Taking her readers on a literary ride

Cedarhurst based author and Hewlett High School alumnus, Jody LaGreca, said before she knows it, a word will come to her mind and a whole story is born.

“It’s like watching a soap opera,” LaGreca said of her writing process. “I don’t know what’s going to happen; everything happens while I’m writing it.”

LaGreca has been writing since she was 7-years-old and began writing books after graduating from Queens College, but said she wasn’t ready for all the work that came with writing books.

“I put it aside for a long time and went back to writing books in 2000,” she said. “I started getting back into writing poetry and got into writing full force. One book led to another.”

Currently, LaGreca has self-published five novels, Afternoon Tea, The Gloaming, Suburban Weird, Seduction and Fleshpot. Afternoon Tea is a historical fiction of forbidden love, the culture of high society and their irony, taking place during the Victorian Age and beyond.

Midwest Book Review gave Afternoon Tea five stars and said, “J.R. LaGreca has captured the Victorian Era exquisitely, like a fine painting or a glass of aged wine. A must read for the amorous romantic.”

James, LaGreca’s husband of almost 18 years, said it’s ‘very interesting’ to be married to an author. The first book he read by his wife was Afternoon Tea. “After I finished the book I thought, ‘my goodness where did this woman get this insight?’” James said. “Her books are unpredictable and she makes twists and turns in her books so you’re excited to read the next one.”

Echoing her husband’s words, LaGreca said readers could expect to be entertained and surprised by her books because of the twists and turns she’s added to them. “They can’t know what is going to happen,” she said. “Readers have told me that they can’t put the book down.”

LaGreca said she is hoping to get a publisher soon and would like one of her books to be made into a movie someday. “I hope somebody is lucky enough to find her and see what her capabilities are and see how dedicated she is,” James said. “She would be a good investment for someone.”

As technology changes and many bookstores have been forced to close their doors as a result of competition from such things as the Kindle, LaGreca remains hopeful about the future of books.

“I hope that it won’t change so much from now so people will still have the need to have book stores and print books,” she said. “I, personally, like holding books and while I respect people who enjoy reading books that way (Kindle), I hope authors will still be as committed to writing books as in the past.”