Savvy Saturday with Elizabeth Fountain and Jane Margaret Blake

You, Jane is a story of love, loss, regret, and renewal. When a story Jane writes puts her best friend's son in danger, she must come face-to-face with her personal demons and her past.

You, Jane is available on Amazon, Kobo, and at the Champagne Bookstore.

Today we have the author of You, Jane, and Jane with us to tell her readers a little bit more about herself.

Hello Elizabeth, and Jane it is absolutely lovely to see you.

Elizabeth: Lovely to be here, thank you!

Jane: Yeah, thanks. Will there be snacks?

No, no snacks unfortunately. Jane, can you tell us a little about yourself?

You bet. I’m five-nine, 120 pounds, blue eyes, straight teeth, and blonde hair that always glows as if back-lit by a setting sun. What? No one can really see me, right? So yeah, no mousy brown hair that won’t stay out of my eyes no matter what I do. No curves that make it tough, on occasion, for me to button my jeans. And definitely, no odd green eyes that give away all the secrets I try so hard to keep.

How do I spend my time? Well, let’s say I’m in a transition stage.  Searching, you might say, for what it is I’m meant to do. While I seek, I try very hard not to give in to this weird ability I have to fall into a trance and write fables that come true in my real life. But don’t tell my psychiatrist about that – say something like that to a shrink, and the next thing you know, guys in white coats are hauling you away for experimental treatments. I just tell him, you know, “I’m engaged in man’s search for meaning,” to be sure he sees me as just another normal neurotic.

Since this is an interview, I’m going to ask you some questions. Starting with: what is your biggest fear?

Oh, geez. Thanks for that. I love talking about my deepest darkest fears right off the bat. Who doesn’t? Well, okay, I agreed to this interview, so I’ll cough up an answer. Um. Moths. Yup, that’s it. My biggest fear is that a moth—one of those giant black things that looks like it’s been around since the Stone Age—will fly into my face at night. And, you know, it’s all over if that happens. Those evil black winged beasts just suck the life out of you before you even wake up all the way.

Oh sure, I’m also terrified that these little fables I write will come true in ways that will hurt the people I love. That’s why I drink so much—not that much, my drinking isn’t out of control, or anything, I mean. It’s just that after a beer or two or five, that fear seems to recede behind a very cozy fog. A fog with no giant black moths in it, either.

What would you change about yourself if you could?

Am I allowed to say “taller”? Because I would really love never to have to ask one of those gangly boys at the grocery store to reach the Honey Bunches of Oats cereal from the top shelf for me again.

Did you think I was going to say “get rid of this weird ability to go into a trance and write stories that come true in ways I cannot control”? Ha! Just because that’s the source of my deepest fear, doesn’t mean I really want to change it.

Honestly, if I could change anything about me, it would be whatever I need to change to make my best friend, Charlie, happy. And if he’d be happy with me, that’d be… but it’s too late for that, isn’t it?

So, yeah. Taller. I’d like to be taller.

What makes you laugh the most?

No matter what kind of mood I’m in, my friend Sam can make me laugh. Ever since the first day we met at the ashram, and he snuck me out to find real coffee, he’s known just how to make me laugh. I love him for that. Also, my bartender, Molly—we call him that because Mollone is too hard to say after a couple of beers—Molly has these two beautiful, wonderful, goofy dogs, Coke and Dodge. Molly rescued them both, and Coke and Dodge run his bar in return. You know how dogs can make you laugh without even trying? They just cock a head or wag a tail or let a long pink tongue loll out of their grinning mouths? Yup, Coke and Dodge do all of that.

If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be?

Gather all my friends at Cherry’s house by the lake, Charlie and Sam and Molly and the dogs, and sit outside in the warm late summer sun and eat and drink and talk and laugh and swap stories until the sky is swarmed by stars and then keep eating and drinking and talking and laughing, all night. That is my idea of heaven.

Finally, a fun question. Would you rather vacation in Hawaii or Alaska, and why?

See, this is why I hate being a grown-up. Grown-ups are always being forced to make choices. Why choose one or the other? Let me tell you, with a friend like Sam by my side, we’d take on both—we’d take the ferry up to Alaska, jump on a helicopter, hike a glacier, make friends with the moose, and then fly to Hawaii, hike a volcano, learn body surfing, and then toast it all with a mai-tai on the beach. (Okay, Sam would probably choose a beer over a mai-tai, but you get the picture.)

Thanks for joining us today ladies! Don’t be strangers.

Elizabeth: We’d love to come back any time. Jane loves to talk about herself, as you can see…

Jane: Me? Talk about myself? I don’t have any idea what you’re on about, author-lady. Nobody talks about themselves less than I do. I mean, I was raised to be quiet and polite and I’ve never changed, not a bit…

Elizabeth (tugging at Jane’s sleeve): Come on, love. Time to let them interview the next character.

Jane: There are other characters?