Jennifer Jabaley, OD, began writing on impulse as a way to stave off restlessness. It has become a second career. Dr. Jabaley met her husband, Chris Jabaley, OD, at Southern College of Optometry. After graduation she worked in a group practice until 2013, then joined her husband in a family practice started by her father-in-law in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
Although she was a voracious reader all her life, writing was not a goal. However, when her first son arrived, she planned to stay home just six months but found herself restless. “I just got a wild hair and started writing,” she says. That impulse led to two young-adult novels—Lipstick Apology and Crush Control—which secured her an agent and a contract with a publisher. Those early successes filled her with the “writing bug,” yet as family and practice demands grew, she stepped back from publishing.
A NEW WRITING BUG
Years passed before she resolved to return to fiction. When she decided she wanted to return to writing, however, her interests had shifted. She no longer wanted to write young adult fiction. “I knew I needed a new agent because I was switching genres.” That fresh start meant querying an entirely different list of editors, enduring rejections and persevering through a multi-year journey of revisions before her debut adult novel, What’s Yours Is Mine, was released in August.
A domestic suspense, it unfolds through the points of view of two mothers and a teenage daughter whose best‐friend relationship unravels after one girl is attacked just days before an international dance competition. In the aftermath, one mother accuses the other of complicity. “It was pitched as Big Little Lies meets Tonya Harding,” Dr. Jabaley says. Dance serves merely as a backdrop to explore scandal, maternal devotion and the lengths people go to protect family reputations.
The idea for What’s Yours Is Mine first took shape in 2018, when an earlier adult manuscript failed to sell. Encouraged by a new agent, she turned to her experience with her children’s competitive sports worlds for inspiration. Research soon consumed her: she shifted from ballet to contemporary dance at her editor’s request, mapped Atlanta neighborhoods for authenticity and consulted medical sources to depict the attack realistically. Advance readers had already named it one of People magazine’s Top 25 Most Anticipated Summer Reads even before it was published.
AN EXACTING PROCESS
Dr. Jabaley’s writing process mirrors her clinical precision. “I write everything by hand and then voice-dictate into my computer,” she says. She begins with a concise, five-point outline, expands it to 10 points and then crafts a chapter-by-chapter breakdown so detailed that her first draft often feels like a second draft. She prints each revision and edits on paper. Her daughter chose to do some school research to validate the effectiveness of that strategy. Indeed, people catch more nuances on paper than on screens.
Balancing two careers demands a disciplined schedule. Dr. Chris Jabaley practices three days weekly; Dr. Jennifer Jabaley divides her time between two clinic days and two or three mornings dedicated to writing. “I try very hard not to go a week without touching some writing project,” she says. However, she never writes on clinical days, reserving them entirely for patient care and administrative tasks.
Her patients, many in their 80s and 90s, often supply the seeds of her imagination. “They give me story ideas,” she says, recalling an older widow who discovered her husband’s secret career as a government spy after his death. While Dr. Jabaley won’t use that tale directly, she treasures these human dramas for the creative sparks they provide.
She’s also delighted that her small-town community rallies behind her. The clinic brims with bookmarks and invitations to her upcoming signing. “They’re all so excited for me,” she says of her patients. After two decades in optometry and a lifetime of reading, Dr. Jabaley now combines analytical rigor with narrative craft. She’s grateful for the experiences she’s had as an OD, and the stories she’s heard from patients and others, that have given her inspiration—she hopes—for other novels to come.
Order your copy of What’s Yours Is Mine here.
Read stories by other OD authors here.
Are you an author? Send us an email.
