📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Sunny's Secrets' Robin Jay | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview
Robin Jay is an award-winning filmmaker and author, speaker, and publisher. She is also a Business Relationship Expert who shares the nuts and bolts of building profitable business relationships with an emphasis on smart ways to network and socialize with clients.
Her clients tagged her “The Queen of the Business Lunch™”. Robin personally hosted more than 3,000 client lunches and saw her sales increase by more than 2,000%! Her sense of humor and candid approach to sharing the principles that helped her to achieve such tremendous success as an Advertising Account Executive in Las Vegas, Nevada, helped to make her first book an international success. Robin’s award-winning business book is “The Art of the Business Lunch ~ Building Relationships Between 12 and 2” (Career Press.) It has been published in twelve languages worldwide. She’s also a contributor to “Chicken Soup for the Wine Lover’s Soul.” She’s been featured internationally on MSNBC-TV, Newsweek Magazine, CNN, the BBC, the New York Times, The London Financial Times, Forbes.com, and other international and national media outlets.
In 2006, Robin founded the Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau. As president, she manages the bureau and coaches speakers to success in person and online. She especially enjoys the cache the bureau lends to create and publish intellectual properties. She edited and published “The Power of the Platform,” a series of three anthologies that feature messages from today’s top motivational speakers, including Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, and Les Brown.
Robin’s passion for storytelling has evolved to presenting messages of empowerment and inspiration in films as writer, producer, and costar of the first funny personal development movies. Her films are collectively known as “The Key Movies.” (see TheKeyMovies.com.) The films star many of today’s top personal development experts, including Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy, don Miguel Ruiz, Rev. Michael Beckwith, John Assaraf, and John Gray. Robin’s writer/producer awards include Best Independent Film, Best Documentary, Best Concept, and Best Original Song for the soundtrack song, “Stronger than Ever.”
Robin took advantage of the recent lockdown to pivot and write her first novel, “Sunny’s Secrets,” a Psychological Suspense story. It follows the life of Sunny Sullivan, a nurse with a special, unorthodox method of healing people.
Most recently, Robin coauthored a memoir with reality TV star Tana Goertz. Robin’s expanded social media reach, including book and movie experts, speakers, and colleagues, has well over 100,000 followers.
Author Links
On writing:
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
I was divinely inspired to write Sunny’s Secrets. There are many circumstances, but it’s always a tragedy when someone throws away their life. I kept thinking about the contrast between their situation and someone who would give anything to live another day, as in the case of a terminally ill child. I thought it would make a compelling story to see the difference between someone who has given up and someone who gets a second shot at life. I thought about the “Life Force Energy” that people take with them when they end their lives and wondered what would happen if you could capture that and instill it into someone else whose energy was fading.
Where is your book set and have you ever been there?
It’s set in Columbus, Ohio and later in Dayton. I’m originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and I’ve been to Columbus and Dayton, but I haven’t been back in decades. I know about the seasons, the general terrain, and the fact that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is near Dayton, which would work perfectly for my story, so it seemed like the perfect Midwest location for Sunny to come from Dublin, just outside of Columbus. Still, I did a lot of research to make sure I got the details correct. And, when Sunny and Dr. Rohan Ray flew to India, I was grateful for the Internet! I can’t imagine trying to map out their travel using reference books in a library. I’ve never been to India. I created the fictional Shuddh Aatma Monastery after doing a lot of research about monasteries and eastern India, including the weather there. The rest was just my creative imagination. It became so real to me, that I feel as if I’ve actually been there.
What is your next project?
I’d like to write a sequel to “Sunny’s Secrets,” but first I’d like to create an empowering anthology based on Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich,” that will feature wisdom from some of the top thought leaders of the past century. I think that many people are struggling today and I’d like to empower them by sharing the keys to success that have been proven through the ages. But that sequel is calling my name!
What genre do you write and why?
I resigned from my advertising sales career in 2003 with the intention of writing fiction. I got sidetracked by the old saying, “Write what you know about.” I was called “The Queen of the Business Lunch” because my business involved socializing with clients, and I was very good at it. I even trademarked that title for a few years. My first book was “The Art of the Business Lunch, Building Relationships Between 12 and 2” (Career Press.) It was non-fiction/business/sales. It’s in twelve languages and has been successful. I launched my speaking career to promote that book and help business professionals discover how to succeed by socializing with their clients.
Then, because I live in Las Vegas, I founded the Las Vegas Convention Speakers Bureau. My father used to make my sister and I listen to self-help gurus like Earl Nightingale. It was nice to find myself working with the people whose books I’d read and icons whom I’d seen on television.
But my passion has always been to write fiction! It took a pandemic and lockdown, which destroyed the speaking business, to pivot so that I could finally take the time to write my first novel, “Sunny’s Secrets.” It is Women’s Fiction and it’s a Medical/Psychological/Suspense Thriller. I love defining characters and building suspense. And when it comes to “Write what you know about,” I finally understand the true meaning of that. That’s why Sunny is a blonde gal from the Midwest; I know her!
What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
My favorite compliment is from readers who said they couldn’t put it down. I also love to hear it’s a real “page turner.” My very favorite compliment is when a reader asked if it’s possible to transfer “Life Force Energy” between people, like Sunny does in the story. I made up that entire process, but it comes across as something that can actually be done, so that makes me smile.
How are you similar to or different from your lead character?
Great question! As I mentioned regarding the saying, “Write what you
know about,” I identified with Sunny. Her GMC (Goal, Motivation,
Conflict) is that she simply wants to help people, which—for her—means
being the best nurse and a loving wife. When her Air Force pilot husband
is killed by a suicide bomber, she’s lost. When she’s soon given a
highly unorthodox opportunity to save her patients, at the expense of
others, she’s thrown into a moral dilemma.
I think we all face crises
like Sunny does in “Sunny’s Secrets.” And we have to ask ourselves,
“What would I do in her situation?” I would absolutely do what she does,
so in that regard, we’re very similar. She wants to save everyone, and
that’s a trait we share. We differ in that I’m a lot more cynical than
Sunny could ever be!
In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like?
The road to publishing is like riding a roller coaster, with more ups and downs than anyone can imagine!
What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring author?
My best advice is to write! It takes dedication and discipline. Set hours aside each day to write, give yourself a daily word count, and don’t quit until you’ve reached it.
On rituals:
Do you snack while writing? Favorite snack?
I don’t snack. I’d rather take an actual break and have a meal if I’m hungry.
Where do you write?
At my writing desk. I also have a height-adjustable desk, but there’s something about standing that impedes my focus and creativity. I need to sit to concentrate.
Do you write every day?
I have to say I write almost every day. When I was finishing “Sunny’s Secrets,” I was obsessed with finishing it. I had it up to 120,000+ words! The final, edited version is 94,300.
What is your writing schedule like?
I find I’m at my creative best any time after 2 P.M. No matter when I get to my desk, I can’t write creatively until after two or three. Or four. I have looked at the clock when it’s 9 P.M., and told myself, “Just finish this next passage.” Then, I become so engrossed in my work that by the time I look at the clock again, it’s midnight. Or one.
In today’s tech savvy world, most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
I’ve made notes on paper so I won’t forget an idea or detail. But I do all my writing on my computer. I have a laptop and a 27” monitor, and that’s where all the “magic” happens.
Fun stuff:
Favorite travel spot?
Maui, HI, is unique, spiritual, and calming.
Favorite dessert?
My favorite dessert is anything with chocolate—gooey, cake, mousse, custard, cream pie. I don’t believe fruit makes a decent dessert (except for banana cream pie.)
Any hobbies?
I love to play golf. It’s the antidote for sitting at my desk for hours at a time. It’s physical, it gives me a dramatic mind shift, and it’s challenging.
What is your favorite thing to do in the fall?
I love to play golf in the fall. I live outside of Las Vegas and we have brutal summers with temperatures in the hundreds. Fall is a welcome relief from that, and getting out to play golf is the most incredible experience, especially in cooler weather.
What is your go-to breakfast item?
I am on Intermittent Fasting, so I don’t eat until after noon. That’s when I put pork belly in the air fryer. It’s hard to beat!
What is the oldest item of clothing you own?
I won a Georgio Armani dress when I was in my twenties. I was selling cosmetics and sold the most Armani perfume. It was black and blousy with a white snap-on collar, so I look like a nun in it, which is never a look I’m going for! But I will never get rid of it. I worked too hard to earn it!
Title: Sunny’s Secrets
Author: Robin Jay
Publisher: ROBINJAY LLC
Publication Date: July 6, 2023
Pages: 378
Genre: Genre Fiction/Psychological Suspense/Medical
A suicide bomber changed Sunny’s life forever. A nurse from a military family, she finds herself devastated and alone. At her husband’s funeral, she’s approached by a mysterious Indian doctor, Rohan Ray, who shows her how to switch Life Force Energy between two people – those who are about to end their lives and patients who would give anything to live another day. Playing with fate is not for the faint of heart. Will the crushing responsibility be too much for Sunny to bear?
Buy Link:
The Writer’s Life
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