Indie Support Sunday: J.A. Forde

As a bookstagrammer turned author, I always enjoy connecting with others who’ve made the switch. And like me, J.A. was also fascinated by seeing the veil pulled back to truly understand what goes into publishing and writing books. I, for one, am glad both of us took this big step forward! While romance is her primary genre, J.A. admits that if she could be a better plotter, a thriller might be something she’d like to write. And I’m here for it!

Being someone who loves to travel, it’s no surprise that J.A.’s debut series focuses on travelling to different parts of the world. Her books take us to Sydney, Australia, Lake Tahoe and the Isle of Skye, all while making us fall in love with her characters and their very own romances. While she’s written a short story that was open door, her Love Along the Way series is fade-to-black. Having dabbled with both, she prefers not having sex on the page, but doesn’t shy away from the sizzle and chemistry that we all swoon over with our romance novels.

On the Ferry to Skye is the third book in her travel series and was released last month. You can get all of J.A.’s books right now in Kindle Unlimited!

BEING AN AUTHOR

Who or what inspired you to write?

When I joined bookstagram back in 2022 I had no idea that it would lead me here. But I quickly met and became friends with an amazing community of indie authors and seeing the veil pulled back to what the process looked like and seeing that I could also tell a story like they did inspired me. A dear friend, Hannah Parker, was my first inspiration and my first cheerleader when I decided to write and there have been many more since but I am so grateful for her. 

What’s the best and worst part about being an indie author? 

The best part is the community feel, how excited people are to be connected to their favorite authors, and getting to share stories I love and see others love it in return. I think the hardest part is having to do everything myself. Being an indie author is so much more than writing, it’s being a publisher, a marketer, an accountant, a designer, a formatter…it can be very overwhelming. 

Why did you choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route?

Initially it was because it was what I ‘knew’. I had never published but was close to so many indies that I felt I had a better grasp on that process and had so many people I could turn to with questions and for advice. Traditional publishing was just not really on my radar. I won’t say I don’t see it a bit differently now and sometimes think of how different things could be if I had gone that route. But I am thrilled with the level of control I’ve had over this series and my books up to this point, which I wouldn’t have had in the traditional sphere. But I do have some ideas that I think would work well in the traditional publishing space and hope to eventually query with those. 

When you’re not writing, what do you do to get the creative juices flowing?

I’m an avid reader, as are most authors of course, but it’s a big part of what makes me ‘me’. I also love to travel and go places, see things, and experience life outside the walls of my home. 

If you were to recommend books to me (in any genre), what would they be?

Promise Me This by Hannah Bird, Whisky Business by Elliot Fletcher, Life in November by Haley Warren, Somebody Like Me by Stefanie Steck, and anything by Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez, or Devney Perry. 

What are your top 5 tips or pieces of advice for aspiring authors?

1. Write what you can when you can, it doesn’t have to be every day, but just don’t quit.

2. First drafts are always a mess, don’t get caught up in the weeds of trying to make it perfect. 

3. You can’t edit a blank page, so just keep writing. 

4. Don’t get so caught up in plotting and outlines that you won’t allow the book to morph and change as needed. 

5. Keep your joy, if it’s not fun for you and you don’t love it, it will be so much harder to keep going… and honestly so much harder to sell that book to anyone else. 

ROMANCE AS A GENRE

Why did you choose romance as the genre to write in? What is your favorite thing about the genre?

The genres I love most to read are romance and fantasy…though I also enjoy thrillers and the occasional historical fiction. For me romance feels like the best fit. It’s something I read a lot of and it’s something I feel I understand and makes sense to me. As much as I love other genres, the amount of required plotting (I am not a plotter) would have been really difficult for me. Romance feels like breathing, natural. It’s fun and it can be light but it can also be heavy, it can be so many things, and that is how real life feels to me. I wanted to mirror those things in my writing. 

If not romance/subgenres of romance, what genre would you like to write in?

If I could be a better plotter, I think it would be fun to write a thriller of some sort but I really don’t know if my brain can do that haha. I could maybe at best, do a romantic suspense (which is a subgenre I love to read)!

What are your most and least favorite tropes?

I will always fall hard for a second-chance romance. Give me a book like Love and Other Words or Every Summer After and I will gobble it up. I also love friends to lovers and forced proximity. I don’t know that I truly have any least favorites. I will read anything haha.

What are some tropes you want to write in the future?

I actually really want to write an accidental pregnancy. I also want to do marriage of convenience. 

What are some topics (sensitive and otherwise) that you think should exist more in romance?

I do love how mental health rep is on the rise in books because it’s such a prominent issue for so many people and I think that normalizing that is so important. I also love seeing how the romance genre is embracing talking about things like consent, sexual health and birth control… so that hopefully those things will also be talked about in a healthy way in real life.

If you write open door romance, why did you choose that and what inspires your sex scenes?

I have a short story that is open door and it was so fun to write that as all my other stories are fade-to-black (more on that in a minute). It was definitely a growing experience to fully embrace writing open door. I found that I really enjoyed it and felt I did it well. I don’t know what exactly inspired it other than just knowing what the characters needed in that moment and getting to bring the reader along for that was a lot of fun. 

If you write closed door romance, why did you choose that and what are your favorite ways to build tension between the characters?

So the majority of my books (aka my entire Love Along the Way series) is fade-to-black. It’s very steamy and gives a lot of sizzle without the actual spice. So there’s definitely intimacy shown with very hot kisses/make out scenes, there’s innuendo and clear desire, but I don’t go into the details of what happens once the door closes or the clothes come off or the scene fades. 

With my first book I actually wrote open door scenes and then I ended up taking them out and making it fade-to-black upon editing because I didn’t feel that the scenes truly moved the story forward or contributed to the growth of the characters. I want every word on the page to mean something and be moving their arcs. In the end, building the tension, showcasing the feelings and emotion was enough for them. I think that building tension and creating chemistry is something I do really well and I love finding that line. If an on-page sex scene felt like it was needed for my characters, I would absolutely write it and love doing so, but I don’t want to write it just to fill space or to be able to say there’s spice. I want it to mean something. 

I’m also really passionate about authors being able to write what they want and not being put into boxes and labeled as one thing or another. I’m a romance author, my main goal is to tell the story that my characters need to be told for them to grow and have their happy ending. If that means writing spice then I’m all for it. If they don’t need that for their story then I won’t. But I want to give myself the freedom to just write what works best for them without feeling trapped by a label in either direction. I am always very transparent about what is in my books and what isn’t so that people can make their best decision for them if the spice or other content is what they want to read.

YOUR BOOKS

What inspired your published stories? How and when did you come up with these stories and plots?

My Love Along the Way series is very destination/travel-coded. I love to travel so choosing settings that inspire me was a big piece of the puzzle. On a Flight to Sydney takes place in Sydney Australia. On the Slopes of Tahoe is in Lake Tahoe. And On the Ferry to Skye is set in Scotland on the Isle of Skye. These settings are almost a third main character for me. They are vital to the story and I love showcasing places that I love. 

Can you briefly tell me about your books?

The Love Along the Way series has three travel-coded destination romance with witty banter, swoony characters, real life issues, all mixed with humor and heart to make you kick your feet and reach for the tissues. 

On a Flight to Sydney opens with an Aussie flight attendant meeting a stranger on one of her flights who turns into her new neighbor. It’s an instant attraction, friends to lovers story where they both have to overcome pasts that lead them to believe they have different needs when it comes to relationships, but what they really need is each other. 

On the Slopes of Tahoe is a brother’s best friend, friends with benefits romance between the sister of book one’s MMC and his best friend who visits Tahoe with his daughter to escape heartbreak at home in Sydney. It’s a testament to found family and the love of two people who see each other in ways no one else does. 

On the Ferry to Skye is a small town romance set in Scotland where secrets and heartbreak have kept the main characters apart for 11 years. They grew up as best friends and now they’re stuck together right where they once spent their summers. The single mom, who’s kept her son (and his!) a secret from the MMC, has to face her decisions and the MMC has to find his way back to what he really wants in life with the aid of the family he walked away from and the woman he’s always loved.

Do you already have a favorite character from the stories you’ve written?

Right now it’s probably Jamie from On the Ferry to Skye. His story was so unexpected to me but I really fell in love with writing him as it unfolded. 

If you were to cast your book for a movie/television show, who would you cast in the lead roles?

Let’s do On the Ferry to Skye, I’d probably cast Sam Heughan as Jamie (yum) and I’d cast Dakota Fanning as Avonlea. I’d love to see Diane Keaton as Jamie’s Gran and maybe Gary Oldman as Jamie’s Grandad. 

For Sydney, Wes would be Theo James and Joss would be Nina Dobrev

For Tahoe, Breck would be Chad Michael Murray and Rory would be Emma Stone.

How much of yourself do you put into these characters?

I have pieces of myself in each of them, or experiences at least that I attribute to them, but none of my characters are based on me or anyone specific that I have ever met. 

What is a story/stories that you really want to tell?

I have a hockey romance that kind of developed from an experience I had that I am really excited to write. I also really want to expand my short story into a novella or full-length book. 

Is there one common element that readers can find in all your stories?

Settings that are vivid and inspiring and characters that feel like people you could know in real life. 

What’s next on the bookshelf for you? Anything you can tell us about a future project?

With this series wrapping up I have a bunch of ideas in the fire but I’m still trying to decide which one to start with. I do have another short story in the works and a couple of projects where I’ll be collaborating with other authors too. 

When you write these stories, what are you hoping your readers will feel?

I want them to feel seen, to see elements of reality and of what they feel and see in their lives and the lives of those around them. I want them to feel hope for love even in hard circumstances that aren’t always perfect.  

AUTHOR’S CHOICE

• Paperbacks, hardbacks, ebooks or audiobooks

• Contemporary, fantasy, historical or romantic suspense

• Single or Dual POV

• Standalones, series or standalones in a series

• Open door, ajar door or closed door romances—sorry I can’t choose I love them all

• Music or silence when writing - but it can’t have words haha

• Plotter, pantser or plantser

• Water, tea, coffee or….wine?

• Cold or warm weather

• Write better in the morning, afternoon or night?

• Illustrated or photo cover?

You can connect with J.A. via Instagram or visit her gorgeous website to stay updated! Make sure you sign up for her newsletter to get all the latest news too.