We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeanne Renee. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeanne below.
Jeanne, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
While I’m not sure it’s up to me to say whether or not I’m generous, I certainly try to live from a posture of generosity, particularly with my writing. That’s because I’ve been blessed by the kindness of so many other writers. I know some new writers instinctively see other authors, especially highly successful ones, as their competition, but that honestly hasn’t been the case for me. Not because I don’t have my own ambitions. Of course I do. But because I’ve had the good fortune to be mentored by and become friends with some incredibly talented people who move through the literary world with tremendous generosity and kindness. I’ve been offered opportunities, feedback, encouragement, and community by authors who I will never be able to repay. So my goal as I move through my own writing career is to emulate those who have inspired and uplifted me. To be as gracious and generous with whatever amount of time and talent I might possess to those coming up the path behind me.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Right now I’m really focused on developing my craft as a writer and building community as an independent author. With only two books under my belt, I’m still very new to the author business and have a lot to learn from those who’ve been writing as indie authors for a long time. Thankfully, the community has been incredible. I’m really grateful for other authors out there. And the timing couldn’t be better because my youngest child graduates high school in May, so my family is moving into a year of transition. Which is definitely bittersweet. I’m really fortunate to have been highly involved in my kids’ lives as they grew up, but now it’s time for me to turn that focus back toward my own art and ambitions. So while I’m always working to promote my first novel, The Wisp and the Wolf, I’m getting ready to launch my second novel, Of Ecstasy and Ash in January 2026. Putting a new work out into the world is always a little scary, but that’s just part of the process. I’m getting better at knowing I wrote the best book I could at the time and after that it belongs to the readers.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
When it comes to writing and then choosing to put myself out there in the market as an indie author, I think the three most important qualities I possess are persistence, imagination, and self-compassion. And a love of the written word, but I hope that one goes without saying–loving to read is foundational if you’re going to write fiction. But what I know for sure is there is no such thing as an overnight success. I don’t care if an author’s first published book is a New York Times bestseller; it was still a long road for them to get there! So be ready to be persistent. Author life–or any creative pursuit–is a marathon not a sprint. And you really have to lean into your imagination. Don’t be afraid to play and take risks. Above all else, write the book you would want to read. Because I guarantee that if you genuinely love your work, someone else will too. And self-compassion might be an outlier, but for me is incredibly important. I live with multiple chronic illnesses and have had to learn to be kind to myself, especially around work. It’s so easy to play the comparison game. Someone else is always going to write faster, produce more books, have more resources to invest in themselves, or hustle harder. But I can’t help that, nor would I want to limit anyone else’s success. What I can do is keep my eyes on my own paper, push myself to the edge of my capacity, and be gentle with myself when that looks different than other authors.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
There have been many books, both fiction and non-fiction, that have had a lasting impact on me, but as a writer I’d have to say Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. First, if you haven’t read Anne’s work, be prepared to laugh out loud–she is hilarious. But the book is also this incredible mix of practical “this is how you actually sit down and write a scene” instruction mixed with the more ephemeral advice about how to live life as a writer. How to tell the tenderest truth while lying spectacularly, which is essentially want good fiction does. It’s a great book for any creative because one of the central ideas is giving yourself permission to start even if your first attempts are bad. Especially then, because they will be bad. That’s how everyone starts. And to take yourself seriously even if no one else does. You never know unless you start.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jeannereneewrites.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeannereneewrites/
Image Credits
Author photo credit: Michelle Hopkins
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