Jennie Bennett, Romance Author

October isn't over yet, but I thought it best to do the mini-reviews now since November will be filled with WriMo madness! I wish I had read a few more books this month since I don't see myself doing a lot of reading in November. But to be fair, I did Beta Read two novels. That counts, right? Anyway, here's what I read this month Goodreads Feedback by Robison Wells. I went to the launch Party for this book and it was awesome! I don't know if any of you have read Variant, but that book had a major cliffhanger so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. It didn't disappoint. The tension was high throughout the entire thing and the end, even though it closed up a little, left me wanting more. I highly recommend it! Proof I was there, with Shelly Brown, and Marion Jensen. Goodreads Nightingale by David Farland. I'm going to be doing a special review for this in a few days, but I will say this - Awesome! Goodreads Legion by B...

NaNo is great! I mean, what author doesn't like an entire month dedicated to Literary Abandon? But it's easy to get burnt out as well. So how do I keep my Spirits up for NaNo? Twitter of course! What does Twitter have to do with NaNo, lots of things. It's come to my attention these past few months that lots of writers aren't aware of writing sprints. A writing sprint is when writers get together, time themselves, and write as much as they can in that time frame. It gets the blood pumping, and the word count soaring. Before I tell you my favorite Hashtags to sprint in, I'll explain how to use twitter to this end. You're going to need Tweet Deck, it's a desktop program that looks like this - See how there are four columns with different content on each? Well, each column is a search I've done for a different Hashtag (anything with a # in front.) I treat each column like a chat room, watching what people say and responding. You can add more ...

All of us bloggers had a 'back in the day' time when we ventured out with our naive little posts praying that someone would read them. We'll, I'm going to be adventurous and post one of those long forgotten articles, ready for a re-hashing with my new followers. So here's a post from my first month of blogging almost a year and a half ago. Enjoy! The Infernal Book List I'm sure you've all seen it, it has plagued the walls of Facebook for sometime now. It has brought on bragging airs and dismal looks. It has made your heart glow and made you want to rip it up in the same moment. It is the top 100 book list. They lure you in by saying most have only read six (a complete and utter lie for any high school graduate) so that you think if you've read twenty-four of the books you've done pretty well. That is, until you see that one friend who has supposedly read eighty of them. Then you feel like, even though you are an avid reader, you have so...

Rejection. If you've ever put yourself out there, you've dealt with it. No one gets a free pass in this industry. Whether it's just a critique or the actual query process rejection is hard. Most agents these days simply don't respond to your query if they're not interested. While that stings, it doesn't hurt as much as getting a request then getting rejected. The other day I had a rejection that really upset me. I like to pretend that I'm strong all of the time, but really it's hard even though I know that the industry is subjective and it's not a personal attack on me. Sometimes you just want something so bad and it's hard to see past that when the rejection comes. While I was moping, I heard this song on the radio - The lyrics spoke to me in a way they hadn't before, and I found a new sense of strength. I once watched a special on Katy Perry that told of how she had two recording contracts that both fell through before she hit i...

Gah! It's just around the corner and there is loads of advice out there on how to win. But I'm not going to talk about that. Well not JUST about that. The thing I don't think those of us intimate with the writing world see is the opportunity before us - not to write a book, we're already doing that. But to get other people writing. Therefore, this post is directed to my readers who have thought about writing at one time or another, but never started. November is national novel writing month! (NaNoWriMo) What a better time to start the book you've always been dreaming of? I know some of my friends have awesome ideas that they've told me about and asked me to write. Here's the thing, if it's not my idea I'm not going to have the vision that you do to write it. I couldn't pull off your ideas half as well as you can. So get writing! The challenge of NaNo is to write 50,000 words in one month. That's only 1,666 words a day for the mont...

I know, the title to this post seems like a total no brainer. But I don't think we think about it enough. The other day one of my kids was pressing a button on a toy that played "row, row, row, your boat" over and over. It reminded me of a time when my uncle taught me the 'big words' version that goes something like this: Propel, propel, propel, your craft Placidly down the liquid solution Ecstatically,  ecstatically, ecstatically, existence is but an illusion. As I mulled over those words I realized that although the basic concept of the song is still in tact, the words have altered the meaning. Go ahead and look up merrily in a thesaurus, ecstatically will be one of the alternate choices, but to me ecstatically means more of a feverish excitement. Merrily intones more contentment than excitement. Not to mention the last phrase - 'life is but a dream' brings to mind a floating kind of peace, whereas "existence is but an illusion"...

Thanks to the lovely Shallee (pronounced Sha-lee) McArthur . Each Friday is a celebration of writing and living healthy! I've never been a runner. Let me tell you, time and again I've tried to be a runner. You'd think having a dad who was a runner (he once ran the Wasatch 100 a 100 mile race, I'm not kidding!) I would have no problem. I've always wanted to be a runner, not just becasue of my dad but becasue runners have amazing bodies, but I've always gone back to dance instead which is hard to keep up when you aren't taking regular classes. This time I'm determined. I've decided to look at running in the same way I've come to look at writing. At first I had no clue what I was doing, but I just wrote. Then I started to research writing to become better. Then I found other writers to help me out and cheer me along. With running I'm on step two of that process. I've decided to follow this running schedule until I can improve eno...

My husband and I where having a conversation the other day about getting our first Library Cards. My husband made the comment "I thought I was so cool, it was like I'd been given a license to read." Once I finished laughing I couldn't help but agree. It's funny, but I still see my library card as a precious possession. I mean, I can read a lot more becasue I don't have to buy every book on my wishlist (though I sometimes dream about being able to do so, it just isn't possible in a stay-at-home mom's budget.) The great thing about living in a small town is that I can often reserve very popular books online. Since not many people in my town know how to use that system, I can get the book as soon as whoever has it decides to turn it in. I only wait about three days to get the newest books that other library's have hundreds of holds on. The downside to living in a little town is that they don't always have the books that I want. And I'm p...

My goal this year has been to read a book a week for the entire year (52 books total) so far, I've either met or exceeded that goal. Which is good becasue this month wasn't as great as months past. (Having a baby is a good excuse, right?) But I still made myself read whenever I could get the chance. So even though I've fallen short I'm still on track to read 52 books this year. Anyway, here's what I read -- Goodreads Witch Song by Amber Argyle. Amber, I'm sorry it took me so long to read your book! I've had it on my kindle for like 50 years (okay maybe just a year, but still.) Let me start by saying I wish I gotten to it a lot sooner. The magic system is inventive and delightful. The character arc is well done, and the love story is to die for. I sometimes have a hard time with old world fantasy, but not if it's done right and this was done beautifully. I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in age old witch story. Really excellent. ...

It's that time again. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to Captain Ninja Alex's Insecure Writers Support Group. To join in on the support, sign up here . This month I want to talk about getting that MS all shiny and ready to send out into the world. Three months ago I was working with some beta readers and proof-reading my MS. I had a few people look over the first half, I read it about ten times, then I printed some copies and had a few people proof the whole thing. I thought it was ready to send out into the world, so I sent it. I actually got an offer with a small press which I turned down. But I'm having a harder time getting an agent to take notice of my little novel which has lead me to one conclusion, it needs more polishing. I wish there was a magic time when a book is really done, but I feel like I'll be editing this book for the rest of my life and it still won't get published. So here's my questions: How much polishing do you...

Today is a special day for my friend Kimberly Krey . In honor of her book bomb day, I'm giving Evie's Knight a bit of a spotlight. Here's the cover and blurb if you're interested :) In Evie's Knight, love doesn't simply hurt ... it kills. EVIE always thought college life would be magical, but so far it's not what she hoped for. Her best friend has gone wild, her love life is void, and she misses her mom more than ever. But life for Evie is about to change. CALVIN KNIGHT, the very object of her fascination, is about to fall madly in love with her. Just one problem: Their love conjures a murderous woman from beyond the grave who wants Evie dead. The same demon who has haunted the Knight men for over four generations. Soon Calvin is forced to choose: Set Evie free and hope to evade the wrath of The Raven-haired Ghost, or use his newly gifted strengths to fight against her. If he chooses to fight and wins, Calvin will free the Knight men of th...