Its that time of the month again, Indie Author spotlight. This month i am pleased to welcome Jennifer Gilmour, Author. Jennifer is the Author of Isolation Junction and has published Clipped Wings a collection of surviour stories, highlighting domestic abuse.
Intro, Who are you?
Born in Yorkshire in the UK, I am a young, married mum with three children. I am an entrepreneur,
running a family business from my home-base and I have a large readership of other young mums in
business for my blog posts.
From an early age I have had a passion for writing and have been gathering ideas and plot lines from my
teenage years. A passionate advocate for women in abusive relationships, I have amalgamated and
fictionalised other survivors experiences alongside my own to write my first novel detailing the journey
of a young woman from the despair of an emotionally abusive and unhappy marriage to develop the
confidence to challenge and change her life and to love again. I hope that in reading my first
publication- Isolation Junction, I will raise awareness of this often hidden and unseen behaviour and
empower women in abusive relationships to seek help for themselves and find the confidence to change
their lives.
Since the publication of my debut novel, I have continued to be an advocate for those in abusive
relationships through my blog posts, radio interviews and Twitter feed. I have also gained a qualification
in facilitating a recovery programme for those who have been in abusive relationships.
Continuing to publicly support those who are isolated and struggle to have a voice. I hope that Clipped
Wings give’s a voice to survivor’s experiences and raise’s awareness further of the types of unacceptable
behaviour which fall into the category of domestic abuse.
Interview with Jennifer Gilmour
Hi, welcome Jennifer. Thank you for being on my blog today.
Hi, thank you for having me.
First question,
1)Give a brief description of your book Clipped Wings.
Synopsis:
The silent chorus.
Just imagine you thought that you had met the man or woman of your dreams. This person was
charming and you thought they were the one or perhaps that this was fate; it was just meant to be.
But as the months go by things start to change. Their behaviour towards you isn’t the same, they are
more critical, more particular about your appearance, what you do, how you do it, who you see. Time
goes by and you feel isolated from your friends and family because that behaviour has now changed to
threats, maybe violence and you feel that your identity is all but gone. But still you stay. Where would
you go? Who would help you? You are not worthy.
But you are.
A group of survivors have spoken about their own experiences. In their own words they show that
survivors do have a voice and that it needs to be heard. They show that abuse isn’t unique or strange
but that it is, unfortunately, a surprisingly common problem in today’s society.
The message of this book is one of courage, as with courage comes awareness and an ability to
understand what has happened to you and take the steps needed to become a survivor yourself.
2)Why did you write Clipped Wings?
Since the publication of my debut novel Isolation Junction I have been contacted by dozens of people
wanting to share their experiences with me and as a result, I decided that I would do everything in my
power to give these people a public voice.
Sadly, many of these stories have similar themes and support the statistic that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6
men have been affected by domestic abuse during their lifetime. It is because of this that this project
has developed and the true impact of the statistic becomes a reality which brought me to this next step,
to give a voice to those who would usually not be heard.
3)What can readers hope to learn from this book?
Clipped Wings allows you to see domestic abuse from different angles and also from raw and brave
voices of survivors themselves, featuring 24 women and 1 man. This book can be used for personal
interest and gain an understanding of domestic abuse but also for those who are studying social studies,
physiology or any other course relating to domestic abuse.
Clipped Wings gives you an insight into what life can be like for those behind closed doors, an important
eye opener.
4)When you’re writing an emotionally draining scene, how do you get in the mood?
Originally I didn’t look after myself and worked on Isolation Junction, blog posts and research even if I
wasn’t in a good place. I couldn’t switch off to what I felt needed to be exposed and couldn’t understand
why something so common was hidden so well. It did take its toll on me and I am happy to admit and
address this. The solution was simple and that was to train myself to channel my thoughts and focus on
my current happenings and not letting my mind wander. It can be still a challenge but I feel like I
manage myself better and take a healthier approach.
I also mix up my work, I write for The Hull Hub which is a local publication and it is all positive news.
Allowing myself to write something different and positive gives me the balance and so it doesn’t
become an overwhelm of an emotional drain. http://www.thehullhub.co.uk
5)What does being an indie author mean to you?
It allows me to be creative and get the message out there in a more speedy fashion. It was important
that Isolation Junction came out when it did as the UK Law for Coercive Control didn’t exist back then. I
wanted to educate through a form of entertainment and help as many women as possible, my original
goal was to help 1 person and I achieved this before publication.
I am also delighted that I re-published under Pict Publishing which supports women that have
empowering voices and I felt that I fit in well with their direction.
Epic tales featuring strong modern women, written by women. Giving a voice to a new wave of writers.
Find out more here- https://www.pictpublishing.com
6)Are you working on anything at the moment?
I am working on a children’s book and it still links to domestic abuse but in a more preventative way by
educating in a creative way what a healthy and unhealthy relationship can look like, it will come with a
resource pack. I have the first draft and it just needs a hot edit and to be sent to my editor, illustrator is
eagerly waiting.
I am also hoping to finally open as a non-profit for the work I do under #AbuseTalk which is about
bridging the gap between those with lived experiences and professionals. At the moment I host a
Twitter chat, found and moderate a forum, interview those who work in the sector. Followers have
asked for a gathering which may be in the form of a mini conference or two, all work towards doing
something positive and supporting those who have come out of an abusive relationship.
7)If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Caring, funny and honest.
8)Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.
This is a hard one as I do share quite a lot. I guess I could say that I am a complete geek at times, but
perhaps readers will already know this. In the past I was a gamer geek, I used to love the Nintendo 64 /
gameboys and DS. I geeked over Pokemon with trading cards and the cartoons on the TV, I sometimes
play Pokemon Go now and can enjoy it with my children. I geeked over books which lead onto geeking
over the films like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I enjoy Geocaching now but this isn’t discreet,
perhaps I haven’t let it come through in my blogs but I have on my personal blog, in some of my vlogs
and on my Instagram stories (theres a highlight dedicated to it). I am planning on sharing some more
about this because its helped our family greatly. Watch this space.
Thank you so much Jennifer for sharing your writing process, what it means to you and the importance of writing such books to bring awareness and understanding to domestic abuse. If you or somebody you know could benefit from Jennifers help please do get in touch with her. Links are all posted at the bottom. A free ebook is available via bookfunnel, Clipped Wings Revisited is a collation of messages from some of the contributors to Clipped Wings. Read why they joined in on the original project, how it has helped them in their own lives and how it has been used to help others as well. It features one of Jennifer Gilmour’s articles about how surviving is hard. Find it here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/1jnry9yfyr
150 pages
My Review ***** 5 stars I went into reading this prepared for an uneasy read. We are all aware to some degree of domestic abuse wether it be from news or television. Let me tell you i been quite naive to assume that domestic abuse is just physical. It comes in many forms. This book has been a real eye opener, my heart goes out to each and everyone that contributed and I say to you thank you for sharing your story. For helping me learn and for allowing me to help in spreading the awareness. I would recommend everyone to read this as hard as it is too read the importance of it is so much more.
Links:
Website; http://www.jennifergilmour.com
Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/JenLGilmour
Twitter; http://www.twitter.com/JenLGilmour
Instagram; http://www.instagram.com/JenLGilmour
Amazon Link for Clipped Wings; http://mybook.to/ClippedWings
Goodreads author profile; https://www.goodreads.com/JenniferGilmour
Clipped Wings on Goodreads; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36449221-clipped-wings
Support the work I do; https://d.rip/jennifer-gilmour
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