J. D. Hines, Young Adult Author
J. D. Hines grew up in Riverside, California. A “small city” that she still calls home and says that it’s “…perfect for an introvert like me.” The 27-year-old enjoys miniature golfing, visiting Mt. Rubidoux, relaxing around the house and creating YA stories.
Hines’ imagination took flight early on in her life. She recalls sharing a story she created in her first-grade class. “It was about a girl who wanted to reach the sky, so she stacked blocks until she finally could. I was so excited to share it with the class.” The simple tale expanded the mind of the young storyteller who would go on to obtain an AS Degree in Sociology and her love for sharing stories with kids would later surpass the walls of her first-grade class.
In 2015, Hines debuted her first book that she titled, The Excluded. It also became the namesake of her series and was followed-up with a sequel that she named, The Excluded: Forgotten Gifted. She shares the highlights of The Excluded.
The Excluded is about a twelve-year-old boy named Ethan Fost, who has a gift which allows him to move objects by using his mind. His biggest dream is to attend a school where gifted kids like himself can learn to control their powers and eventually use them to protect the streets as vigilantes. But in a rapid turn of events, Ethan is forcibly taken to a faraway school on an island where it is forbidden to use his Gift. The only way he can leave is if he competes in a dangerous obstacle course which tests his strength, endurance, and how he faces peril. If Ethan and his three teammates win, they’ll be allowed to attend Warren’s School of The Gifted.
The intriguing series offers several characters to fall in love with, and Hines could go into great details while speaking about her love for many of her characters. However, she concentrates on two of her favorites and shares a little about their backgrounds.
Ethan Fost, MC (Main Character): “He is such a nice person. He gets annoyed whenever someone brings up how nice he is because he wants to be seen as tough and strong like his heroes, the vigilantes. Ethan is thrust into a school filled with bad kids and others, like himself, who are confused by why they were brought to that specific school in the first place.”
Timothy Locke (Ethan’s friend): “Is a smart-mouth boy. Timothy uses his last name in third person.” Creating Timothy’s character was a joy for Hines, “…because he says just about anything on his mind, even if what he has to say is a little rude.”
Interviewer: How do you select the names of your characters?
Hines: I select names that I think suits the character and sometimes accidentally fits perfectly in the story. For example. I had named a future character, Nova, who is going to be someone’s love interest later in a future book. Her love interest happens to be someone who likes astronomy. Astronomy? Nova? That was completely by accident!”
Hines targeted audience are 12 and up. Considering that fact, she took her time to create, The Excluded, a story that she says has been with her for a while. She made sure that it was well-developed, meaningful and had fun-loving characters. With two books already published, J.D. plans to complete The Excluded Series with 6 or 7 books, but “Time will tell. Currently, this is the only series I want to write.”
Interviewer: Why did you choose to self-publish compared to going the traditional route?
Hines: I accompanied my dad to a camera store to find new equipment for his cameras. While there, the conversation of “passion” came up by one of the female employees. I told her my “passion” was writing and that’s when I learned about independent publishing. She showed me her photography books that she’d self-published. At first, I was unsure if “self-publishing” was right for me. Before that conversation, I’d convinced myself that one of the Big Five publishing companies was the best way to go. A few months passed, but the thought of becoming an independent author never left my mind and I gave it a try. Soon after, I published my first book. So far, the journey has been great. In fact, I’d say it was the best decision I’ve ever made.
Hines’ books are composed in third person. When she wrote her first book, she considered writing in first person, from the characters POV (Point of View). There’s something about speaking through the character’s voice that draws her interest, but she decided on third person. “I like telling the story in third person because I can explain what is happening in the story as someone who isn’t a part of it. I love writing about what my characters are going through, how they feel in the moment, and writing about other characters aside from the MC, all from my own perspective. Also, I think since, The Excluded is in third person, that’s one of the reasons I like it so much. I tend to favor the POV of whichever book I’m writing. It’s actually fun for me either way.”
Writing for young adults comes easy for Hines. “Not only are the stories fun to write but kids, in general, make interesting characters,” she says. Fun and interesting are easy for her, but writing mysteries and thrillers are just the opposite. Hines suffers from multiple sclerosis and says that the chronic illness affects her memory and makes complex stories with complicated, twisted plots somewhat difficult. She says about those genres, “… I’d rather not dwell on them.” She makes no excuses and allows nothing to stop her from pursuing her passion.
It has been well echoed by many writers to “write what you love to read”. Hines takes the matter to heart when giving her characters a sense of humor. She says, “I try to be more original when it comes to my characters and the type of humor I use in different scenes. In the beginning, I tried to think of what made people laugh, and would get absolutely nowhere. Eventually, I simply went with what made me laugh, instead.”
When writing, J.D. would love to orchestrate words that quickly create interesting sentences and lead to one paragraph after the next. However, her inability to find that “perfect” word to express exactly what she wants the character to do or say sometimes halt her writing process. One way she resolves that problem is with the help of a thesaurus. When she can’t find the word there, like her first book, she doesn’t rush it, but patiently waits to come across that perfect word. “Sometimes it may come from the pages of a novel that I’m reading.”
When you become a published author, you make news. It may not be as loud as you want, but as the old saying goes, any news is better than no news. Hines did herself the favor of learning what, if any, news she could find on herself by researching her name on Google. She reported this, “I’ve just found what websites my books are on and which online bookstores are selling them. I think it’s kind of funny when I see a picture of myself or images of my characters that I made using a doll creator website called Rinmaru Games.”
Hines interests have always been rooted in books for children and young adults. Her favorite book as a kid and still today, is Protector of the Small, by Tamora Pierce. “As a young girl, reading about another girl who trained to be a knight blew my mind. Kel was tough and fierce, and I wanted to be just like her.”
There are many aspiring authors out there who, like Hines, are passionate about writing. You may find the whole writing concept complicated. Hines offers the following tips that she hopes will help you follow your passion. “Jot down scenes, create random conversations between characters and read many different books. Like any art form, writing takes effort and practice. And often times, you have to learn how to take criticism.”
To learn more about J. D. Hines, you can visit any or all of her sites:
