Jennie Bennett, Romance Author

I'm excited to welcome David Powers King from The Cosmic Laire for another 'out of the box' interview! David is one my favorite bloggers and we had a lot of fun putting this together. Enjoy!   Hit us up with a You Tube Video of Awesome. As the video description said, "The original Star Wars saga as told by a kid with one heck of a LEGO collection." And I thought I was a LEGO fanatic as a kid. Awesome! That is awesome :) Write a Haiku describing yourself.  When water boils I fill a few cups with it And make us cocoa. Right now I'm digging the peppermint chocolate, so yummy. Scrabble or Chess?  I play with words all the time. Chess, please! Just to shake things up. Chess? Blah ;) Swords or Superpowers?  Superpowers. Swords are great and all, but, come on. Superpowers would be stupendous. I think I'm about 50/50 on this one, but the superpowers have and edge. You look way too serene in your profile picture, give us a goofy face so we can see the real you. I...

The day has arrived for the final installment of the Killer Characters Blogfest, and dare I say I will miss it? I do dare, becasue it has been such a fun ride! Today we are talking about the mean and nasty antagonist! The moment I thought of this antagonist waves of hatred flowed through me. I don't think there is a single literary character that I hate more than Dolores Umbridge!   The reason she is badder then all the baddies, even worse then Voldemort, is becasue she is oblivious to her vile nature. Voldemort at least knew what he was doing when he became The Dark Lord. Umbridge, on the other hand, thinks it's just fine to punish children by scarring their hands with the words "I will not tell lies". Dementors in the courtroom? No issues there. Stealing magic eyes from dead people? They weren't going to miss it. Oh how I hate her sickly sweet exterior and her black, black insides. Scariest. Character. Ever. Anyone dressing like Umbridge for Halloween? If not, w...

I have another yummy indie review coming your way. It's a novella called The F Word: tales of a Fat Girl . If that title didn't have you snickering, then you won't like this book. The blurb on Goodreads:   When it comes to food, dating and bathing suits, this witty and honest book of short tales comes from the heart of a fat girl trying to keep afloat with a smile. If you've ever had body issues, love issues or simply just a bad date, you can surely commiserate with this writer. This quick reading book covers everything from eating, shopping and nakedness to fitting in, self acceptance and everything else between the sheets. You'll laugh, you'll identify, and you'll walk away with some ideas of your own.  What I liked: This isn't some "confessions of a shopaholic, but with a large girl" kind of book. Oh no, Suchow gets right to the point and calls herself a Fat Girl (FG for short) right on the first page. This is her random thoughts about being...

Today marks the second entry for the killer characters blog-fest and we're talking about protagonists. I like protagonists! I know not everyone does, but I love rooting for the good guy! This has to be the hardest entry becasue picking just one means picking a favorite book, I have so many favroites it was hard to pick just one. I decided to narrow it down by picking my favorite bull headed and soft hearted female lead, Elizabeth Bennet, from Pride and Pejudice. Source  She doesn't need any super powers to be well liked. I think a good portion of us have made the same stupid mistakes in love and life (and who's family hasn't embarrassed them more than once?) I love Elizabeth becasue she is flawed,  yet she learns and grows so much throughout the book. She doesn't chase after the rich and handsome Darcy becasue he's rich and handsome. It comes down to finding his character and loving him for who he is, and not how society paints him (unlike the choices of her l...

If you've been writing or pursing articles on writing for any length of time then you've probably heard all about the avoidance of adverbs. But why are they so bad? They're great in a pinch and they seem to convey just the thing you want to describe. But in reality they convey very little in terms of description. Don't get me wrong, I love using a good adverb when writing as much as the next person, but going back I always see how it weakens the story. Let's look at two examples of sentences to prove a point. "Alisha stepped onto the slippery ice and nearly fell over." "Alisha stepped onto the ice and lost her footing, one leg sprawled right while the other twisted left. She shot  her arms out to her sides to gain balance and just avoided a pathetic flop onto her rear." The first sentence is okay. You know what's going on, but what does it really say? To me 'nearly' is the worst of the adverb sins becasue you don't always know wh...

Today marks the beginning of the Killer Characters Blogfest! It's going all week long and I'm excited for every minute of it! To start off the week we're talking about killer supporting characters, and you know I couldn't pick just one. First up we have the lovely and oh so kick-A Nellie Gomez from the 39 clues series. (source) If you haven't read the books - they're about a bother and sister who have to travel around the world searching for clues to make them the most powerful Cahill's of all time (and that's saying something) of course an elven-year-old boy and fourteen-year-old girl couldn't possibly travel the world alone. So why not bring a babysitter opair along? One could see the attraction these two young kids have to this nineteen year-old, streaky-haired, pierced nose, iPod toting, tri-lingualist, but she has oh-so-much more hidden up her sleeve. She's the life of the party to say the least and fierce protector to say the most. Would...

Guess what Friday it is? Life List Friday! I just wanted everyone to know that we are currently looking for writers to join the hop, so if want to let me know and we'll chat :) Today I have the awesome Gary Gauthier from Literary Snippets ! I'll be hanging out at Pam Hawley's blog so don't forget to wing by there when you've finished here. Take it away Gary - Putting the CartBefore the Horse You’ve made the decision to publish your manuscript as an ebook. Your work is amanifestation of creative genius. Your prose is polished and the manuscript hasbeen professionally edited. Your book cover is a work of art and the contentsare all properly formatted as an ebook. You’ve got a winner! You launch yourbook with great fanfare, your friends and relatives purchase it, and after afew weeks you begin to realize that nobody is interested in your book. In a different scenario, everybody’s heard of the author whobelieves they have a great manuscript but can’t get a publishing h...

What if there was place for bloggers who are also writers to gather and share their posts exclusively with other writers who are also bloggers. Would you be excited? I know I was was when Darren Hansen told me about his new website at the League of Utah Writers Conference back in September. He didn't have it fully operational then, but he does now. Let me introduce you to Ink Pageant - Isn't that logo cool? All you have to do is register and then you can start submitting your posts to the homepage. The great thing is, they moderate every posts so non-writing related posts don't get added. It's just a community of bloggers finding one another and sharing their talents. It's an awesome place to meet new bloggers and be met. Everything is very intuivie and easy to use. So go check it out! What would your dream website be? *** P.S. The Killer Character's Blogfest is starting on Monday, I encourage everyone to join becasue it's going to be awesome!!

Despite what my word counter says I actually wrote 4,000 words this week. I had to delete 1,000 words that where leading nowhere. My weekly word count goal is 5,000 words, so I hope I can reach that today (yay!) Thank you all so much for your comments on my post yesterday! I hadn't written for four days before that becasue of said scene that wasn't leading anywhere. Writing that snip-it got me wanting back in that world and your comments encouraged me to keep pressing forward. Did I mention I have the best followers ever? Because I do! In other news, I got the Liebster award, again! Thanks Elizabeth Varden ! I really shouldn't be allowed to have this becasue I have over 200 followers, but I'm hording it anyway muah-hahahaha! So what about you guys? What's inspired you this week?

It's time for another Campaign Challenge! And I'm really excited for this one because I'm channeling the Characters from my current WIP Existence (This scene does not happen in the book, but I may find a way to worm it in.) Hope you like it! The rules: Write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should show : that it’s morning, that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach that the MC (main character) is bored that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting that something surprising happens. Just for fun, see if you can involve all five senses AND include these random words: "synbatec," "wastopaneer," and "tacise." (NB. these words are completely made up and are not intended to have any meaning other than the one you give them). *** Chrissie Fox fell face first into the sand and swallowed half th...

I've been trying to figure out a unique way to let everyone know about all the cool bloggers I follow. It seems like everyone does interviews already, but that really is the best way to showcase someone. Too keep it interesting, I'm throwing out some crazy question that you may have never heard of before (hopefully). My first test subject interviewee is Abby Fowers from Something to Write About . Quick! Hit us with your best You Tube video. I mostly use You Tube for music videos so I will go with this one. 1- I love the song, 2- Funny music video, and 3- I'm what you might call a "city girl" who married a "country boy." That is pure gold right there. In 30 words or less give us the low-down of your life right now. With 3 crazy kids my life is always chaotic. On top of that I am trying to write, go to school and help my husband on the farm! And I thought my life was busy? Chocolate or Carmel? Not even a question with me. ALWAYS CHOCOLATE! Good Choice,...

Because you guys are super special I thought I would throw in a second book review this week. (I know, I'm awesome.) Some of you might remember the interview I did with E. A. West a few weeks back and now I get to have her here again, wahoo! The blurb on her blog : A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby   Pretty straight forward, but I like it . What I liked: As far as romances go I have never read a story like this. It was more out-of-the box then most of the recently released romances I've seen. Her characters are solid and I felt like I was part of their lives. I got involved enough that I almost texted my husband something important becasue that's what the characters would do -- then I remembered that prefer an actual conversation. :) What I didn't like: I noticed quite a few grammatical errors and missing words that could have easily been avoided had an editor or critique group been involved. ...

Even though I said I wasn't going to, I decided to join in at the very last minute  If you haven't heard of the Pay it Forward Blog Hop, What planet have you been living on? So here's the deal, I get to pick three blogs and hopefully introduce you to a couple new writers that you haven't met before. I'm really sad that I only get to pick Three becasue I really Love so many of you! First up is Cherie at Ready.Write. Go . We have been blogging for about the same amount of time as her and I really love every single thing she posts on her blog. If your not following her, you're missing out BIG TIME. Next is David Powers King from The Cosmic Lair. I got to meet David at a writing conference and I am a huge fan. I really don't know anyone who isn't following him, but just in case you aren't here he is. Last, but not least, is Abby Fowers at Something to Write About . I got to meet her too at the same said conference and can I say instant BFF? She is beyon...

It's the post of the week that you all have been anxiously anticipating! Since I know last week I converted you all to Twitter you'll need to learn how to use it :) I'm going to start by answering some of your questions from last week. Remember Tweet Deck? It's your friend. 1. I'm getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people I'm following. Any ideas on how to trim that down? I'm so glad you asked. It's easy to feel guilty when people are following you and you aren't following them in return (and sometimes it's plain rude) so how can you see who you want to see and not feel overwhelmed by how many people you're following? LISTS . Think of them like the new groups in Facebook. Pick the people you want and throw them onto a list. I would suggest having several different kinds of lists to keep easier track. One for people you like to stalk, one for bloggers you like to retweet etc. The best part about lists? You can throw people on there t...

Wow! What a week it's been. I've been potty training my 20 month old (her choice, not mine). We just took in a cat that needed a home, and that lovely cold bug has reached our house (again). Needless to say, not much writing has been going on around here. That's okay though becasue I'm optimistic about meeting my writing goals next week. I was thinking about doing NaNoWriMo so that I could finish writing Existence by the end of November, but I've realized that just isn't possible for this book. So much research is required for the places the character visits in time and around the world that I couldn't possibly crank out 2,300 words a day (I don't write on the weekends) unless I had a good five hour chunk, which I don't. But I still hope to be encouraged by everyone who is participating and I wish you all luck! Onto some good news, I passed 400 followers! Wahoo! I've been trying to follow everyone back but some of you don't have your blog li...

Hello and welcome! Today is part four of the four part writing series on what I learned at the Utah League of Writers Conference. The official title of the seminar was called 'Pacing - Writing at the speed of life' and it was taught by this guy - Alexander Gordon Smith He wrote this series - He has a totally wicked British accent and boy can he write action. He read us a little snippet from his book and I that was really compeling. It's on my TBR list just from that one minute read. He was shy about his writing, which I thought was great, but he had some great tips when it comes to actions scenes. His #1 piece of advice - Don't describe everything! Action scenes should be fast paced and you want the reader to be hanging on the edge of their seat, so if you're telling everything that is going on in the battle around you the reader is going to lose interest. Focus on your Main Character and only tell what they see. If your MC is dodging jabs they aren't going to n...

Today I have the honor of reviewing good friend and critique partner's book, Beholders: Insight. The blurb on Goodreads: Rumors are surging through Appernysia that a Beholder has been born, the first wielder of True Sight in over a millennium. Seventeen-year-old Lon Marcs discovers he has been blessed—or cursed—with this gift. He cannot control the power of True Sight and feels it killing him with each passing day. After months of desperate attempts to survive, Lon’s situation becomes more hopeless. He realizes that the only people who might possess the knowledge to save his life are the sworn enemies of his king. To obtain their help, Lon would have to leave behind his family and beloved Kaylen. Although this is the hardest decision Lon has ever made, it is only the first of many that will test his strength and challenge his interpretation of right and wrong. What I Liked: Terron has effectively created a new world and new way of looking at magic. True Sight is something t...

Today is another Life List Friday and I'm hanging out at Violeta's blog, Lyn Midnight against the odds . But before you go make sure to read the post below from the lovely and talented Jess Witkins ! Take it away Jess! Hello Life Listers and welcome to the blog hop. Big thanks to my amazing and talented host, Jennie. I'm thrilled to make my second appearance at her blog. Did you miss me? I missed you! For many of us, this time of year signifies not only the change in seasons, but in our behaviors as well. The weather gets chillier, and the fall line up of our favorite TV shows begin! We cozy up to pumpkin lattes and argyle pattern cardigans (or socks). And then BAM! The holidays are upon us, we're rushing around with shopping lists, catering plans, extra folding chairs for this or that party tossed in the car trunk, and if you live where I do, stock up on sidewalk salt to start melting that oncoming snow. Are you exhausted yet? It seems no matter how we try, or what we...