Author Jennifer Stanley spills the tea on her new book

New York Times bestselling author and Long Island native Jennifer Stanley introduced her most recent mystery series, The Secret, Book & Scone Society, this Thursday at Chapel Hill Public Library. The book centers around the adventures and detective work of a woman named Nora Pennington, who has a special talent of prescribing the perfect novel to ease the lives of people dealing with heavy burdens. Along with her society of four women, Nora exposes massive real estate fraud and solves a murder in her small town.

Stanley has written more than 30 novels. Under her pseudonym Ellery Adams, Stanley has published several mystery series and two cookbooks. Her love of jigsaw puzzles, coffee, baking and open water always makes its way into the pages of her books. Staff writer Liza Zhytkova sat down with Stanley to ask her about her work as an author, the places she draws inspiration from and the advice she has to offer budding writers.

The Daily Tar Heel: How did you initially get into writing?

Jennifer Stanley: I started writing when I was pretty young. I used to write stories about the neighborhood kids. I always liked to write, but I also liked to make money from writing. When I finished grad school I decided I was going to be a poet. You can ask my mom, she was like, 'And how are you going to feed yourself?' So I said, I’ll be a teacher. They make so much money! But after I’d get home (from teaching), I'd watch some really stupid television and go to bed. I’ve always wanted to write but I just haven’t always had the time or opportunity. When we moved from Durham to Richmond, I didn’t know anybody there, and my husband was always working, so I was super homesick for North Carolina. My first book was about North Carolina folk art pottery, and it just happened to get picked up by a major publisher. I got really lucky.

DTH: Why do you use the pseudonym Ellery Adams?

JS: That’s a good question. When I first started writing, I wrote under my name, and my books didn’t sell really well. So, when I went to another publisher, they said, “We don’t want that name, we want you to reinvent yourself.” It’s pretty cool because you can actually fail in the publishing industry and become successful as somebody else. The name Ellery was inspired by one of the first mystery novels I read in high school by Ellery Queen. I wanted my name to be Southern, and Ellery sounded kind of Southern to me.

DTH: How long does it take you to write a novel?

JS: Five months. I’m very scheduled, I write 1,200 words a day and promote (my work) every single day. I don’t really take a lot of time off. When I get stuck I move to the kitchen. Baking is a different creation process that involves your hands and resets your mind.

DTH: You mentioned that the fictional town of Miracle Springs in The Secret, Book & Scone Society was inspired by Biltmore Village and Hot Springs, N.C. How has moving to and living in North Carolina further impacted your work as an author?

JS: Without the state, I basically wouldn’t have become an author in the first place because it was homesickness for North Carolina that made me write about it. I collect North Carolina folk art pottery, and I had it all over my house while I lived in Virginia. Every time I looked at it, I thought, 'I wish I was back in North Carolina,' and since I couldn’t be there I wrote about it. So that was the setting for my first series and that really launched my career. Without the state I wouldn’t be here.

DTH: Do you plan on incorporating any UNC-inspired elements into your future books?

JS: If I did it would be fictionalized because most institutions don’t like being the center of a murder mystery. I’m definitely open to it because I think college towns have a really unique setting and air. The difficulty with that is when college towns empty out for the summer, so the focus would have to be on locals who would then interact with college students. I could absolutely see myself writing about that when my son, who is fifteen, becomes a college student. Then I could embarrass him in print. The college kids are coming and going but the people who are teaching them and serving them remain, so it would be an interesting mix. I would probably set it at the beach again, like at UNC Wilmington.

DTH: What advice would you give to aspiring novelists?

JS: That’s an easy one. I would tell them not to quit. The people who make it in our industry are the people who get punched and knocked down and keep getting back up. There are people that I was first published in the same year with, and they went by the wayside just because sales didn’t go well and they didn’t come up with a new series. They didn’t keep struggling, and it is a struggle. The people who make it just don’t stop. They don’t stop writing and don’t always listen to what people say they should do. Sometimes you just need to follow your own story.

DTH: Would you say that becoming a successful author is more about having talent or more about the people that you know and being at the right place at the right time?

JS: I think perseverance and talent are the combo. Knowing people really doesn’t help, especially in today’s market. They don’t know anything about you, they’re just reading your words. And they’re not reading many words to decide whether they’re going to publish you or not. You might have 30 pages, and that’s it. So those 30 pages better shine.