04 March, 2022

#CharacterInterview - Meet Jo, Maggie & David from Finding Jo by Frances Ive - #WomensFiction @healthysouluk



Overwhelmed by her dysfunctional family and possessive boyfriend, Jo leaves without telling a soul. The trip to India takes her to Delhi and on the iconic train journey up to the Himalayas. She arrives at the Jasanghari retreat, a former palace with its backdrop of pine forests and snow-capped mountains.
New friendships evolve, while Jo starts to unravel the inner turmoil that drove her to behave in an uncharacteristic way. Her personal journey is both heart-warming and inspirational. 
Yet even paradise has its unexpected challenges which push her growing peace of mind to the limit and put the quest for happiness in jeopardy.
Finding Jo offers an insight into the misunderstandings, resentment and grievances that build up in close relationships, the secrets and lies that often arise within families. Can they be healed?  

Meet Jo Greaves, 32, the main protagonist in Finding Jo


If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

I have surprisingly few responsibilities at present as I am relaxing in a Himalayan retreat. No job, no family, no boyfriend to answer to – unlike before. It seems like the perfect life, so on a typical day I would do some yoga for a couple of hours, read my book in the palace gardens, with the snow-capped mountains in the background.  If I were at home, I’d go to the beach outside Bristol, read and swim. Of course, if it were winter I think a day at a spa would be a great treat.

If you could spend the day with someone you admire (living or dead or imaginary), who would you pick?

Since I’ve been in the Himalayas I’ve been intrigued to know that the Dalai Lama is living on the other side of these mountains and I’d love to meet him.  What I adore about him is that he is always happy and laughing – well he is whenever I see him on TV or videos. He has a positive approach to life, which is based on his Buddhist principles. He is cheerful, sensible, and optimistic, even though life has presented him with a lot of serious challenges.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? And, what is your current state of mind?

I just crave peace of mind and would love to stop my buzzing mind churning over things and making me insecure.  My current state of mind is positive because having all this time for myself in a retreat is helping me to become less anxious, happier and at long last - true to myself. I have always put up with too much from people in my family and my boyfriend. I am becoming more assertive and jnot just doing what other people want me to. Most of all I am learning to speak my truth and I feel that this is going to help me to be a more contented person.

What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue and why? 

Pride – is it really a virtue? It can make someone very stubborn.  I have heard people say that they are very proud of their children or their partners, or friends and that’s fine. But sometimes people say, ‘He’s got his pride,’ and it seems to me to be rather stubborn.

Tell us 3 things about yourself that the readers do not know about.

I was so uncompetitive because I wanted to be liked. This meant that if I beat other people in certain subjects I felt bad about it. Consequently, I played it down. But when it really mattered and I had exams I did very well because I worked hard. This meant my classmates were quite surprised!
I had a boyfriend when I was 16 whom my parents didn’t really like, because they thought he would lead me astray as he was older.  So I met him in secret. I’m normally such an honest person, but I lied about where I was for the six months I was seeing him.   
As a child, I liked going to other people’s houses so I could get out of mine. I didn’t realise this at the time, but now I am understanding my behaviour more and more there was a feeling that I felt more relaxed away from my siblings and my warring parents.


Meet Maggie, Jo’s mother


If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

The sad thing is that there is very little that I want to do when I’m not working.  As you’re asking me, I would most likely say that I’d take myself off alone to the coast and walk along by the sea, have a coffee and carry on walking.  I am not convinced that this is enjoying myself, as it feels a bit like escaping from everything and everyone.  But when I think about it, it has always made me feel better and less depressed. Maybe that’s because I always need to get away.

If you could spend the day with someone you admire (living or dead or imaginary), who would you pick?

There aren’t many people I admire that much, certainly not living now.  So I would choose an inspirational writer – William Shakespeare.  How can anyone write so many plays that are still popular and on stage all over the world five centuries later?  I would like to ask him how where his inspiration came from.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? And, what is your current state of mind?

I’ve never experienced perfect happiness so I wouldn’t know. Except maybe as a 15/16 year old when my life seemed to be fun. Just getting more positive about life is a new experience for me. I think I’ve always been a depressive person. Now I’m going to travel to Africa and help people by doing voluntary work. Maybe the new feeling of freedom will make me happy. 

What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue and why? 

People often describe someone as very easy going. In fact, my husband Mark is one of those people whom everyone including our children think is an easy person.  I think ‘easy going’ masks a lot of subtle characteristics that people don’t always recognise or see.  He is very careful not to be seen as doing anything wrong, but believe me I know that he is not trustworthy and if they knew what he was doing they wouldn’t think he was so appealing. 

Tell us 3 things about yourself that the readers do not know about.

I only got married to Mark because it’s what people like me did in those days.  You went out with someone for a while, you got on OK and the next step was marriage followed by babies. It seemed that if I could have a husband I would feel better about myself. That worked for a short time, but it catches up with you and I ended up regretting it. Doing anything because of deep insecurity doesn’t seem to work out very well, and 30 years of marriage with someone who is clearly not that dedicated to me has been the result. 
I never really wanted children, which is quite amazing because I had three. Again, it shows how weak I was, but I was swept up in what was expected of me.  I don’t think was a very good mother because I hadn’t made a positive decision to have them. 
When I was a child I was good at acting, which is very strange as I couldn’t do it now. I think I needed once again to escape so I was able to be someone else for a while which I loved.

Meet David, Jo’s friend at the retreat

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

If you’d asked me three months ago I’d have said that I wanted to spend some time with a beautiful girl, wining and dining, but I am surprised to realise that since being in this retreat I’ve changed.  I love cricket, so I think one of my most relaxing days would be to go and watch a test match in India or somewhere else exotic and I could even go on my own – which is really different for me as I always used to need to be with someone. This idea feels quite liberating. 

If you could spend the day with someone you admire (living or dead or imaginary), who would you pick?

That’s not a difficult question for me as I love sport and admire various sportsmen. There was a  famous basketball player, Michael Jordan, who was known for being a winner. He would bend the world to his will through the sheer force of his intensity. He empowered other athletes. One of his best quotes was, ‘I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.’ It must be great to feel like him and not have self-doubt.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? And, what is your current state of mind?

State of mind, that’s a tricky one to answer. I think I must be co-dependent. My happiness tends to rely on having someone I love around me, but I don’t seem to appreciate them when I have them. So I always seem to be striving for something I want that I can’t have.  And that’s happening at the moment. I keep persisting but to no avail.  

What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue and why? 

Being jovial and making people laugh- that’s me. But when the laughing stops, I am not as happy as I seem. I cover up my insecurities with my joking and people love it. I have always thought of myself as a lovable rogue, but I’m not sure that I want to be that person now. Because underneath it all I must have quite low self-esteem or I wouldn’t have treated my partners like I did, nor had such a drinking habit. 

Tell us 3 things about yourself that the readers do not know about.

I got into trouble when I was quite young and mixing with the wrong people. So I had to do community service – when you do some work but don’t get paid for it, instead of going to prison. I found out what it was like to do jobs I’d never normally do and meet people unlike anyone else I knew. 
When I was younger I played the guitar. Every time I went out with a girl I wrote a song about her and played it to her. I must say they all thought I was wonderful (for a short while).
I once made a fire on a very dry field in the middle of summer. It grew and grew until my mother saw the flames and telephoned the fire service. She was not pleased. 
(ends)




A career as a journalist led to health writing for UK national newspapers and consumer magazines, and various non-fiction books. Frances’ first novel, Finding Jo, influenced by travels in India, took some years to come to fruition. It was published on Amazon in 2021. 
Frances on the Web:
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