Jenn Marie

For anyone who's been wondering what the heck happened to my book and where I've been since February, fear not! I'm alive and well. My book is open on my desktop, happy and free, if not slightly traumatized by the the hacking and stitching its endured as of late. Yes, that's right. I'm still working on it. Spring came and went, and now with less than two months left of summer, Intertwined will likely be released mid-December.  I would have been done sooner, but ... I sort of jinxed myself.  How you might ask? Well, it's complicated. And very difficult for me to share with the world. But I'm going to try. Two years ago, my father suffered a severe stroke. It was horrible and traumatizing and we never saw it coming. He survived, but not as the same man that he was. He lost his speech, his ability to walk, and use of his right hand all within the blink of an eye. Slowly, he regained some of it through therapy, but still, even now, he ha...

If you're thinking about self publishing your work, I can say from personal experience that professional editing is an absolute must. My manuscript was recently edited, and I'm in shock at the amount of work still needed to maximize it's potential. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. It was the best investment I ever made--in both the story and in myself as a writer. But let me tell you--its amazing how blind you (the writer) can be to everything wrong with your story.  Does this sound familiar to you? You write a first draft. You write a second draft. You write a third draft. It goes through Beta Reading. You incorporate suggestions/feedback. You self-edit your work to the best of your ability. You think, "Finally! I'm done! Now I just need a professional editor and I can publish my work." Your work is professionally edited.  And guess what? It needs more work. A. Lot. More. If you're new to the indie scene, this pr...

Sooooo...I haven't posted in a very long time. But I promise I have a good reason. My life has been crazy busy over the last few months! I won't go into every detail, but I will say that I just got married! Yay me! The best man in the world has officially become my husband. For all you married women out there, I'm sure you know what I mean when I say that planning a wedding is super time consuming. Even when its not - if that makes any sense. It was so worth it, though! And now I can happily focus on my writing again, knowing I have a sweet husband who will understand and support me when I insist on finishing a chapter instead of cooking dinner. And who will feed and hydrate me when I'm too engrossed in my story to realize I feel hungry or thirsty. He's the best. Without him, my stories wouldn't be possible - at least not in the timely fashion that I'd like. And not with the same zest and motivation that he inspires in me on a daily basis.  Speaking of ...

I suppose it should come as no surprise that I enjoy reading romance/horror books. After all, I did write one! But so rarely do I find a story that achieves a beautiful balance between the two.  It's not an easy thing to do--wooing romance lovers while, at the same time, gearing up for the next horror scene. You're constantly running hot and cold, and its easy to break tension when shifting from one mood to the next. For example, when writing a love scene, the romantic in me wants to enchant the reader with poetry and rainbows and butterflies, but go too far and risk losing the readers who roll their eyes at the gooey mushiness of it all and jump ship right then and there. Likewise, when writing a horror scene, excessive morbidness will send romance lovers screaming back to contemporary works. So, how do you make it work? How do you interweave romance and horror without breaking tension or losing tone?  Tone is everything. Tone is what sets the overall mood fo...

I'm so excited to finally share the book cover for Intertwined! Three and a half months ago, this was little more than a vague idea inside my mind. I was debating on whether to use stock images (a more affordable option) or to have the cover custom illustrated. I was torn because, although, stock images can be modified to fit the tone of your book, I couldn't stand the idea that it could end up on someone else's cover--especially, if the cover happened to portray two people who represent your lead characters. In fact, this ALMOST happened! I was browsing for stock images on Shutterstock and found one that resembled the two main characters in my story. In the end, I decided not to use it because I prefer to leave the characters to the readers imagination, and I've always been drawn to simpler, more symbolic covers like Twlight, Divergent, Hunger Games...etc. A couple months later, I saw the exact same stock image used on two other book covers. By that poi...

Okay, so lately, it seems like whenever anyone asks me about my book, I respond with the automatic, "It's in the editing phase." Well, needless to say, it's been in the editing phase for, let's see, HALF my life now. Or, at least, it feels that way. But I think I need to define what editing really means - because, to most people, it means trimming out the fat and polishing the writing to the point of absolute perfection.  This is true, but, it's also very vague.  Editing is a long and tiring process. When I first finished my book and read through the material from start to finish, I was like, "Damn, that's good!" And then I read through it again. And again. And again. And, guess what? It was good, but not damn good.  The book started out at 150K words, and, at that time, I was convinced that every single word was necessary and beautiful and totally brilliant. I'd think, why on earth would I hack this beautifully crafted paragraph...

I'm currently plotting the sequel to Intertwined, and though I've always had a loose outline in my mind, I was sort of hoping that the second part of the storyline would be easier to write than the first part. So not the case!  Over the last week, I think I've spent more time experimenting on how I can sharpen my focus long enough to plot a decent story arc than actually plotting!  For example, I recently started walking two miles a day (since as a writer I tend to sit on my butt for hours on end), but because I can't stand the idea of doing anything that takes away from "writing time", I decided to bring my earphones along so I could listen to music and plot while I walked.  Well...as it turns out, I'm just as easily distracted walking as I am anywhere else. There I was, totally in the zone, working up to a nice brisk walk, listening to my favorite music, when a long line of rosebushes sprang up out of nowhere and threw bees at me! Yes, bee...