Jennifer Brown
Paranormal Romance
Welcome to our interview with Jennifer at the coffee shop! Waiter, can we please get our guest of honor a Chi Tea Latte? Thanks so much! Readers, we're glad you stopped in to meet her. You won't be disappointed, we promise. She's also giving away THREE e-copies on her book so be sure to get your entries in at the bottom. Leave a comment to chat with Jen, she'll be here all week!
Deanna: Jen, thank you for hanging out with me all week! Let's get started. Tell us a bit about yourself that our readers might not know.
Jennifer: Hi, Deanna,
thanks for having me here today. Let’s see, I grew up in the Chicago area but
moved around a lot during my childhood and again after college. Circumstances
eventually forced me to settle down in the quite countryside just over the
Wisconsin boarder, but I still consider myself a city girl at heart and long to
return to someplace that doesn’t shut down at 9PM. I’m a night owl so I miss
the night life that comes with urban living. In fact, one of the reasons I
started writing was to give myself something to do to escape.
Deanna: I hear you about places closing at 9 PM! For an
evening out, would it be dinner or a movie? What would the dinner be? What
might the movie be?
Jennifer: Either one
is fine with me; I love food and movies, lol. My dinner of choice would be
sushi or something ethnic and healthy, but I’m not picky. I’d be just as happy
with a BigMac, lol. My movie choices depend on my mood. Favorites are comedies
or action flicks. When I’m at home, though, I like to snuggle up with a corny
chick flick, haha.
Deanna: Those are fun to watch too. We do need our down time! Do you prefer
wine, whiskey, scotch, or ice tea?
Jennifer: Well, of
those three choices, I’d go with ice tea, but I’m really a vodka/tequila/coffee
drinker. For the record, I don’t drink much alcohol, just a margarita
occasionally with dinner. Caffeine, on the other hand, is my one vice. I’m
pretty sure I drink an unsafe amount of coffee each day, lol.
Deanna: But that's what keeps us working! What do you do to relax when you aren’t writing?
Jennifer: I read
while soaking in a hot bath or I watch t.v. – usually teen dramas like the
Vampire Diaries, or Teen Wolf, or Pretty Little Liars. Those three are my
favorites right now.
Deanna: Do you have to split your writing time between a day job?
Jennifer: Thankfully,
I don’t right now, but I have before! I was working full-time when I started
writing Dark Heirloom and that was hectic. I count my blessings now and hope I
never have to go back to that.
Deanna: As authors, we’ve sometimes been accused of
being several people. How many personalities live in your mind?
Jennifer: Jeeze…a
lot? LOL. I have so many characters running through my head at any given moment;
I’m surprised they haven’t locked me up in a padded cell yet.
Deanna: Only another author understands that! How many plots do you include in one of
your books?
Jennifer: It depends
on how long and complicated I want the story to be. I don’t limit myself to any
number unless I’m writing a short story. But with novels like Dark Heirloom, I
just let the action and emotions flow naturally from the characters. Characters
are complex, just like real people. They have needs and wants and feelings and
all of those elements account for how things turn out.
Deanna: Readers love
to know how writers spend their day. Tell us about a typical day in your life
as a writer.
Jennifer: Oh, gosh,
it’s really nothing special, lol. I spend 90% of my time on the computer either
writing or doing something related to my writing career (like this interview).
The fun part about being an author is when readers contact you to say how much
they enjoyed your book. That really makes all the work worth it; it’s such a
soul-lifting feeling.
Deanna: That is definitely the high point. I love hearing from readers! What one
thing would you pass on to new writers?
Jennifer: Keep
writing and don’t stress too much over marketing. I have author friends who
really let marking and promoting get to their heads to the point that they’re
so stressed out they can’t write anymore. I understand marketing is the
stressful side of this industry, especially when you put yourself out there and
get nothing back, and it’s a necessary evil if you want readers. But there’s no
reason why marketing can’t be fun. Don’t look at it as work; look at it as the
opportunity to brag about what you’ve accomplished, especially if you’re
published! That’s a huge deal, don’t undermine yourself.
Deanna: I love marketing and reaching out to readers. Do your books
have a common theme or are they all different?
Jennifer: Well, the
Dark Heirloom series will definitely have a common theme binding the books
together. I love my genre – urban fantasy – and I’m positive no matter where
the wind blows me, there will always be a character nearby with some sort of
paranormal ability or ancestry that makes them larger than life.
Deanna: What are the
physical characteristics that you admire in a man?
Jennifer: How about
the simple fact that they’re men? Haha. I’m a sucker for sexy eyes,
specifically blue or green eyes with dark hair. A sexy smile is also important.
Deanna: Tell us about
your latest book and the type of reader it may appeal to.
Jennifer: Dark
Heirloom is book one of the Ema Marx series. Ema is a young woman who is
attacked, knocked unconscious, and abducted by a vampire. But not just any
vampire; he’s the prince of vampires. When Ema awakens, she immediately finds
out that she’s no longer human. I’ll leave you with the official blurb below
this. The series as a whole will follow Ema and the mysterious aspects of her
transition – there’s a lot more to it than just what was solved at the end of
book one – as well as the three dangerous vampires who fight over her.
Dark Heirloom is an adult series, but I’ve had a few older
teenagers (17-18 year old) also enjoy reading it. It’s not heavily graphic, but
I still caution parents to read it first because there is some adult language
and some violent and sexual scenes. Dark Heirloom is a unique twist for the
avid vampire fan who’s tired of the puny humans and whiney Bella’s.
Official Book Blub: “You’re
a vampire” is so not what Ema Marx wants to hear when she wakes from a two-day
coma in a cryptic yet exquisite castle in northern Finland. Unfortunately, it
explains a lot. Like why she’s able to see in the dark and walk through solid
objects. What she doesn’t understand is why the other vampires expect her to
have all the answers. It’s their fault she turned into one of them…right?
Jalmari’s hatred for his old-man intensifies when he’s
ordered to bring that troublesome girl to their castle. He has a clan to run,
there’s no time for babysitting newborn vampires no matter how they were
converted to their culture. But when a two-thousand-year-old premonition
threatens to take the crown and his life, Jalmari sees no other choice than to
take out the catalyst. Ema Marx. Fortunately for Ema, she could also be the
clan’s only savior.
The race to figure out her vampiric origins is on. And maybe
she’ll get the hang of the blood-drinking gig along the way…
Deanna: Our vampire readers are sure to want this one! Tell us about
Jesu, the hero of your latest book.
Jennifer: Jesu is
Jalmari’s younger brother and thus also a prince, but without the load of
responsibilities that comes with it. However, it’s Jesu who is Ema’s true
savior – though Ema is still undecided about how she feels having a savior.
Jesu gets premonitions and let’s just say he’s been in love with Ema long
before she was even born…
Deanna: ooo...a bit of mystery, too! Tell us about
Ema, the heroine of your latest book.
Jennifer: Ema is a 23
year old college graduate who majored in history. Imagine her surprise when the
ancient myths start coming true before her eyes! She’s working on suing her
college professors now. She’s the strong loner type that grew up with a broken
family and never quite figured out what a relationship is supposed to be like.
Also, she likes to dish out sarcasm from time to time and she has a bad habit
of gorging on blood.
Deanna: Where does the story take place and why?
Jennifer: Dark
Heirloom takes place in modern-day Finland. I wanted a foreign location so that
Ema would be completely out of her element and unable to run away, since she
can’t speak or read Finnish. The setting also had to be rural so my vampires
were “out of the way” of the human public. Northern Finland lies within the
Arctic Circle and is covered in wild forest preserves not unlike Alaska’s
wilderness. I love that Southern Finland, though, is much more urban. It
provides more diversity and possibilities to the setting and the story. When I
researched Finland, I just fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful country full
of culture and history and the more I read, the more I loved it. I secretly
hope my writing will take me there one day.
Deanna: Definitely a different locale. What makes your vampires unique from the countless
others in the media right now?
Jennifer: The most
obvious is that my vampires are not undead. Instead, I’ve made them a
human-nephilim hybrid that are more animalistic and slightly demonic in nature
than a lot of the undead vampires you see today that just look like normal
people with fangs. I researched the old vampire myths from around the world,
both the pre-Christian lore and the stories that cropped up as a result of the
crusades, and while I didn’t use all of it, I did implement some of the
physical features as well as the magical abilities they were said to possess.
There are other more subtle elements that make Dark Heirloom
a unique story and readers have pointed out many of them in their reviews.
Among those, people reported really enjoying the way the vampire world is set
up in Dark Heirloom, specifically the different clans and the different
abilities each clan possess. Also the mix of science and mythology explaining
the vampires’ origin and the way they are so tightly laced with real-life
historical events.
Deanna: Where can readers get a copy of Dark Heirloom?
Jennifer: Dark
Heirloom is available in paperback and e-book from Amazon/Kindle
and Barnes&Noble/Nook
and other major book retailers. Readers are welcome to try Dark Heirloom free
of charge by downloading the first ten chapters from my website. You have the option use your
e-Reader or just load them onto your computer.
Deanna: Readers, are you taking notes here? Wow! Can you give us a peek into book two?
Jennifer: Ah, it’s
hard to talk about book two (Dark Liaison) without giving away the ending to
book one! But I will tell you this; I’m very pleased at how Dark Liaison turned
out. There’s far more action, laughs, tears, twists, and romance than book one.
I’m so excited to share it – and actually, I have been naughty and have been
posting little snippets on my facebook
page for the fans! I just can’t resist. Look for it coming in 2013.
Hi J.D., hello Deanna:) Two of my favorite lovely ladies together having a good time...well, I want to join the fun:) Here to say "Hi" and deliver hugs.
ReplyDeleteAlso to say that I've read J.D.'s book, Dark Heirloom...and it's like nothing I've read before as far as Vampires go...she's given her vamps quite a twist. Looking forward to reading the next in her series:)
Great seeing you ladies...love this site, Deanna. Hugs to both of you:)