Hi, Sarah! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I grew up in Michigan but have lived over half my life in Florida, where my hobbies include watching my dogs chase lizards (they almost never catch them) and trying to stop book bans. I write what I call speculative suspense: character driven novels that have propulsive plots and some kind of futuristic tech or superhuman power as a catalyst.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

Very early on! My author bio mentions the slightly Wednesday Addams-ish 35th birthday present I gave to my dad, but I’d been writing and drawing comic-panel stories since I could hold a pencil. (I still draw at about the same skill level.)

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: This is random, but when I was a kid we had a multi-book bound anthology of mostly European fairy tales, which included stories like The Rose and the Ring, Childe Rowland, and other deep cuts. I only remember a few of them but they definitely made an imprint.
• The one that made you want to become an author: Firestarter by Stephen King.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Annalee Newitz’ The Future of Another Timeline, which provides an all-too-realistic look at the society we get when women lack agency and bodily autonomy—and inspiration for taking those things back.

Your second novel, When I’m Her, is out March 26^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Freaky Friday with Tom Ripley.

What can readers expect?

Plenty of twists and turns in a story about friendship, revenge, and a grudging alliance against toxic males.

Where did the inspiration for When I’m Her come from?

The body swapping piece is just an extreme extension of the human desire to have what someone else has. I was also thinking about how women are so often set up to envy and be in competition with one another, even when they’re friends, and I wanted to both play into and subvert that.

During the writing process I thought a lot about friendships between women and the friendships that I have had. A lot of the time friends are similar to each other in their values, life stages, cultural touchstones, etc., which is why they become close to begin with. But occasionally you get these odd couples who have inequalities between them and/or the personalities are complete opposites. For obvious reasons these are the most interesting narratively. The relationship can easily become toxic if one person is using their social power in the wrong way, which happens between Mary and Elizabeth.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I had my main character in my head from the beginning. Mary is this disaffected, very isolated woman who desperately wants to connect with people but can’t stop getting in her own way. I embraced the challenge of making her compelling and even relatable, without making her likable. I also wanted to see what she would do once she actually got what she thought she wanted.

I also really enjoyed writing Elizabeth, because I’m a very straightforward person and it was interesting to try and get into the mindset of someone who’s always working an angle and who has learned through bitter experience that appearances are everything. I did research on the online influencer sphere, and that world is just wild to me. It’s so far outside of my experience and values it might as well be on another planet.

The male characters were interesting to create, if a little depressing since they’re kind of a panoply of toxic masculinity (most of them, anyway #nospoilers). And I had fun playing with the tropes of the various genres I’m working in, sometimes turning them on their heads.

What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned as a writer between your debut and your latest release?

The main thing I learned was that writing a book under contract is really hard! My process didn’t actually diverge that much from my first novel, but because I had people waiting I felt like I was taking way too long and being way too inefficient (why couldn’t I just have skipped those second and third drafts?). It took me until I’d come out the other side to really internalize that it takes however long it takes and you have to trust the process. It helps if, like me, you have a patient editor.

Craft-wise, I approached writing WHEN I’M HER as more of a thriller than my debut, the first couple drafts of which were fairly meandering and literary. So I learned a lot about concrete stakes, pacing, and structure, especially as regards a dual timeline novel.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently working on my next cross-genre novel, which includes elements of grounded fantasy, tech thriller, and second-chance romance.

Lastly, are there any book releases that you’re looking forward to picking up this year?

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams, The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed, Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson, The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson, A World of Hurt by Mindy Mejia – and so many more. There are always more amazing books than there is time to read them.

Will you be picking up When I’m Her? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Sarah Zachrich Jeng, Author of ‘When I’m Her’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Kelly Holter is a promising artist from Chicago whose career is yet to take off. Watching her already rich friend thrive in the art industry while she has to work some awfully tedious side-gigs in order to keep painting is not fun, but Kelly is determined not to give up on her dreams. That’s before she’s thrown into an entirely different world—one in which she never even left Michigan, didn’t pursue an art career, but instead became a graphic designer, remained a hobbyist painter, and married one of her former high-school classmates, Eric. The transition between these two alternate universes leaves Kelly nauseous and completely lost. One second she was in the art gallery’s bathroom at her friend’s opening, then she’s walking out to a surprise birthday party back in her hometown. She remembers everything from her life back in Chicago—the tattoos she used to have that are now gone, her creative friends who have no recollection of who she is, all the art lessons and the techniques she acquired through the years, but can’t apply anymore—yet that world seems completely intangible. In Michigan, she has things that seemed out of reach before like a good relationship with her family, a loving marriage, a dog, and financial stability. Things that she sacrificed back in Chicago in order to focus on her career.

Her life in Chicago had been glamorous, artsy, but uncertain at times. By contrast, she has nothing to worry about in Michigan as Eric has it all figured out. Her husband loves her, provides for her, and looks out for her to the point where his overprotective tendencies suffocate her. He rarely lets her make decisions on her own, he’s always there to protect and assist her in a way that infuriates Kelly terribly. Yet, he always knows how to make amends, find excuses for himself, and Kelly can’t shake the familiarity between them, nor the tender moments she vaguely remembers they’ve shared. All of this almost drowns out Kelly’s suspicion that her husband might be somehow involved in taking her away from her Chicago life. After all, Eric offers her comfort and her life with him isn’t all that bad… Perhaps it was the life she had always been meant to live. She tries to comfort herself with such thoughts, but the memories of her old life in Chicago are too pressing. The longing she feels for her other life pushes her towards finding the answers she needs to go back and reclaim everything she lost.

While the mystery is a bit predictable, the characters are well developed and the story is intriguing enough to make up for it and keep the readers fully immersed. The premise is original and its execution is equally impressive. Jeng’s strength resides in her ability to create compelling characters that react very realistically in the contexts they are put, no matter how outlandish these are. The only weakness is that the ending is quite abrupt and ties up too nicely and too quickly all the loose ends. The readers might be left with the impression that the first half of the book is too slow while the other half is fascinating, but put on high-speed.

The Other Me combines the intricacies of an identity crisis with exciting discussions on technology, ethics, and the future of it all, succeeding in opening readers’ minds to new possibilities and horizons. If you’re looking for something to keep you on your toes, look no further—this is a fast-paced, exhilarating tale that touches on subjects like autonomy, do-overs, regrets, tech, and identity. Jeng is incredibly adept at building organic conflicts and dealing with human psychology which makes The Other Me an absolutely impressive debut.

The Other Me is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.

Will you be picking up The Other Me? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

Two lives. The one you wanted. The one that wanted you.

Her birthday should be like any other night.

One minute Kelly’s a free-spirited artist in Chicago going to her best friend’s art show. The next, she opens a door and mysteriously emerges in her Michigan hometown. Suddenly her life is unrecognizable: She’s got twelve years of the wrong memories in her head and she’s married to Eric, a man she barely knew in high school.

Racing to get back to her old life, Kelly’s search leads only to more questions. In this life, she loves Eric and wants to trust him, but everything she discovers about him—including a connection to a mysterious tech startup—tells her she shouldn’t. And strange things keep happening. The tattoos she had when she was an artist briefly reappear on her skin, she remembers fights with Eric that he says never happened, and her relationships with loved ones both new and familiar seem to change without warning.

But the closer Kelly gets to putting the pieces together, the more her reality seems to shift. And if she can’t figure out what happened on her birthday, the next change could cost her everything…

The post Review: The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng appeared first on The Nerd Daily.