After a long writing hiatus, Jennifer kicked off her creative endeavors by crafting book reviews. Margaret Atwood said, “It is my contention that the process of reading is part of the process of writing, the necessary completion without which writing can hardly be said to exist.” (Margaret Atwood “Second words: selected critical prose”, Beacon Press, 1984)
Reviewing books forces her to not only think about what works (and what doesn’t) in the books she enjoys, but also exercises her foggy mind*. In April she took it a step further and participated in National/Global Poetry Writing Month (Na/GloPoWriMo). She read books about writing poetry, and challenged herself to write a poem a day. She ended up writing fifty-four poems in those thirty days.
Now she has to find that delicate balance between reading/reviewing books, writing new projects, editing old ones, and finding homes for her completed works. It’s been sixteen years since she delved into the publishing markets, with her last publication in June of 2011. That same month, on her thirty-fourth birthday, *she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and struggles with chronic fatigue and brain fog.
At the moment, Jennifer is editing several fantasy novels set in two separate worlds drafted during National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo)*. Both involve an alternate Earth, which causes all sorts of lovely mayhem. *She will no longer be participating in that official event due to their policies involving A.I.
One series features alien shapeshifters hiding on our planet to escape genocide. The first chapter of Cat-a-strophic was workshopped via the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (also known as OWW) and was nominated as the Editor’s Choice. Three books are plotted.
The other features half-human, half-fae girl whose parents disappear after a routine trip to the human world. Her search to determine what’s become of her parents begins with Death and leads her through purgatory to heaven and straight into the pits of hell. Forged by Death deals with identity, death, sexual orientation, religion, dealing with loss, and love. The first chapter was workshopped via OWW and was also nominated as the Editor’s Choice. Three books are plotted.
She also has a new steampunk f/f romance novel in the works, featuring a disgraced handicapped royal, magic, and murder.
worldsofmayhem.com 