1--What is the title of your latest release?
JUST EMILIA
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When Emilia Fletcher finds herself trapped inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator, getting out is the least of her problems. Sharing the confined space with her are Em, a troubled teen, and Millie, an elderly woman desperate for reconciliation with her adult daughter. As the hours drag on, hunger, exhaustion, and panic set in, revealing an almost incomprehensible truth: they are the same person. Locked in an uncompromising match of memories, the three women are forced to confront a traumatic event that has shaped their lives. Together, the three women have to untangle their past to reclaim their future. Darkly funny, deeply moving, and razor-sharp, Just Emilia is a gripping exploration of identity, regret, and self-discovery.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The idea initially came to me when I was briefly stuck inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator with a couple of strangers. I doubt it lasted for more than a minute, but that was enough time for me to wonder about who those people were and, should the doors fail to open, would we be able to help each other out. They did open, of course, but the idea tickled me, and I wrote the first sentence of what would become Just Emilia as soon as I got home. That’s probably the only sentence that hasn’t changed.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely. Emilia is a complicated person, but she’s also quite smart and funny in a dry sort of way. I think we would get along quite well.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Smart, sassy, and a little bit lost.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Oddly, I find elevator rides much less claustrophobic than I did before writing this book, and I often enjoy the company of strangers when inside them. The rides are usually too fast to find out their real stories, but that doesn’t mean you can’t wonder.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wish I could power through a draft and then go back to polish it. Instead, I painstakingly edit as I go, and then I go back and edit some more. I would still be editing if there weren’t a deadline to go to press!
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Easy. Homemade Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. I try to always have some dough in my freezer so I can break off a chunk and bake a few as needed.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I am a nomadic writer, but I usually do my best work when sitting on my bedroom floor with my computer on my lap. I love working at The Den, the cafe at my local beloved DC bookstore, Politics and Prose, but my favorite place to write (specifically on a warm but not too warm summer day) is on the screened-in deck at my parents’ house. It overlooks a farm and you can hear the cows moo. They make great company.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Angie Kim — I love a smart page-turner with a lot of heart. That said, I was a Russian Literature major in college, and I often go back to my dog-eared copies of the old greats. Right now I am re-reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s like magical realism meets dystopian meets romantasy. How could you go wrong?
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
The Big Ball of String. It was the first book I ever read in its entirety. I read it out loud to my grandfather when I was around five.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I got an email from Regal House when I was waiting in a parking lot after one of my kids’ soccer tournaments. Happily, my husband and parents were there as well, so I got to celebrate the moment with all of them.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I like books that don’t fit neatly into any genre. A little bit mystery, a little bit literary, a little bit speculative, etc.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Hair. My friend Cara and I used to shout-sing the songs in the halls of our elementary school. I still love that movie.
15--What is your favorite season?
Summer, because with the ability to work remotely, we are able to relocate from our home in sweltering Washington, DC to stay with family in gorgeous, breezy parts of Massachusetts.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
About six months before my birthday, I start telling myself that I am whatever age it is that is coming up, so it’s less of a big deal when it happens. What’s great is that since my birthday is in the summer, we are usually away near a beach (see above), and so, bonus, because a number of people in my family like to fish, I often get a wonderful dinner with seabass straight from the ocean.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Bad Sisters. Creator, writer, director, and star Sharon Horgan is a comic genius. I always adore her work, and this series is the best yet.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Do chocolate chip cookies count as a cuisine? Otherwise, like my taste in books, I am cuisine-flexible. So long as the food is fresh and lovingly prepared, I am good.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I spend a lot of time walking my dog in the park. DC’s parks are amazing. Rock Creek has so many miles of trails you might think you are in a rural area, but for the distant sound of cars and emergency vehicles.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I recently picked up an old project I had started before writing Just Emilia, tentatively called The True Life of Phoebe Weiss. It’s the story of a young woman who discovers that her beloved grandpa had ties to the prohibition-era Jewish Mafia, and the debts he incurred are now hers to make good on. It has been a ton of fun researching the stomping grounds of some of the infamous mobsters—places like the grand old Borscht Belt resorts where performers like Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis and Fanny Brice got their start.
The past, present, and future collide in a DC Metro elevator as three women get caught up in a gripping time-traveling tale of memory, emotion, and unspoken truths about their shared history.
When Emilia Fletcher finds herself trapped inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator, getting out is the least of her problems. Sharing the confined space with her are Em, a troubled teenager plagued by suicidal thoughts, and Millie, an elderly woman yearning to mend ties with her estranged daughter. As the hours drag on, hunger, exhaustion, and panic set in, revealing an almost incomprehensible truth: they are the same person.
Locked in an uncompromising match of memories, the three women excavate and attempt to reckon with the shared shame and suffering stemming from an unresolved trauma that has cast a profound shadow over their lives. Brimming with biting humor, compassion, and quick-witted insight, JUST EMILIA is remarkable journey of self-discovery.
Women's Fiction Time Slip | Women's Fiction Psychological [Regal House Publishing, On Sale: June 10, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9781646035779 / eISBN: 9781646035786]
Jennifer Oko is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker. Her memoir Lying Together: My Russian Affair was an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times Book Review, which called it “simply riveting.” Her novel Gloss, a satire of morning television news, also received ample praise, with Marie Claire magazine comparing it to Carl Hiaasen’s Lucky You and The Chicago Tribune saying it was “a rare treat.” Gloss was optioned by eOne Entertainment to be developed as a television series. Her novel Head Case is a comic mystery about psycho-pharmaceutical trafficking, which she swears is not autobiographical in any way.
Jennifer’s latest novel, Just Emilia, is a time-traveling dark comedy about three women who are trapped in a Washington, DC Metro elevator, only to discover that they are the same person, many decades apart. In order to find her way out, she has to confront the truth about how a childhood tragedy is impacting her at these different stages of her life.
And speaking of life stages, Jennifer lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, two almost-adult children, a middle-aged dog, and a young cat. In addition to her creative writing, she has spent more than two decades producing television news features and feature-length documentary films. She recently finished production on projects for Netflix and HBO.
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