Fun Interview with Jen Turano!

Welcome! I’m so excited to be interviewing you! First, I would love it if you would start by briefly telling us how your writing journey began.

Thank you so much for having me, Faye. It is an honor. Now, on to my writing journey - where to begin? I suppose the beginning, of course, would be the appropriate place to start. It was an owl, or a somewhat long-winded series regarding an owl, that had my fingers first flying over the computer keys. My son was in elementary school and we were at a point where he would read a chapter of a book out loud and then I would read the next one. Unfortunately, we'd chosen this one series and it was getting to be quite dreadful to read. After the sixth book (I've never admitted to my son, who is now in high school) that the sixth book wasn't really the end of the series, but he looked at me, tilted his head, and told me the stories I had told him to keep him occupied in his jogger stroller when he was a little guy, were way more exciting than the book we'd just read. Hence, the journey began. I sat down the very next day and wrote a few chapters about these repulsive lizard creatures, because again, I was writing for my son and he loved nothing more at that time than repulsive creatures, and he came home and...was totally disappointed the entire book wasn't finished. I had to type faster and within a few weeks, the story was done, but nothing really came of it - My son loved it and I did decide it might have some publishing potential - so I sent it out - to all of five agents. Rejections were swift and slightly brutal, but I discovered that I liked writing my stories down and over the next few years I dabbled when I had a few minutes. When my son reached middle school, it suddenly became clear he didn't think it was cool anymore for his mom to volunteer, and that is when I got serious about the craft. I turned to romance and have never looked back. I signed with Mary Sue Seymour, of The Seymour Agency, and she got me a contract with Bethany House.

Please share with us one fact about you that not many people know. And feel free to have fun with the question!

Hmmmm.....well, I can't drive on the thruway - or rather highway, as most people call them. I know, it's weird, but after a close call with death, okay, that's a little dramatic and not exactly what happened....let me start again. You see, a bad accident almost happened, I had my one and only experience with that 'cold sweat' thing, and ever since then, every time I've tried to get on a thruway, panic attacks happen and for some odd reason, I don't think my fellow drivers feel very confident in my abilities when they look over and see me breathing into a paper bag. It's better all around if I just stick to the side roads.

Which fictional literary character most inspired/inspires you?

Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Scarlett O'Hara, all of the heroines in Susan Elizabeth Phillips' books and Hermoine Granger, for being a smart, yet unattractive character, but not bothered by that pesky little situation in the least.

What inspired you to choose the setting for your novel?

 

The department stores - the research on B. Altman's was fascinating and I needed a place that catered to high society and yet, held a seedier side of life. New York City was perfect.

If you could be best friends with any of the characters in your novel, who would it be? Why?

That's a tough question, but....Miss Agatha Watson. She's a smart, no-nonsense kind of lady and not afraid to throw herself into the next adventure.

What inspired this novel?

Quite frankly, the story simply popped into my head out of the blue and the rest of the series flashed to mind that same day. Since I was actually cleaning the house when that happened, I not sure you could say anything really inspired it:)

What are 3 things you like to do to relax?

I take power walks every morning - try to do about five miles - which settles my thoughts so I can work. I read a couple of books a week to keep current with what readers like and, let me think....nope, can't come up with a third idea how I relax - maybe I should really try to come up with new ways to relax since it seems I'm not very proficient at it.

What book(s) are you reading, or have read lately?

Eleanor Brown, The Weird Sisters, Lisa Norato, Prize of My Heart, and even though I've read this series before, since the last movie is coming out in November - yes, I did re-read all of the Twilight books. There's just something about a vampire....

What piece of writing advice have you received that was most helpful to you?

 

I had an agent call me out of the blue and explain to me in painful detail the fact I had a huge POV problem - I didn't even know what POV (point of view) stood for back then, so had to swallow my pride and ask, and to my amazement, she spent the next forty-five minutes teaching me about POV and that completely changed my writing style.

Where can readers connect with you?

My website is www.JenTurano.com and my facebook address is www.facebook.com/jenturanoauthor - I've been trying to get that little facebook icon on my website (huge sigh) I'm afraid it's beyond my limited technical skills so I'm going to have to swallow my pride yet again and call my computer guy.

Thank you so much for giving me the pleasure of an interview with you! And I wish you the very best with your newest release!

Thank you so much for having me, Faye. It was fun!

And as a bonus, I thought I'd let you all know that her novella Gentleman of Her Dreams is currently FREE on kindle : http://www.amazon.com/Gentleman-Dreams-Distinction-novella-ebook/dp/B0091T62FS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351356304&sr=8-1&keywords=jen+turano