**GIVEAWAY** Trilemma + author interview with Jennifer Mortimer

Please welcome Jennifer Mortimer to the blog today as she chat's with us from New Zealand about her debut mystery Trilemma. Then stick around to enter for your very own copy of Trilemma sponsored by Jennifer's publisher, Oceanview.

• ISBN-13: 9781608091126
• Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
• Publication date: 2/4/2014
• Pages: 304

Overview

Maverick executive Lin Mere takes over as CEO for a new telecommunications company trying to compete with the big boys in Wellington, New Zealand. With the clock ticking, Lin has to give up almost everything to tackle the demands of the job. An Asian-American, Lin has followed her father's trail to New Zealand to try to establish a relationship with her father's estranged family and solve the mystery of why they want nothing to do with her...and while in New Zealand, she's intent on rekindling a romance.

Jennifer's publisher Oceanview is sponsoring a giveaway
US ONLY for one Hardback Copy of Trilemma
To Enter please use the Rafflecopter form below
Thanks Jennifer and Oceanview
Good Luck

Overview:
Maverick executive Lin Mere takes over as CEO for a new telecommunications company trying to compete with the big boys in Wellington, New Zealand. With the clock ticking, Lin has to give up almost everything to tackle the demands of the job. An Asian-American, Lin has followed her father's trail to New Zealand to try to establish a relationship with her father's estranged family and solve the mystery of why they want nothing to do with her...and while in New Zealand, she's intent on rekindling a romance

Jennifer, Hi Welcome to The Reading Frenzy.

Thank you!

Tell my readers a bit about Trilemma.

‘Trilemma’ is about an Asian-American woman who takes a job in New Zealand, and gets promoted to be chief executive. Her trilemma is similar to that of most career women; having to make choices between advancing your career, having a family or being close to your family, and developing your love life.

I wrote ‘Trilemma’ because I wanted to portray what life might be like as a woman chief executive, but then I got distracted into the murderous sub-plot which was a lot more fun to imagine!

Your bio states that because of the lack of novels about career women like yourself you took it upon yourself to write them?

I grab any books I find written about career women - but they are still few and far between. Sure there are senior woman detectives and senior woman medicos, but not many pure corporate types - except as villainesses. Which is surely a very bad stereotype; as if you can’t be successful at a corporate job and also be a good woman. It also annoys me that many senior businesswomen in novels get there by marrying the boss or having one as their father. That’s also a really bad stereotype.

Since you’ve become an author have you noticed other women writers that you weren’t aware of before?

I was lucky enough to be taken on by Pat Gussin at Oceanview - who has been a successful career woman and whose heroine Laura Nelson is a career woman.

Other women authors new to me - yes, I’m now plundering Sophie Hannah’s backlist, and I read everything by Tana French, Liza Marklund and Camilla Lackberg.

Many in the industry say write what you know and that’s exactly what you did.
How does your new novel relate to your “day job”?

There are a lot of real experiences reflected in my novel. And I find it more natural to write about women who are emotionally tough and assertive, which you have to be in that world. I’m also lucky that my ‘day job’ takes me to many places and different industries, so I have plenty of authentic backdrops.

Do you plan on leading multiple careers or is it your wish to write full time?

I would like to write 3 or 4 days a week and work 3 or 4 days a week. I need to work because if I have too much time to write I procrastinate too much. And also the various jobs I take give me terrific ideas for future stories. On the other hand, working fulltime makes it hard - I work 10 hour days and get home braindead.  So I have recently negotiated 2 half days off for writing, and then there’s the weekend. I am also trying to give up housework but I haven’t been able to entice anyone else to do it yet.

Will Trilemma be released internationally?
How many countries?

As an eBook, Trilemma will get released everywhere.

As a hardback, the negotiations are ongoing.

Was there a particular reason you chose an Asian-American heroine for this novel?

I wanted to explore Lin’s experiences as an outsider in New Zealand. Lin is doubly an outsider from both her American upbringing and her part Asian looks. 

Also, there aren’t enough Asian heroines in literature, which seems just plain wrong considering how many Asian woman readers there are.

This is called your “debut” novel but according to your website this isn’t your first foray into writing.
Were your earlier works published and can they still be purchased?

My first book was a training exercise and will never see the light of day. My second book has a great story and setting (in a Cathar castle in France), so I plan to revise it as a prequel to ‘Trilemma’.

What’s the biggest change in your life since becoming an author?

I think it is discovering that there is something I can do that gives me pure, simple happiness. When I’m writing I stop worrying about the mortgage and about whether my sisters are annoyed with me, and even whether I’m going to get my way at the office. Writing is completely absorbing - it takes me over.

What’s next on the horizon for you?

I am currently working on a sequel to Trilemma, set in Waiheke, a very beautiful island inside the Auckland harbor.  But I have also just completed the first draft of a screenplay. Because I’m working for Weta (the Visual effects studio), my head is in the movie industry right now - especially the making of gorgeous visual effects, so I am absorbing all this knowledge which I need to convert into something of my own.

Jennifer thanks for answering these questions.

Good luck with the new novel!

Thank you!

 MEET THE AUTHOR:

I like to read stories about the lives of career women like me, but such books are rare, so I started writing the stories myself, drawing upon the truth-stranger-than-fiction from my life as an ICT executive in New Zealand, Australia, America and England.

 Connect with Jennifer - Website - Linkedin 

PS. There is also a giveaway on Goodreads 

a Rafflecopter giveaway