Smiling Book Reviews: Blog Hop: Road Trip of Delusion by Jean Ann Williams

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Genre: Contemporary, Christian
Publisher: Love Truth
Publication date: June 22, 2017

A fifteen-year-old takes a road trip with her two younger sisters and their strong-willed great-granny, and circumstances force her to drive her granny’s Cadillac through a freeway-closing-down blizzard which brings everyone and everything to a standstill.

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Jean Ann Williams is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. She writes regularly for Putting on the New blog and Book Fun Magazine on the topic of child suicide loss. Her book “God’s Mercies after Suicide: Blessings Woven through a Mother’s Heart” started out as a blogged book on her Love Truth blog. Jean Ann and her husband of forty-six years have thirteen grandchildren from their two remaining children. They reside on one acre in Southern Oregon where they raise a garden, fruit orchard, goats, and chickens. Jean Ann’s favorite hobbies are practicing archery, hiking through the woods, and big game hunting with her bow.

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1. Who are some of your favorite authors? Do these authors influence your own writing?
My favorite authors write inspirational/historical, which includes, Kim Vogel Sawyer, Tessa Emily Hall, Kim Vogel Sawyer, Laura Frantz, Jane Kirkpatrick. Last but not least for the deeper Point of View, Virginia Smith, and for my most favorite time period with captivating stories, Sydney Tooman Betts. Each of these authors have taught me differing things; how to write better, go deeper into story, and deeper Point of View so the reader is allowed to live in the characters’ heads.

2. What is your current WIP? What can you tell us about this project?
Season of the Fawns is written with the new adult audience in mind, but it’s for all ages. Synopsis: Born on the same day, Vale acts older than her cousin Caleb and is protective over him because of the loss of his family at age ten. Days before they turn twenty, the two cousins yearly hunting trip approaches. Caleb no longer cares about participating, as he suffers from migraines caused by an injury while mountain climbing.
Before leaving for the hunting cabin, Vale discovers how severe Caleb’s depression has become. Though worried she will lose Caleb by his own hand, she insists the trip will be good for him. As the cousins enter a new season of change, will Vale’s grit be enough to save Caleb’s life?

3. What advice would you give potential authors/writers?
Never, ever give up on your dream of writing and publishing, and when you think you’ve hit a writer’s block wall keep writing even if it’s junk.

4. Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Writing energizes me and editing my work exhausts me.

5. What inspired the idea for Road Trip to Delusion?
Now, a bit about how this story came about. I told my California resident mother-in-law we would pick her up when she was ready to stay in our home. She commented she just might get in her car and drive her own self to Oregon. To this, I stared at my granddaughters and said to Mom, “Well, you better bring my granddaughters with you.” Because of this conversation, Road Trip of Delusion took root and I watered it and God gave the increase.

6. What do you want readers to take away from reading Road Trip to Delusion?
I hope readers will get a strong sense of the value of family, especially when not everyone gets along. Also, I’d like readers to consider the importance of prayer to a Lord Who loves us.

(The cities and places along the characters route are actual locations, though some names are changed.)

1. Some characters are composites of a few family members including myself.
2. Within minutes after the conversation which inspired this story, my husband and I began our trip home to Oregon and I pulled out my laptop and wrote Road Trip of Delusion.
3. The working title of this book was The Road Trip of Our Lives, and I changed it to its current title.
4. The cover illustration was created by my granddaughter.
5. Since the age of eight, I’ve traveled the same route my characters traveled.
6. My sister’s husband works for the highway division in Oregon and plows the snow off of Interstate 5 each winter.
7. At the same age as my main character, I drove my parents’ station wagon without a driver’s license and know the feeling of driving scared when I stalled the car in a deep creek behind our house and couldn’t get the vehicle out.
8. I know what it’s like being in a snow storm. When I was 14, my family and I woke to five feet of snow, and my dad had to climb out a window and shovel the snow away from the front door.
9. My personality is similar to the main character in respect to feeling often like a coward and plagued with a nervous stomach.)

My heart sank to my navel as I grip-hugged my cookbook.
Granny slammed on the gas pedal of her Cadillac Fleetwood, and the vehicle chugged onto Highway 101. Her eagle eyes never wandered from the beams of the headlights.
I shook my head for I had a huge regret. I wasn’t able to talk Granny out of taking this trip.
In the backseat, my middle sister thirteen-year-old Leah Be-de-ah jumped on the freeway of reason. “And, Granny, don’t you think we should tell someone?”
Granny’s head barely crested the top of the seat. “Your Grand, James, is gone, so it’s just me now.” She lifted her chin.
Little sister Mia Babe sat next to Leah. “Kari?”
Twisting in my seat, I faced them. “What?”
“Mom says Grand’s in paradise, but where’s that?”
Ah, Mia, an old soul at the age of seven. “Well, from what Mom taught me, it’s a spiritual place where people go when they die.”
“Oh.” Mia rubbed her eye.
A scary notion surfaced, and I slapped my forehead. “Granny, do you even know how to get to Oregon?”
“Of course.” She flicked her blinker and passed a small car. “James and I visited Oregon when your mama was a slip of a teenager.”
“But Granny—” Leah counted. “This was twenty-five years ago. Right, Kari?”
“Right.” I rolled my eyes to the car roof and refocused on the headlight-brightened pavement. “I don’t think, Leah, they moved the state.” But, does Granny remember the route