Hi Jennifer! Thank you for taking the time to chat with us at Love Romances and More Reviews and our 

readers. I know there are a few serious threads in GLOSS, but I often found myself not only laughing out loud

 at some parts, but wanting to sit down over a coffee with you and ask you what was going on in your 

own life during those times. Usually you are the one putting people on the hot seat—now it’s your turn to 

have those hard hitting (just kidding) questions put to you. I’ve got my coffee and am ready to dig in and 

get to know Jennifer Oko. You with me? 

Let’s start with an easy question. One of the first things our readers want to know about you—how long 

have you been writing? GLOSS is your debut novel, right? 

Ha. That’s actually not so easy! If you don’t count my “self-published” efforts that date back to elementary 

school in the mid-1970’s, GLOSS is my first novel, but it’s actually my second published book. My first book, 

a memoir called “Lying Together:  My Russian Affair (www.jenniferoko.com/lyingtogether)” was published 

n 2004, under my maiden name, Jennifer Beth Cohen. But while one is a true story and one isn’t, and one is 

a serious story while the other is intended to be comic, the books do have some similarities: they are both 

about a young television news producer and both have complicated romantic relationships at the core 

of the story.  

I know where you got the idea from, but for our readers, can you share?

Well, you know the old adage “write what you know”? I’ve spent the bulk of the last decade and a half 

working in television news, much of it for morning shows. It is an exciting, rich, and colorful world, and one 

that is just ripe for satire. Plus, with the all of the news of journalists getting involved in conflict of interest 

scandals, criticisms of the media, and court cases involving the press, there was a lot of real life fodder to 

help inspire the plot of GLOSS. Early on the main character, Annie, is on a shoot with rattlesnakes. Now 

I’m one of those people who are just terrified of snakes. Have you ever had to do a shoot like that?

I actually did! Much (most) of GLOSS is made up, but that is in fact one of the scenes that was based on 

something that really happened. It was a total hoot, if a little gross. Luckily, I wasn’t the one who had to 

go into the snake pit. I left that up to my correspondent, who in real life was my good friend Melinda 

Murphy. Melinda and I still laugh about that shoot to this day. She made me eat fried rattlesnake when 

we finished shooting. It tasted like chicken. 

What was the funniest segment you ever worked on?

For a while, my correspondent friend Melinda Murphy and I were pretty much only focusing on funny 

segments. The first one we ever did together was about a wife-carrying contest. We enlisted Melinda’s 

husband to carry her. They didn’t win. But some of the funniest times were actually off camera—getting 

lost on remote roads, getting locked into strange hotel rooms, getting “bumped” up to the deluxe room 

on the QE2. What a hardship. I had a marble bathtub for a few nights. 

The scariest?

Scariest is harder. I suppose “upsetting” might be a better word. Getting to really know soldiers who have 

lost limbs in Iraq, profiling doctors in rural Russia who are working in horrific conditions, meeting children 

who actually aspired to be prostitutes – there have been a lot of stories that I have worked on that were 

very difficult to do and maintain the proper objective distance one needs to do a story right. 

Are you a plotter or a panster writer? 

Hmm. I am not really sure what that means. I don’t sit down with a solid outline, though. Usually, I sit in 

front of a blank screen and just start typing nonsense, hoping that a muse will strike. Sometimes she does, 

sometimes she doesn’t. So, panster, I guess.

Can you describe your average day before you started writing?

I don’t want to sound rude, but I really can’t. My life has changed so much over the past few years I can’t 

really say there has been such a thing as an average day for me. I wrote my first book, Lying Together, in 

dribs and drabs of stolen time over about four years, but writing GLOSS was very different because I 

actually had two full days a week to focus on it (well, as full as a work day can be when one has a small 

child in daycare, which can tend to be something of a germ factory). 

I started writing Gloss on my honeymoon, which I know doesn’t sound very romantic ;-) The offer for the 

contract came one year later, about three weeks after my son was born. Then, Gloss was published three 

weeks before my daughter was born. So things have been a little, well, unpredictable in our house.  

And how do your days flow when you are? How did you balance your day job with writing? For instance, 

did you do your “day” job and go home and write, or was writing for weekends?

I wrote GLOSS while juggling work and a baby (and did the final edits while pregnant with my second 

child), so I had to be extremely focused and efficient with my time. Basically, I worked three days a week 

for CBS and two days a week on GLOSS (mostly sitting in Starbucks), but the truth is that because the 

writing gig was the more flexible of the two jobs, the writing was what suffered whenever there was some 

other need, like a pediatrician’s appointment or a visit from the ac repairman. Also, I can’t write for eight 

hours straight, so on my writing days, I would write for a few hours and then have the rest of the day to be 

a mom or deal with dreary household stuff that needed dealing with. My husband was really great about 

giving me writing time on the weekends as well. It was amazing what a difference even just having a 

couple of hours could make. In the end, I think the time constraints of both my life and the deadlines 

helped me tremendously with the writing process,  especially with a book like Gloss, which is intended to 

be fast-paced and fun. I didn’t have the luxury of over-thinking it, and that was oddly liberating. 

Was there ever a segment you worked on in your day job that was just too good not to include in GLOSS 

and you just had to run home and write it? 

There certainly were times that I would think “this would be hysterical to include” but ultimately when I 

was deep into the writing of GLOSS, it existed in its own universe, one that was informed by my day job, 

but one that could operate in its own space and time, if that makes any sense. 

At what point did your co-workers find out you were writing GLOSS?

Some of my closest friends are people I work with, so they knew from the beginning. One of my work friends 

was actually an early reader. But once it became real and I got the contract, I had to get permission from 

CBS to publish it, so that was when I told my boss. 

As we read about Annie’s day I had to wonder just when she had time for herself. For instance, she had to 

turn to the doorman to be sure Margarita got fed. Is it like that for you as a producer, always on the go?

That’s a good question. It was like that for me for many years, always on the go, but with short periods of 

quiet in between the frenzied activity. Things calmed down for me when I moved to DC in 2003, because 

much of what I covered didn’t require the sort of travel that my earlier work had. And once I got 

pregnant, I was fortunate to be able to carve out a slightly more predictable schedule than most of the 

other producers I work with. Now, most of the stories I produce have what we call “long lead time” so I 

can know two to three weeks out what my life is going to look like. 

And how do the guests you work with react to you now knowing you are a published author?

I actually don’t talk about my writing life much when I am at work. I think it is important to keep my “hats” 

separate. When you are reporting a story, you need to keep the focus on the subjects, not on yourself, and 

if you tell people that you are a published author, sometimes that can be a little too much information. 

Who was your strongest supporter from start to finish?

My husband, hands down. My entire family is extremely supportive, but Michael is always the one to 

encourage me to keep writing, even when I am convinced that I can’t do it (an almost daily ritual at 

certain points in time) and he is the one to do the little extra bit of childcare ensure that I actually made 

my deadlines. 

Was GLOSS an easy pitch to your publisher? 

It was a lot easier than my first book ;-) But I am not sure there is ever a thing as an easy pitch. Or, maybe 

there is, but it is probably fairly rare. We had some very nice interest, but a number of publishers either 

wanted substantial changes or weren’t willing to pay enough for the book, and unfortunately, without 

enough money to afford me the opportunity to cut back on my day job, I wouldn’t have been able to 

write it. Needless to say, I am happy with how it all worked out. 

Because of how fun this book was to read – even with some of possible close to the truth twists, did you 

ever have "writer’s block"?  If so, what did you do to get out if it?   You create some great characters, 

Mark Thurber, Parnell and my favorite, Galina. Are they based on anyone you know in real life? 

I didn’t even know exactly how GLOSS was going to end until I got there myself, so, yes, there were 

definitely some days when I looked at my screen and basically freaked out. Luckily, I had a couple of writer 

friends who were great at talking through plot points and structure with me, and with their help I was 

able to power through. 

I love that you love Galina. She seems to strike a cord with a lot of people. But no one is exactly based on 

anyone. I mean, yes, I lived in Russia and I have a very good Russian friend who is extremely smart, and yes, 

I once dated a guy who worked in politics, but beyond those sentences, there wasn’t much of the 

characters that were based on anyone specifically. It’s more like they are based on composites of a lot of 

people. 

Jennifer, I loved GLOSS. It was one of the best reads I’ve had all year and I wanted to keep reading more. 

Are you working on anything right now? Can you tell us a teaser about these projects? 

Thank you so much!!  That is so nice to hear. As I am sure you know, having a book get noticed is extremely 

difficult and often extremely frustrating. I think it is harder than childbirth! I recently read on a blog 

somewhere an anecdote that I found to be hysterically funny in a sick sort of way… it goes something like 

this:

There are two writers, each sitting in front of their keyboards, typing away. Each scene appears to be 

identical, but one writer is in heaven, the other is in hell. What’s the difference? The writer in hell has been 

published. 

And yet, I will keep writing. ;-) Have you ever read Anne Lamont’s Bird by Bird? She has some wonderful 

thoughts about why we write and how, though it can be so hard and so painful, it is one of the most 

fulfilling and wonderful endeavors there are. 

GLOSS was part of a two-book deal with Mira, so I am indeed working on another novel right now. Well, 

given that I just had a baby three weeks ago “working” is a bit of an exaggeration. But my next novel is 

due to my editor June 1 (a year later than originally planned, but I suppose that is par for the course), and 

should be published the following June. It’s a comic novel about psycho-pharmaceuticals, international 

organized crime, and a naïve young woman who gets herself into a boatload of trouble (hmm, I am 

sensing a theme in my work). I have some ideas for other writing as well, mostly some stuff about parenting 

(clearly where my head is at these days) and children’s literature, but that will have to wait.  

Galina is one of my favorite characters this year. She comes across like someone I’d like to have as a friend. 

Is there any chance Galina will get her own story?

I love that idea! I hadn’t thought of it, but it is definitely one worth pondering!

Okay, imagination time…or maybe a prelude of what is to come, maybe it’s already happened.  You got 

the call, GLOSS is going to be a mini-series on television.  Who gets what parts?

Oh, wouldn’t that be nice!! I actually have had some Hollywood nibbles, but sadly no bites yet. Originally 

I was thinking Anne Hathaway would be perfect for Annie, but word is that she read the book and isn’t 

interested. Too similar to Devil Wears Prada, I guess. Do you know the young actress Zoey Deschanel? I think 

she is adorable and very funny and might make a good Annie. But beyond that, I am a terrible casting 

director. Recommendations welcome!

Do you read for relaxation? Who do you turn to?

Well, of late I’ve been reading books about getting your baby to sleep. But Carl Hiaasen and Christopher 

Buckley are my absolute favorite comic authors. And I adore Laura Zigman. When she agreed to blurb 

GLOSS for me, I was over the moon.  One of my undergraduate degrees is in Russian Literature, and I love 

Mikhail Bulgakov (just like Annie). I try to re-read The Master and Margarita every five years or so and am 

due for another reading. 

When you wrote GLOSS it opened the door for you to move from behind the camera to the front. How 

does it feel to be on the other side of the interview/guest seat? Are you having fun with it?

I love it. I am not normally someone who wants to be the center of attention, but I really do enjoy being 

interviewed and doing book readings. I’ve had some great fun with some of the interviews. Especially 

Jim Bohannon (Westwood One Radio) and Mike Schneider (Bloomberg TV). Radio is the most fun because 

you don’t have to worry about your makeup. I don’t wear much makeup in real life (ironically, given that 

GLOSS is in part about cosmetics, I have a bad habit of eating off lipstick and lip gloss, so I just don’t even 

bother anymore), so wearing the amount of makeup you need to wear for TV always feels weird.

In GLOSS you tell part of the story in the first person and then shift into the third. Was that an easy transition 

for you? Which point of view do you prefer writing in? 

First comes much more naturally for me, but writing in third can free you up tremendously. It’s good to mix 

it up. 

What is one thing about Jennifer Oko no one knows but you wish someone would ask you? 

Having written a memoir already (Lying Together), I tend to be something of an open book, no pun 

intended. But I have always been the sort of person who just tells it like it is. Really, I need to learn to be 

more mysterious. 

Do you have anything to add?

Just that I so appreciate you and your readers taking the time to read GLOSS and learn a little bit more 

about what went into it.  It is so nice that, these days, authors can have a more open relationship with 

their readers, that you don’t feel like you are just writing into a vacuum. I love hearing what people think 

about my writing and I love some of the ideas that come out of these “conversations,” and I encourage 

anyone who wants to contact me  to do so. You can find me via my website – www.jenniferoko.com. 

There is a section on the site where people can write to me, and the emails come directly to me, not to 

some funnel. 

Thank you so much for being here with me today and even more, for writing GLOSS. As I said, it is one of the 

best reads I’ve had all year. It is a keeper I’ve been telling all my friends about. I look forward to your next 

book.

Thank YOU!