Jen Braaksma answers #13Questions in OA's Debut Author Spotlight

13 Questions shine Operation Awesome's Spotlight
on this
2022 Debut Author

Evangeline's Heaven by Jen Braaksma

1- How did you become a book coach?

I was a high school English teacher for a whole bunch of years, and I was also writing my own novels on the side. I worked with a book coach—an editor, mentor and cheerleader all rolled into one person—and when she offered book coaching training, I jumped. It was such a great fit for my teaching skills and my own interest in writing. At first, I wasn’t sure about growing my business, since that would be a lot of entrepreneurial skills to learn, but I was looking for a new challenge beyond the classroom. Working one-on-one with my clients and building my business became my new focus. I haven’t looked back since!

2- Would you please, in 160 characters or less, give a #WriteTip ?

Writing is hard! It’s okay not to know everything right away. It’s okay that it takes time. Show yourself some empathy. You deserve it.

3- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader?

Passion, excitement, escapism—any emotion, really, though I’m going for intensity, just like Evangeline experiences. I’d love for my readers to live alongside her and feel what she feels as they read her story.

4- What was the inspiration for Evangeline’s Heaven?

I wish I could say there was one light-bulb moment, a flash of inspiration or an event I could point to. Instead, it was more of an evolution of an idea. I kept thinking about the dichotomy we often see in stories—good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, hero vs. villain—and I thought how much more complex we are. I took the Devil, a character most symbolic of that extreme, and wondered how and why he came to be that way. But I didn’t want to write from his perspective; I wanted to see how other people might respond to him. What if, say, he had a daughter who loved him and thought the world of him? Why would she trust him? And if he were truly evil, how could she a) recognize it and b) reconcile it with her own experiences of Lucifer as a loving father?

5- Would you share a picture with us of your book with your passion tattoo?



6- How do you support your fellow debut authors and have any of them supported you?

Absolutely they’ve supported me and I hope I’ve been able to support them, too. I’ve met a number of them through our publisher, plus some others online, as well as some of my own writing clients. I love “blurbing” their manuscripts—offering quotes of praise they can use on their books, and I promote their efforts and events on social media, and they’ve done that for me. Most importantly, though, we have informal book chats to talk through our challenges and successes. Appreciating that others are going through the same experiences makes all the difference—it’s so helpful to know we’re in each other’s corner.

7- Time to double-down on social media! What's your Twitter handle, and do you have two or three writer friends on there to shout-out to for #WriterWednesday ?
Also, can you please recommend a favorite #bookstagram account profile?

Twitter: @JenBraaksma
@julieartz: Julie Artz is a writer and fellow book coach (my own coach, too!) and she’s awesome!
@abbysmathews: Abby Mathews is an amazing, enthusiastic writer—and the best cheerleader!
@metuiteme: Amelinda Bérubé is a fellow Ottawa YA author and such an authentic, engaging person!

Instagram: @jenbraaksmabookcoach
Some of the amazing bookstagrammers that participated in my VBT recently are @acourtofspinesnpages, @elsiequailwrites, and @livingroomlibrary.

8- What is your favorite creative non-writing activity to do?

Is there a non-writing creative outlet?? ☺ As far as non-creative activities, I love to swim, hike and most especially travel. I love exploring new places.

9- In what ways are the main characters in your book diverse? diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Evangeline is an angel in a high-fantasy world, but she also lives in a world where there is overt prejudice and discrimination against her class of angel, the Commoners. But she also suffers at their hands, too, because she’s mixed-class; her mother was a Dominion, a higher class of angels and there are very few mixed-class angels in her world. She feels like an outsider in both worlds, something that readers today may also relate to.


And as far as a favorite novel, I love Drew Hayden Taylor’s Motorcycles and Sweetgrass that offers a humorous, warm-hearted look at contemporary Indigenous culture through the eyes of Virgil, his 13-year-old Ojibway protagonist.

10- What's the biggest writing goal you hope to accomplish in your lifetime? #WriteGoal #BucketList #WriterBucketList

To keep publishing books and grow my audience. My ideal would be to cultivate a group of dedicated readers who would be excited to pick up whatever my next book might be. I don’t care necessarily about being a household name—just a household name among my supportive readers.

11- What was the query process like for you?

Torturous. Horrible. Soul-crushing. Even though everyone tells you to expect rejection—and I did expect it—it was still disheartening to live through. I know every agent I submitted to is doing their best and choosing what’s right for them. I know every rejection wasn’t personal and I, in no way, blame the agents. Still, it feels personal. You throw your heart and soul and not an insignificant amount of time, effort and financial resources into it. You follow all the advice you can find, you do everything everyone tells you you’re supposed to in order to put your best story forward—and still nothing. It’s devastating. But it’s also the reality of the business. So I got back into the game. It wasn’t easy. First, I allowed myself to feel everything I felt. Giving myself empathy for the disappointment I experienced. Then I regrouped. Refocused. I started working on my next writing project as I carried out my queries. Having something I could control (my own writing process) was a terrific balm to the buffeting storms that came with querying.

12- Would you please ask our audience an intriguing question to answer in the comments?

One of my favorite writing assignments I gave my students was to choose a mythological creature around whom you could start to build a fantasy world. For myself, I obviously chose angels. Some popular choices: mermaids, harpies, dragons, fairies, centaurs, werewolves, and yes, vampires. What creature would you choose to write about?

13- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

Evangeline’s Heaven is the story of Lucifer’s daughter during the Battle of the Heavens, right before Lucifer’s fall—and she has to decide whose side she’s on. Who is she going to be: her father’s daughter or her own person?

Jen Braaksma is the debut author of Evangeline’s Heaven, a young-adult fantasy novel. After working as a journalist, she spent nearly two decades in the classroom as a high school English teacher before diving into the gig economy and starting her own business as a book coach. With a focus on fiction and memoir for writers of every ability and experience level, she loves to assist in shaping stories exactly how the author wants them, from inception of the idea through revisions. She lives in Ottawa, Canada with her husband (soulmates do exist) and two daughters (Best. Kids. Ever.)

Instagram: @jenbraaksmabookcoach
Twitter: @JenBraaksma
Website: www.jenbraaksmawriter.com


Evangeline's Heaven by Jen Braaksma