Nov 13, 2011

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Jennifer Armentrout

 Jennifer L. Armentrout is the author of the author of HALF-BLOOD (released: Oct. 2011) and the coming soon novel OBSIDIAN (due out: 12/06/2011).  And I was lucky enough to get an interview with Jennifer!  :)

Here's what her two new novels are about: 
HALF-BLOOD
The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

OBSIDIAN
Starting over sucks.
When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.
And then he opened his mouth.
Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something unexpected happens.

And so, here's my interview with Jennifer:

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
The best advice is to never give up. If your dream is to write, then you got to stick through it, especially when you start racking up rejections like they're going out of style. Also, practice makes as close to perfect as you can get.

What’s your favorite/least favorite part about writing?
My favorite part is coming up with the idea and the characters. Least Favorite part? Getting about a 100 pages in on a new manuscript and wanting to scrape it and start over. I do that a lot. Sigh.

Now that you’re published, how has your life changed (or your writing changed)?
My life hasn't really changed, lol, other than meeting and talking to people all over the world, which is the coolest thing ever. I mean, someone in Croatia or Australia or Greece or Spain is reading something I wrote. It's insane! My writing has changed only because I have more experience now, with editing and etc. You learn from the editors and copy editors.

What books inspired you most as a writer?
Growing up, I was a huge fan of LJ Smith, Ritchie Cusick, Christopher Pike, and the likes. They were why I wanted to start writing. That and an incredibly overactive imagination

Can you describe the basics to your writing process?
Sometimes I will write for 12-15 hours a day. I kid you not, but on average, I kind of stalk the internet for about the first hour of my writing schedule, then write, stalk internet some more, rinse and repeat. I'm a pantser, so I don't outline further than getting a general plot idea.

And be sure to check out Jennifer L. Armentrout's blog: http://jenniferarmentrout.blogspot.com/

No comments: