Character Interview with Joscelyn from Between The Cracks She Fell by Lisa de Nikolits
We’re thrilled to be talking to Joscelyn from
Lisa de Nikolits’, Between The Cracks She
Fell. It is a pleasure to have her with us today at Pimp That Character!
Thank
you for your interview, Joss. Can you tell us your story?
I think you should read the book for that! But
I will tell you this, my loser boyfriend lost his job, then he had a nervous
breakdown, then I lost my job and I didn’t want to tell my Mum what happened,
so I decided to go and camp in an old school until I got my life back together.
It turned out to be quite the summer, I can tell you. Murder, thieving
realtors, crazy-assed kids, a girl I thought was my friend who turned out to be
real piece of work. It was not the peaceful summer I had in mind. But I came
out of it stronger and I’m super glad it all happened.
Where
do you go when you are angry?
I run away. I run away and
hide. It’s what I did when I was a kid and it’s what I did this time too. I
don’t let people help me, I go and find a place where I can lick my wounds.
This time I ran to the old school but then a bunch of things happened and I
stopped running. At least I stopped running away. I did end up running to some
things but running to something is very different from running away from
things.
Do
you think the author portrayed you accurately?
I
think I have more fun in real life than she gave me credit for. I mean sure, it
was a tough time, a lot of stuff had gone wrong, and I was mourning a lot of
stuff. But I enjoy life, I really do. Well, I do now, I guess. I guess that she
(the writer) helped me work through a bunch of stuff and now I am happier than
I was. So maybe she was accurate and it’s just that I am kind of sad for the me
that I had to go through all that. But if I hadn’t gone through it, I wouldn’t
have come out stronger and happier. I guess the book was therapy for me!
What
is your idea of a perfect day?
I have become a photographer
and a perfect day is being out and about, photographing things. I have a new
boyfriend, he’s a photographer too, that’s how we met and a perfect day is him
and me hanging out, taking pictures.
What
is your favorite weather?
A thunderstorm! The darker the sky, the
better!
What’s
your idea of a perfect meal?
Welsh Rarebit! Which,
according to Wikipedia, is: Welsh
rarebit (spelling based on folk etymology) or Welsh
rabbit (original spelling)[1][2] is a dish made with a savory sauce of melted cheese and various other
ingredients and served hot, after being poured over slices (or other pieces) of toasted bread,[3]
or the hot cheese sauce may be served in a chafing dish like a fondue, accompanied by
sliced, toasted bread.[4] The names of the dish originate from
18th-century Great Britain.[5]
When
you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I
wanted to be a character in a book. That may sound weird but it’s true. I loved
books from the time I was very little and the characters were my friends. So to
be a character in a book is a dream come true! I am very grateful to Lisa de
Nikolits because I think there were times when she got annoyed with me – like
my refusal to give up looking for my biological father. I know she thought hey,
get over it already, your stepdad’s a great guy but I was stubborn and in the
end, I learned the truth and she helped me live my dream, to be a character in
a book.
What
is your most treasured possession?
A pic of me and Mum and Gran.
Do
you like to cook? If so, what is your favorite thing to cook?
I
can’t cook to save my life and I have no interest in learning! Life’s too short
for cooking, I’d rather be reading. Or taking pictures. Fortunately for me, all
the men in my life have liked to cook. My new boyfriend loves to cook and
Shayne loved to cook too and Ashley (another character in the book) is a great
cook and so really, I don’t have to worry! If there’s no one to cook for me, I
am content to eat a bag of chips or a packet of biscuits or get takeout.
If
you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?
I
would try to take the greatest picture of my life. And I would tell my mother
how much I love her. And I would give
all my money to charity and go and play with puppies and eat cheesecake with my
boyfriend at a funfair. And I would sing What’s
Up, by the 4 Non Blondes and I would thank this world for having me as a
guest.
About The Book
Title: Between The Cracks She Fell
Author: Lisa de Nikolits
Publisher: Inanna Publications
Publication Date: September 15, 2015
Format: Paperback / PDF
Pages: 350
ISBN: 978-1771332255
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Buy The Book:
Discuss this book at our PUYB Virtual Book Club on Goodreads by clicking HERE
Book Description:
The award-winning author of the Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, Glittering Chaos and The Witchdoctor's Bones delivers an original and riveting new novel about societal betrayal, familial loss and religious jihad. A suspenseful and lyrical read, Between The Cracks She Fell is a powerful - first person narrative about the explosive consequences of betrayal, survival in troubled times and the pervasiveness of religious domination.
When Joss finds herself having to make mortgage payments without help from her depressed, stoner boyfriend who has just moved out, and the company she works for folds leaving her suddenly unemployed, she is forced to sell her house, on which she takes a financial loss. She decides to camp out in a vacant complex of school buildings to give herself time to decide what to do next. It turns out the building is used by a gang of teenagers for wild, drug-fueled parties and Jess soon finds herself both repelled by their charismatic evil leader, as well as sexually attracted to him. She knows he is dangerous even before she finds his girlfriend's dead and violently abused body in the school library. During this time, she meets and befriends two other people in difficulty: Emma, a narcissistic thief living with her dog in a stolen car and Ashley, a young homosexual who is heartbroken by the fact that he has been expelled from the Jehovah's Witness church because he is gay. When her former boyfriend reappears as a born again Christian, Joss is immersed in a journal she found that contains the thoughts of a Muslim teenager who becomes increasingly radicalized. Her struggle to understand her former boyfriend and this young man's spiritual quests prepare her to make some hard decisions about her future. Between The Cracks She Fell is about a woman who falls off the grid and the explosive consequences of betrayal, survival in troubled times, and the pervasiveness of religious domination.
Book Excerpt:
Exodus
I reached my destination with no great sense of joy but at least I wasn't crying.
A purple, red and black pentagram marked the path ahead of me and the sea of grass rolled this way and that and my throat closed and my eyes stung but I swallowed the tears.
I tried to pretend I was Gibreel Farishta, a hero bigger than me; that tuneless soloist tumbling out og thin air; what an entrance, yaar.
First you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! How to ever smile again, if first you won't cry?
But there would be no more crying for me. My former life was dead. I needed to escape for a while, hide out and then, once I got my energy back. I would figure out what came next.
Right now all I could say was that I was alive, and that is the point I guess, much like Gibreel, standing, with pigs falling out of his face and no God to help him.
I held my arms aloft and waded through the knotty field, as if paddling through an upward flowing river, pushing forward against the current.
The summer offered shoulder-high fragrant grasses laced with thistles and weeds and despite the misfortunes of past events, I was not blind to the beauty of the tiny lilac flowers or the red roses that grew wild and free.
I could see the buildings in the distances. It had been a while since I had seen them but they sprawled low at the other end of the playing fields, just as I remembered.
I had packed for the task at hand; knife, bottled water, flashlight, pillow. Kind of funny really, how natural this solution felt, like it was some kind of okay. It wasn't the first time I'd purposefully left the grid; my first solo adventure had taken place when I was eleven. Tired of school, friends, mother, swimming lessons, and tuck shop lunches, I hid out in a farmer's shed, armed with books and apples and bars of chocolate. i stayed for two nights and two days, sleeping in a hairy horse blanket that I shook free of cobwebs and drew close around me, breathing in that rich scent of dry sage, dust, leather, sweat and all the other good things that horses smell of. I returned home when I ran out of food and reading material. Mum was furious but I wasn't sorry; I'd done what I needed to do and it was the same this time, although there was less choice in a sense, as I had in fact lost my house to the bank and my job to the recession and my boyfriend to a nervous breakdown.
I could think of no other way to heal, to regroup and to find the solo me that I could rely on. I had made a mistake, relying on Shayne but I would get over that. I would get over everything.
Book Trailer: http://bit.ly/1h9oqnN
About The Author
Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits has been a Canadian citizen since 2003. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy and has lived in the U.S.A., Australia and Britain.
Her first novel, The Hungry Mirror, won the 2011 IPPY Awards Gold Medal for Women's Issues Fiction and was ling-listed for a Relit Award. Her second novel, West of Wawa, won the 2012 IPPY Silver Medal Winner for Popular Fiction and was one of Chatelaine's four Editor's Picks. West of Wawa is available in bookstores and online.
Her third novel, A Glittering Chaos, launched in Spring 2013 to reader and review acclaim, and is about murder, madness, illicit love and poetry.
Her fourth novel, The Witchdoctor's Bones was launched Spring 2014 to reader and literary acclaim. The Witchdoctor's Bones is a thriller about the darkest secrets of African evil; the novel seamlessly weaves witchcraft and ancient folklore into a plot of loss, passion and intrigue and a holiday becomes a test of moral character.
Her fifth novel, Between The Cracks She Fell, was published in Fall 2015 and has been called "a whirligig-ride into the dark recesses of "what-next?" It is a compelling and multi-layered penetrating and twisty tale of insurrection."
"A lyrical and deeply moving examination of emotional pain and faith on a collision course with organized religion. Lisa de Nikolits highly believable and human characters are outsiders struggling to find meaning, and perhaps hope, in contemporary urban society. With a deft and confident clarity of style, she explores the complex interplay of faith, crime and social isolation. Highly recommended." - M.H. Callway, award-winning author of Windigo Fire (Seraphim Editions).
Connect with Lisa:
Author Website: http://www.lisadenikolitswriter.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/lisadenikolits/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lisadenikolits/
The Mesdames of Mayhem: http://mesdamesofmayhem.com/about/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/LisadN
Virtual Book Tour Event Page
It was such fun writing from the perspective of my character! I really enjoyed it! Thank you for having me as a guest today!
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