My guest today is the talented author Jennifer Lane. I recently read her romantic suspense novel With Good Behavior (The Conduct Series, 1)
After surviving the rigors of writing a psychology dissertation, the author known as Jennifer Lane has happily turned to writing fiction. She still maintains her psychology practice in Ohio, but please rest assured that she’s not psychoanalyzing you right now. The tales of healing and resilience from her career have inspired her to write her own stories: The Conduct Series. With Good Behavior began with two cons trying to make it on the outside: running from the Mafia, joking about sexy vegetables, and just maybe falling in love. Bad Behavior, the next in line, reveals that it’s not so easy to escape the past, but the plucky parolees once again strive to persevere. Jen is currently at work on the third and final installment of the series: On Best Behavior. She’s found that whether writing or reading, she loves stories that make her laugh and cry. In her spare time Jen enjoys competitive swimming, attending book club, and hanging out with her sisters and their families in Chicago.
Here’s a look at the book we’ll be discussing:
In a world gripped by organized crime, family dysfunction, and dim hopes of redemption, can true love persevere? For Sophie Taylor, a psychologist who lost everything when she violated an ethical boundary, and Grant Madsen, a naval officer who sacrificed everything to protect a loved one, finding that love may carry an unbearable cost.
Starting their lives over in Chicago, both are fighting influences from their family and running as fast as they can to escape the past. When their paths cross outside the parole officer’s door, the attraction is instantaneous. Will a hidden connection not only shatter their fledgling love, but prove deadly to them both?
Intrigued? Let’s see if I can get Jen to spill any secrets…
What inspired you to write this particular story?
My inspiration came from a variety of places, including my work, TV shows like Prison Break and The Sopranos, and the movie SherryBaby. Mostly it was a fascination with the incredible resiliency of the human spirit that sparked my interest in writing this story.
2. In your other life, you are a psychologist. Sophie, the main character in With Good Behavior, is a psychologist who crosses the line in her behavior with a patient. I would think that the nature of this type of doctor/patient relationship would make it all too easy for boundaries to be crossed. Do you find it difficult to maintain a professional distance with your patients? Are there some that get to you emotionally more than others?
Sophie is responsible for the most egregious boundary crossing—sleeping with her client. I have never found it difficult to avoid that mistake! I do have to be thoughtful about limiting my own self-disclosure and not becoming friends with my clients, especially with email communication. Therapy is a very special, structured relationship designed to address the client’s needs. I strive for an emotional understanding but not an emotional responsibility, trusting clients’ strength to take care of themselves and uncover their own answers.
There’s something called “counter-transference”, when clients remind the therapist of someone in her own life. If clients bring up an issue I’m dealing with too, that can be more emotionally entangled for me. Say my parents have always been hostile with each other and I’m seeing a divorced couple to help their child recover from a mental illness. I might get very anxious when the couple argues and have difficulty sorting through my own reactions to help them help their child. This scenario is why it’s so important for therapists to get their own therapy, to reduce blind spots and to understand what it’s like to sit in that waiting room the first time.
That’s truly fascinating insight. We often don’t think of therapists as having their own emotional triggers to deal with.
Your characters – both major and minor – felt real to me. They each had their own quirks and specific speech patterns to make them unique. How did you go about developing your characters? Did you base them on people you know or are they entirely fictional?
Thank you, Darcia—that’s like music to my ears. I developed my characters using a combination of real and fictional. Take Roger Eaton, for example. He’s a foul-mouthed architectural cruise ship captain who reluctantly takes on Grant and Sophie as employees despite their prison backgrounds. Short, fat, and bald, Roger loves to verbally spar with any hapless victim. He’s never met a deep dish pizza he doesn’t like, and he snores like a motorboat. My dad’s name is Roger but he’s tall, married, and is much more civilized. The only traits the Rogers share are loud snoring and a taste for fattening foods.
Do you outline your plot prior to writing? Or do you sit down with an idea and run with it?
I definitely outline but I also let each chapter go wherever it wants to. It’s a kick to write dialogue because the characters will sometimes travel to unanticipated places, especially in the therapy sessions.
Tell us about your writing environment. Do you prefer silence or noise? Activity around you or solitude? Is your desk cluttered and messy or is your work space neat and sparse?
My desk at work is horribly cluttered, I admit. When I write at home I’m on the sofa with my laptop, feet propped up on the coffee table. I like to listen to songs without words—movie soundtracks, jazz, classical. My plus-sized cat Izzie is a great writing companion.
Bad Behavior, book two in your Conduct Series is now available and takes over where With Good Behavior left off. I read that you are working on book three. Do you have a planned number of books in this series?
The Conduct Series will have three books, and the third is titled On Best Behavior. I’m about twenty percent done but I took a break to edit a Young Adult swimming story I wrote four years ago. I’ll return to this series soon.
Series writing is very different from writing stand-alone novels. Some authors have difficulty maintaining the intensity and freshness of the stories and the characters’ interactions as the series moves along. Others find that having the characters already developed makes it easier to navigate new plots. What have you found easier about writing books two and three, as compared to writing your first? What do you find more challenging?
That’s a great question. I didn’t start With Good Behavior thinking it would be a series, but toward the end of the already long story I realized there was more to explore with these characters. I’ve heard series tend to either get better or worse, and I’m hoping this series will be the former! I find it fun to throw the well-known characters into new situations to see how they’ll behave. I also enjoy the freedom of exploring drawn-out character arcs, allowing substantial change to occur over time. Character development and change excites me in novels and in life.
Since I don’t have much writing experience, it’s hard for me to judge the relative ease of writing series vs. stand-alone novels. I do know my writing has immensely slowed since getting published. I was lucky to write the first two novels of the series before finding a publisher, which allowed me to get book #2 out quickly.
Do you have a favorite book and/or favorite author?
Not one favorite, but several—Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Fragile Beasts by Tawni O’Dell, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
When not writing, reading or working, what might we find you doing?
I’ve been a competitive swimmer all my life so you might find me at the pool or gym. I also like chatting online and visiting my sisters and their families in Chicago.
Tell us one silly/quirky/unique thing about yourself.
I generally have an upbeat personality, so much so that my college swim coach nicknamed me “The Serotonin Posterchild”. Coffee and sugar help. 
Great nickname! Hanging out with you is better than antidepressants any day! 
Thanks, Jen, for sharing with us today!
Want to learn more about Grant, the main character in With Good Behavior (The Conduct Series, 1)
Here’s a look at Jen’s books on Amazon. You can purchase them in Kindle format or order print copies there via her publisher, Omnific Publishing LLC:
You can learn more about Jen and her writing in the following places:
Website: http://jenniferlanebooks.com
Blog: http://jenniferlanebooks.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JenLanebooks
I hope you’ll take the time to explore Jennifer Lane’s writing world. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you. Please share you thoughts and questions here.
Thanks for reading.
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album by Staind. That entire song, in my mind, became Stephen’s song. I could hear him singing it, see him living it. One line from that song – But I never meant to fade away – became Stephen’s plaintive cry.
