Isolation Junction by Jennifer Gilmour follows the story of Rose who is stuck in an abusive and coercive relationship. After years of emotional abuse, the self doubt about her future and the erosion of her confidence, Rose takes a stand.
Finding herself alone, penniless and frightened Rose wonders how she will ever escape from the situation to provide a better life for herself and her children. With 100 reasons to leave and 1000 reasons why she perceives she can’t – will she have the courage to do it? And will she find the support to regain control and confidence?
Character Spotlight Q and A
When did you create the characters? Where? How?
I actually had the plot line set out together with the names of the characters for quite some time, but hadn’t developed the character profiles. Once I started to formulate the plot, it became clear what the character of people was going to be like and how they were going to fit into the plot. I then started to build the profiles. It was quite straight forward to build them, as I had a personal reference point regarding what a victim, abuser and hero was like in real life, so the personalities seemed to flow rather well. However, I was determined to get these characteristics accurate, so spent quite a lot of time working and tweeking various aspects.
Focusing on the victim (in the story this is Rose) I wanted to compile my own and other women’s stories together to form her personality and for me, her image then followed suit. I created her first as she is the main character and she needed to have features to remember like her red hair and green eyes. I wanted her to stand out to her abuser in some way, as well as creating a character that people could relate to.
What do you like most about them?
I love Rose’s natural beauty and her determination to make any situation work. She is so motivated even if she doesn’t see it for herself; she simply needed someone to give her that support, encouragement and a helping hand for her to be able to use all her skills to free herself from a destructive situation. Rose is full of potential that she is yet to realise.
What do like least about them?
Rose’s lack of confidence and that she listened to the wrong people for advice, and believes that their views are the correct and accurate ones. Her lack of confidence at this point in her life contributes to the mistakes she makes. Rose can be naive and depend on others to make decisions for her, which is linked to her lack of confidence and her low self esteem.
What are your plans for them?
My plans are for Rose to flourish and for her self confidence to grow so that she is able and confident in making her own decisions in order to take responsibility, ownership and control of her own life – a complex and slow process given all that she has gone through. I can’t wait to continue to work with Rose as in Isolation Junction she was almost robotic in her reactions to life’s events and I am excited with the anticipation that she will grow, learn and develop as a person.
Did everyone like them to start with or did you have to change them in any way?
As I was writing, a couple of the characters were changed slightly and I amended their character profiles accordingly. It was either an addition or a slight change because I didn’t believe the character would react a certain way. It is hard sometimes to work in restrictions but now I have the profiles set I can refer to them and still add aspects if I need to.
Rose is one of those characters that people have said they want to see more of and hear more of her ‘pain’ but it is hard to express the ‘pain’ she is going through when she hasn’t realised the full extent of what has happened and is running on adrenaline so to speak. I have taken this into consideration though and I believe it will work well, and readers will be pleased to hear that her character is yet to flourish and in the future they will see more of her recovery and development.
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About the Author
Jennifer Gilmour is a married mum of three, and a business owner. She has spent the past eighteen months writing her first novel to raise awareness of the unseen side of domestic abuse/coercive control.
Jennifer was born and educated in Hull before moving south to attend university. Now happily living in her home city with her husband, three children and a hamster she runs an Internet business (Blissful Gifts and Services) and is a top performing Consultant for Jamberry.
Find out more here:
Website: www.isolationjunction.com
Kickstarter Campaign: www.kickstarter.com/projects/690571062/isolation-junction
Facebook: isolationjunctionbook
Twitter: @JenLGilmour
Thank you for being a part of my first blog tour. Jennifer