Jessie Garcia’s twisty new thriller opens with Jasmine’s character sneaking out of her attacker’s bed in the early morning and fleeing to the Madison airport, arriving for her flight in disguise and several hours early. In the next chapter, we meet Stephanie, director of single mother news at the Madison CBS affiliate, who is preparing for an industry conference in California. They board the same flight and sit next to each other. For the remainder of Part I, the chapters alternate between these two women. However, once Part 2 begins, we don’t hear from any of them – only the other characters who try to piece together what happened. I’d better not say anything more.
“Business travel” may be the Madison native’s first work of fiction, but Garcia is a veteran journalist and nonfiction writer. Additionally, she is currently the news director of the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, which adds an authentic twist to the fictional narrative Garcia was Wisconsin’s first female sports anchor – right here at News 3 Now, in 1992 – and her non-fiction books, “My Life with Green and Gold: Stories from 20 Years of Sports Broadcasting” (2013) and “Going for Wisconsin Gold: Stories of Our State Olympic Athletes” (2016), won honors at the Midwest Books Awards.
“The Business Trip” comes out January 14 from St. Martin’s Press and is already generating buzz, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly and nods his head Kirkus Reviewsand what’s more, he was selected as January Independent Next List take.
“Business Trip” is your first novel. Where did the seeds of this story come from?
I was sent on a business trip to attend a conference for television news directors in January 2023. Along the way, the idea for this book popped into my head and I couldn’t wait to start writing. I think I started typing the day after I got back to Wisconsin. At first, it was just a germ of an idea. I’m what’s called a “pantser”, which means I write by the seat of my pants, as opposed to a “plotter” where you plan everything in advance. So I started to think and see where the characters and the plot took me.
From there, how did you begin writing while maintaining your busy day job as news director at the Milwaukee CBS affiliate?
Writing is my passion and hobby. I do it like others do gardening, cooking, painting, etc. I look forward to this and it is very relaxing and meditative for me. I wrote every weekend and holiday and some weekday evenings. I tend to get up really early on the weekends and write for four or five hours, then take a nap. I have a few favorite spots in the house and I need complete silence, so I first turn on the coffee maker, then close the door and lock myself in the book. There’s nothing like “writer’s high” when things are going well.
Speaking of that job, and as someone who works in the same building as our sister station News 3 Now (the Madison CBS affiliate where you got your start and the model for the one that plays such a prominent role in your novel ), it was so much fun for me to read about Stephanie’s fictional experiences here. I can guess why you didn’t set her character in Milwaukee, but can you tell me about your decision to make her Madison? What things did you need to fictionalize and what things were “ripped straight from the headlines” so to speak?
I chose to set the beginning of the book in Madison for several reasons: I wanted to differentiate it in my mind from my actual journey; I knew Madison very well and could use my high school in fictional form; and I just wanted to make my main character a news director in a smaller market than she would have been in Milwaukee. I used WISC-TV in fiction form as an ode to the station that launched my career. It was a great place to work. But everything has been fictionalized, nothing else is really true to reality.
You’ve lived in Milwaukee since 1994, but did I read that you were born and raised by a single mother in Madison? What else can you tell us about your connection to Madison?
Yes, my mother and father divorced when I was 2 and I was raised by my mother (and later by my stepfather, my mother met him when I was 10 and they got together married when I was 15). I grew up near Atwood Avenue on the east side and attended Marquette (now O’Keefe) elementary and middle schools and East High School. Madison will always be home. It was a fantastic place to grow up and launch a career. I went to college on the East Coast – Boston University – but I missed the Midwest and came back after graduation. My mother had a huge influence on me. She took me to the library and the Bookmobile when he passed through our neighborhood. She always encouraged reading and current affairs. We received the Wisconsin State Journal and the Capital Times at our house every day and I think that sparked my love of journalism. She was studying English and still corrects my grammar to this day!
Jessie Garcia (left) with her mother in A Room of One’s Own bookstore, circa 1975.
What was it like writing fiction after a career in journalism? What has fiction allowed you to do that you haven’t been able to do until now?
Good question! I was a nonfiction writer as well as a journalist. I have published two nonfiction books with the Wisconsin Historical Society Press and self-published another. I never thought I could write fiction. I used to joke that I couldn’t even make up a single name, let alone an entire plot, but I was bitten by the fiction bug after taking a “prompt” course in line where they sent you prompts to let your creativity flow. It was so much fun that I started writing novels. “The Business Trip” is actually the fourth novel I’ve written but the first one that sold. What I really enjoy about fiction now is that it allows me to escape from the world of reality, facts, and triple-checking everything that I live in for my day job. I come home and I can use my imagination.
It’s a thriller with lots of intrigue and twists and a really clever structure. How did you imagine the structure of the book? Did you always know where you were going? Did you know the ending and the plot backwards, or were you unraveling the mystery as you went along?
Completely undone as it goes along. I call it “pulling taffy.” I just try to pull a little taffy every day and see where it goes. The backbone of the book is the same as the first draft, but the brilliant minds of my agents and editor have also added many elements to strengthen it. I give them a lot of credit for bringing a fresh perspective to the project and improving it.
What did you want to explore through each of your characters? What aspects of being a news director did you want to play with Stephanie, and what kinds of questions or themes were you exploring through Jasmine, Anna, Glenn and Robert?
There are parts of me in Jasmine and Stephanie, the two main female characters. The supporting characters were just fun to create to round out the cast and propel the plot. Without giving away any spoilers, I wanted to show a few things, including how the assumptions are not reality; the depths of the human spirit; and the lengths we will go to to get what we want.
Another thing I loved was that your female characters were in their 40s and older, which isn’t necessarily typical of today’s thrillers. Was it a conscious choice?
Certainly. I’m 54 — “old” for a first novelist :). I wanted to create people with more life experience and I wanted Stephanie to have an adult son (I have two myself).
What did you find most difficult and what went easiest? Did anything surprise you about the process?
The hardest part was probably refining the POVs. Initially, I had three more! My editor said “too much” and we cut it down. But losing chapters is like losing a limb and it’s hard to let them go. There were also a few moments in the plot where I felt temporarily stuck. When this happens, I either take a long walk or lie down and think, think, think about the options until a path becomes clear. What flowed were the actual chapters once I figured out the direction we were going. I have been told that I write quickly. I can jump in and go. What surprised me was how many Easter eggs you can layer on top of each other later. You don’t need every detail of your plot right from the jump. I’ll do dishes or something after the first draft and have an “a-ha” moment of a new thing to incorporate.
What’s next for you, will you continue writing thrillers?
I just finished my second for St. Martin’s Press. It’s another detective story with multiple POVs set in a TV newsroom – but it’s not a sequel. Like “The Business Trip,” it was a real pleasure to write.
What is the biggest compliment readers can give you about this book?
That they loved it so much that they couldn’t put it down and/or that they enjoyed the twists and turns. My favorite book as a child was “The Westing Game” by Wisconsin writer Ellen Raskin. Its twists and turns amazed me and I absolutely couldn’t put it down (and reread it probably ten times, still fascinated by its creativity).
Maggie Ginsberg is an editor at Madison Magazine and author of the novel “Still True,” which won the 2023 WLA Literary Award for Fiction.
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