Jennie Bennett, Romance Author

I've said it before (many a time) and I'm going to say it again. This writing thing is hard. Whenever we put ourselves out there we are opening ourselves up to judgement and criticism which can be hard to take, but which will also make us better writers. I'm learning something in the query process. I've been rejected a few times already (which I totally expected) and some of the rejects have been harder than others. But here's the thing, I'm keeping my toes in the water. What does that mean exactly? Well, I'm making sure I have more than one query out there so that when I get rejected, I can't give up. I still have another query out there, so I know the rejection isn't going to be my last chance. As long as my toes stay wet, I'm inclined to continue sitting by the pool. Even though rejection is hard, it doesn't mean I'm giving up. I will continue to work on my query letter and my MS and I will search far and wide until I find ...

I want to start out this post with an announcement: I will no longer be doing awards. I struggled with this one because I think my blogger friends are the coolest people in the world and I want to share the love and link back to everyone who has posted links to me. Still, I am weeks behind on awards and I just can't seem to fit them into my blogging schedule. This doesn't mean I'm cutting you guys out. I plan on sharing links to blogs that I find extremely awesome any chance I get. I have quite a few awesome ones listed below that you should check out if you feel inclined. Also, I've tried to add back everyone who has me on their blog list, but sometimes I miss people so if I'm on your blog list and you want to be on mine, give me a shout. Now, onto the title of this post. Using Images. There is a really great article that I read the other day on Facebook (thanks Donna Weaver !) about using images. I, like the blogger in this post , thought that as long as I c...

It's day two of the Hookers & Hangers blogfest and today it's all about leaving them hanging. Even though my book, EXISTENCE ends with a cliffhanger, I'm not giving that much away. So here are a few lines from chapter endings that might help you connect the dots with some of my hooks. Bonus points for any guesses in the comments ;) "The research she had done before the mission told her President Reagan survived, but two of the secret service men weren’t as lucky." "She wasn’t sure how she was going to get on with life, but she knew she didn’t want to Curve through time anymore. Not with her father gone." “Well,” Chrissie said, a half smile creeping on her face, “first, we are going to get our bruises cleaned up, then we’re going to Italy.” "He had her watch, and she was nothing but a prisoner to Matt." “We should get the others,” Gabe said, shaking his head once more. “It’s time to go to the future.” So there you have it. ...

There are a few blog hops that I am really, tingle-in-my-toes excited for, and this is one of them. It's the Hookers & Hangers blogfest. Today it's all about the hook. I'm going to share the five best hooks (or chapter beginnings) from my novel EXISTENCE. Some of these hooks probably only mean something to me, as someone who knows the novel backwards and forwards. However, I'm going to start with the first hook, which should be the most important--and hopefully the best out of the five. Without further ado, here's some hooks. "Chrissie Fox could taste the metallic sting of time on her tongue." "The funeral was held three days later at the Rogers Family Mortuary." "Chrissie sat cross legged on her bed, the pocket watch cradled in her hands." "Matt put his arm around Chrissie’s shoulders, “It’s okay, love, I’m here.” "Steel walls, steel door, steel bed frame. Chrissie had once wondered if CITTA had high se...

If you saw my post last week for the Insecure Writers Support Group, you already know I haven't had much of an opportunity to write. Everything has been fine for me health wise. I (thankfully) haven't gone into labor again, but I've also been very cautious in making sure I'm resting enough and doing everything I can to keep this baby inside me for a few more weeks. Because of that, my writing time has been severally cut and I haven't had the chance to write everyday. In the past week, I think I've read ten posts about writing everyday to become a better writer. I have a little guilty squirm in my stomach every time I read one. I want to write everyday. I want to improve and become a better, stronger, writer. But I can't. And I feel like it's pushing my writing backwards. I know. You really don't have to tell me that this too shall pass and that I'll get the chance to write everyday when things settle down. I know this. I tell mysel...

More and more I'm finding that blogging is an art form in and of itself. To be a great blogger you have to have a certain touch, and way to connect to other readers. We all know as bloggers that content is key. What your content should be is entirely up to you. On the same token, you'll probably find that some of your posts are more popular then others. Keep track of your stats so that you know what readers respond to, and what searches Google likes to bring to your blog. All that being said, the reason for this post is to let bloggers know about a few ways to make blogging more user friendly. Bloggers like to visit other blogs, but if your blog isn't up to par, people will stop coming and stop commenting. Don't let this be you! The #1 thing that holds people back from commenting is that darn CAPTCHA. I've already written a post about this, but I still see so many people using it (and I'm sure a good portion of them aren't even aware that they hav...

For those who don't know I've made a goal to read a book a week this year. I'm way ahead of schedule, and enjoying every moment of it. I couldn't enjoy clockwise without picking up the sequel, Clockwiser, now could I? I enjoyed this book as well. I really like Cassie's personality and the crazy situations she finds herself in. However, I liked clockwise more. That's the thing about book two in a series, it is always the low point. The MC doubts her relationship with the boy, and she starts to doubt herself when she used to think she was awesome. It's the nature of the beast for a second book. That being said, I would recommend this book :D I've read Divergent before. I loved it the first time around. The whole time I was sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. When I read it again this month I was at the height of my edits and I wanted to read it to figure out what I liked so much about it. It's hard to enj...

It's been too many months since I've posted anything for the Insecure Writer's support group. It's not that I haven't been insecure (trust me, I've had plenty of ups and downs) it's just been about timing and blogging schedule. Blogging has been hard with this pregnancy and now writing is going to have to take a back seat as well. I was really hoping to pound out my newest novel (see this post) but then on Thursday night I went into pre-term labor. Ugh. I'm only 29 weeks so it was quite alarming to suddenly have contractions three-minutes apart. I've never had a single problem with my other two pregnancies. They both came at full term with out any complications. This pregnancy I have anemia, a chance of diabetes (I have to take a second glucose test to know for sure), and the baby has one kidney that doesn't work and will never work. (The baby will be just fine because you only need one kidney to live, but there's still a chance he...