Babe in the Woods by Jude Hopkins
Jude Hopkins is author of Babe in the Woods, her debut novel published by The Wild Rose Press in 2023. She has also written various essays, including one published in The Los Angeles Times and another about the need for self-confidence in telling a story, published in Women Writers, Women’s Books. She was one of the runners-up in Proximity Magazine’s 2018 Personal Essay Contest, judged by Hanif Abdurraqib, for her essay “The Diagnosis.” Her poetry has appeared in California Quarterly, Timber Creek Review, Gyroscope Review—and most recently in Witcraft and The Orchards Poetry Journal. Hopkins has taught writing at various universities in Pennsylvania, California, Arizona and New York state, and, according to her students, was one very tough (but fair) instructor. She is currently working on her second novel. Her essays and poetry, along with her blog posts, can be found on her webpage, judehopkinswriting.net. Her X handle is @heyjudenotjudy and on Bluesky at heyjudenotjudy.bsky.social.
A little bit about Author Jude Hopkins…
I was an adjunct instructor in writing classes at various universities for many years, a career that made me want to write and publish whatever could be transformed into something worthwhile that I’d written on legal pads, typewriters and computers throughout the years. At one college stint, I became downright jealous of an office mate who was publishing poetry. I thought, “I can do that, too!” And I did. I also wrote essays about my experiences, one about a bout with tuberculosis I had as a young woman; the other about meeting up with an old flame when I lived in Los Angeles. The former won a runner-up award from Proximity Magazine judged by Hanif Abdurraqib; the other became an L.A. Affairs column for The Los Angeles Times.
This is Author Jude Hopkins’ writing and publication journey in her own words…
Inspiration to start writing…
I have always been an avid reader, starting from childhood right up to the present. I’m on board with Emily Dickinson who wrote that “there is no frigate like a book / to take us lands away.” I’m one of those who keeps a pink pen handy, too, to scribble in my marginalia as I read. I look in books for how an author has handled those things I’ve taught to my students: diction, sentence style, figures of speech, content. I just re-read all four of John Updike’s “Rabbit” novels to get a feel for his incomparable voice and masterly skill as a writer. My favorite writers are Henry James and Hemingway, so they also inspire me. I write poetry, essays and women’s fiction—and I love writing in all these genres. Writing poetry, for example, can also help in my novel writing, so it’s all good.
Jude’s works…
All of my published poetry and essays can be found on my website at www.judehopkinswriting.net, along with my
blog posts. I have lots of writing advice on those blog posts, so I urge writers to take a peek (some of them have been
published on Medium through the Writing Cooperative and one published on Women Writers, Women’s Books about believing in yourself enough to actually follow-through on finishing a writing project).
My women’s fiction novel, Babe in the Woods, can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Kobo,
Target, Books a Million, Bookshop, Google Books, The Wild Rose Press website, and iTunes.
Babe in the Woods Blurb
It’s September 1995, the first year of the rest of Hadley Todd’s life. After living in Los Angeles, Hadley returns to her hometown in rural New York to write and be near her father. In addition to looking after him and teaching high school malcontents, Hadley hopes to channel her recent L.A. heartbreak into a play about the last moment of a woman’s innocence. But she seeks inspiration. Enter Trey Harding, a young, handsome reporter who covers sports at the high school. Trey reminds Hadley of her L.A. ex and is the perfect spark to fire up her imagination. The fact that Trey is an aspiring rock star and she has L.A. record biz connections makes the alliance perfect. She dangles promises of music biz glory while watching his moves. But the surprising twist that transpires when the two of them go to Hollywood is not something Hadley prepared for.
Jude’s favourite scene from Babe in the Woods…
She brushed the lint off her sweatshirt and zipped up her jeans before opening the door.
Trey was twirling the end of a white stick in his mouth. With a loud slurping sound, he pulled from his mouth a red lollipop before sticking out his tongue, which now matched the color of his shirt.
“Fire your secretary,” he said, tapping his watch. He waited a few seconds. “May I come in?”
She let him in, the shame of her unkempt apartment equaled only by the shame of her own disheveled appearance.
He stood close to her. “I have to say, you are much more attractive without all that make-up.” He talked with the lollipop stuck in his cheek. “Definitely younger.”
It was an approach she remembered from her time with Derek. First you surprise them, then compliment them when they’re at their most vulnerable. She made a mental note.
He walked toward the nearest chair, sat down, but quickly jumped up again, fishing in his pockets. “Where are my manners? Here.” He extended a lollipop, grape flavor, her favorite.
“No thanks.” It wasn’t even on the level of the apple Neil had given her on the first day of school. Besides, what was with men and their semiotics anyway? Perhaps it beat communicating with words. And how in the world would he have known grape was her favorite flavor? Was she that transparent? Was there a grape type as opposed to an orange or cherry type? The grape type would be moody and dark. The orange type would be young, perky, sassy. The cherry type? Passionate, desirable. Like him.
Lollipops aside, he was lusciousness itself, the blood-red shirt adding to his angel-faced carnality. His skin glowed, no doubt from a day spent in the autumn sun with a frisky faun, the name of which she itched to know. What lovely young sylvan thing had he taken to the woods?
She also thought it weird that she should care. But she did.
