember being fascinated by how clever her writing was and how she tied it all together in the end. I also appreciated that she was a fellow Wisconsinite and set some of her books in my home state.
How did you become a writer? Would you care to share any writing tips?
When I decided to try fiction, I was at a bit of a loss. My whole world had been built around non-fiction for so many years as a journalist. I remember thinking that just making up names would be hard to do. But I joined an online prompt-writing class where the instructor would send me a new prompt every week and I would write a scene based off of it. These could be pictures, song lyrics, a character or an event. I challenged myself to take each new prompt and tie them all together into one book. That became my first work of fiction which still lives only on my laptop. It truly was my practice novel, but it was so much fun that I took off from there. I listened to a lot of podcasts, read books on writing, and joined a writer’s group.
One tip is to know that your first novel (or two or three) might not be your best work just yet. It takes practice. As long as you can see that you’re advancing, keep going. This is the third thriller I wrote but the first that sold. Looking back now I can see that each one got progressively more advanced.
Another tip is to find the location that works for you. I need total silence when I write so libraries and coffee shops don’t get me into the right headspace. I have a favorite spot in my house and even thinking of curling up in that spot with my laptop makes my head tingle with anticipation. Keep all distractions to a minimum and let your creativity flow. Sometimes I will edit the previous day’s work just to get my brain going but sometimes I’ll have an idea I’m so excited about that I’ll just dive in. Don’t worry about it being perfect. Just write that first draft, I like to call it pulling taffy– a little at a time– and then you’ll eventually rake through it again and again, perfecting it a little more with each revision. Things to look for in revisions: emotions, interiority, sensory details like smell and taste, more or less dialogue– just to name a few. Finally, read your work aloud to yourself or to others. You will find many things you won’t see when it’s just the written word. I often discover repeat words, for example, that I missed while reading.
What was the inspiration for this novel?
I went on a business trip to a conference in January of 2023. On the flight to Denver I started thinking about two very different women who could be on the same flight and it got my wheels turning for this book. When I returned home, I couldn’t wait to start writing. I am what they call a “pantser” (meaning I write by the seat of my pants, as opposed to a plotter who plots out most or all of the book). I truly started with just that germ of an idea and let it flow from there. I didn’t always know where I was going in each chapter but my goal was to keep you guessing and turning pages. If you’re a pantser, you may sometimes hit a dead end and realize you went down the wrong path. That’s OK. It’s part of the process.
Can you tell us about what research, if any, you did before writing this novel? Do you have firsthand experience with its subject? Base any of the characters on people from your own life? What is the most interesting or surprising thing you learned as you set out to tell your story?
The television news part came naturally to me after so many years in the business and I enjoy giving people a peek into it, although remember that this is fiction so not everything about the TV news business is exactly as I wrote it. For example, when Trent goes to the sales meeting to try and woo a new client, this hasn’t happened in my experience in TV; news and sales stay separate in case the news division needs to report on the client in any way.
This is a multi POV novel and I really enjoyed getting into many people’s heads. I felt I could relate to people from very different backgrounds and experiences because I grew up in what some considered “the wrong side of the tracks” but then became an executive going off to conferences and subscribing to Stitch Fix because I was too busy to shop for work clothes. My parents were from very different socio-economic backgrounds and my high school was like Jasmine’s: a mix of kids with extreme wealth and those of us who came from much humbler beginnings. One of my best friends lived in the projects like Raven did in this book. So there are definitely parts of me in both Jasmine and Stephanie. The other characters are mash-ups of people I have known, or just creations that popped into my head.
As for things I learned– to cut down on POVs (believe it or not, there were even more in the first draft!), and to keep the twists and turns coming. One or two is not enough for a book you’re hoping is a can’t-put-down-thriller. I also learned to listen to many voices. My agents, editor and copy editor all had excellent suggestions even after I thought it was mostly polished.
Are you currently working on another book? And if so, can you tell us what it’s about?--
I am excited to be workshopping my next thriller idea right now! It will likely be about women (I love showing the POV of a mother as I have two grown kids), and it will have twists and turns. Stay tuned…
Dear Reader
The inspiration for “The Business Trip” came from a flight I was on to Denver on my way to a conference. I started to think about two strangers who might be on the same plane and the germ of an idea grew from there.
“The Business Trip” follows Stephanie, a TV news executive, and Jasmine, a woman running from an abusive boyfriend, as they board a flight out of Madison, WI. What happens next baffles their friends and family.
I have been fascinated by stories with unexpected twists since I was a child and I wanted to create a book that keeps you guessing. I also strive for complicated characters that may even have you simultaneously rooting for and against them.
As a television news director, I had always wanted to put some TV news into fiction. It was fun to give people a peek into that world as there are so many personalities in newsrooms.
I wrote this book while working my full-time job. Some nights and nearly every weekend I would be so excited to dive back in. Hours whipped by as I wrote, sometimes barely stopping for food :).
Runners talk of a ‘runner’s high.’ I have never experienced that (I am a slow jogger at best!) but if you hit that writer’s high, there’s nothing like it.
Thank you for considering “The Business Trip”. It’s my debut novel after switching over from non-fiction and I am thrilled to be presenting it to you.
Best,
Jessie