Jennie Bennett, Romance Author

I'm not here today. Come find me at David Powers King's blog! (P.S. Do you like the new design?)

I'm just stopping in real quick to tell you that I'm working like a mad person on my book. A friend challenged me to finish it by June 5th, and I'm taking the challenge seriously. And I mean finished. I'm almost done writing it and then I'm going to put it in a paperback for a few beta readers then I'm going to query it. I'm not going to nit pick over beta notes, I'm just going to do what I can and get it out there. I'm ready to get serious. Since I started this challenge on May 5th I've edited 48,000 words and written another 11,000. (My poor family.) To cut back on time I'm not really writing a blog post, I'm just leaving you with a picture I found on Pinterest for inspiration. (Thanks Amber Argyle)  Cheers! (Also a big thanks to Kelly at Between the Bookends for liking my prom picture and picking me as a winner. You rock!)

Ah, High School. The classes, the stereotypes, the cafeteria food, and oh yes the dances. That's right, today I'm joining the crowd and reliving those awkward high school dance moments. I have two fantastic stories that I just couldn't choose between so I decided to give you a taste of both. (I know, it's long. You don't have to read it all, but if you want to laugh, you do.) The first one was my senior year Homecoming dance. I had never been to homecoming before and I was desperate enough to let a friend hook me up for the night. My first indication that this date was going to go horribly wrong was the boy's name. Max Ford . To top that off he was from Ukraine. Oh joy. The day started out innocent enough, the boys wanted to take us out for breakfast, so we went to Ihop, yum. And that was the point when the fun of the day ended. Ladies, have you ever had man order a meal for you? If you have, how long were you dating said man? I bet it wasn't the...

I am not a patient person. It is something I struggle with on a daily basis. Good things come to those who wait, right? So I should just wait until right moment to hit me? I don't think so. I had this revelation a couple of weeks ago -- I heard a woman speak who ran a very successful auto dealership group/ movie theater / sports team / race car track with her husband. (FYI, loaded!) Anyway, she talked about patience and she said something that will never leave me. "Patience is not just about waiting. It's about actively moving your life in the direction you want it to go and putting off your immediate desire to reach that goal." Now, that's not an exact quote because I didn't have a tape recorder, but that's what I wrote down. The point is, the old saying about good things coming to those who wait should be changed to. 'Good things come to those who work hard for their dreams and have the patience to fulfill them.' Hang in there! (*no...

First, let me assure everyone that I found a solution to my plot problem. My mom came over for dinner on Sunday night. Boy am I glad she is Trekkie and a Superman fan. I don't want to give my book away so that's the only hint you're getting ;) (oh yes, that and my plot has NOTHING to do with Adam and Eve) If you haven't read any of my other review posts I'll just let you know that my goal this year is to read a book a week. I've read 22 books so far this year and there have only been 17 weeks in the year, so I'm doing pretty good! I couldn't read MATCHED without reading CROSSED now could I? I know a lot of people who were disappointed in this book. I mean, she kind of already chose her match didn't she? Yes and no. I actually enjoyed this book. I think it was good that her and Ky had issues. How could we know their love is real if it isn't tested in the most strenuous way? I don't think she picked Xander at all. She just needs to explor...

I have been working on EXISTENCE for the past seven months. I love time travel and I love a hero, so this was the perfect book for me to write. Lately I've been struggling with my re-writes. I knew in the back of my head that something was wrong, but I couldn't pin-point it. It got so bad that I finally broke down and talked to my husband about it. Normally I avoid the subject of writing with my husband becasue his eyes glaze over, but I just couldn't keep it in anymore. I'm so glad I said something becasue my husband pointed out a MAJOR plot hole. It's so major that I can no longer write EXISTENCE. The entire premise of my book is that if someone were to change past enough the world would implode and basically become a different planet. The bad guys in my book want this to happen becasue they've been alive for 4,000 years (they are immortal) and they're sick of humanity. They think that they are the people who need to re-start the human race. so...

I just finished a book I've heard endless praise about: Across the Universe . I gobbled the whole thing up in a day and it's still messing with my mind. When I finished, I read the acknowledgement page. Before I got serious about writing I would skip that page and close the book, but now I read every line. It's always fun to see people I 'know' (via the internet) mentioned on acknowledgement pages, but I thing I really enjoy is getting a glimpse into how much work it takes to make a book. I had to laugh when I read Beth's acknowledgements becasue her writing processes sounded a lot like mine. This particular paragraph stuck out to me. "The best part about being a writer is having writing friends. Roybn Campbell and Rebecca Carlson helped me hammer out the first draft of Across the Universe , Heather Zundel and Christina Farley helped me break it to pieces and write it back better, and Erin Anderson, PJ Hoover, and Christina Marciniak told me Across t...