Please welcome our guest blogger for the week, Jennifer Felton, Author of the paranormal saga, One Hell of a Romance series, featuring the brand new Love & Hate and the first of the series Through Life and Death. Felton started her career through editing and, much like myself, all the reading lead her to penning her own tales. There is nothing quite like shaping those worlds, is there, Jennifer?
Let’s continue with what this intriguing author has to say about writing paranormal books…
Topic: Did you/how did you prepare for writing a paranormal topic?
Wow. Honestly, this is a tough one to try and explain. I didn’t necessarily prepare for writing paranormal. Ever since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by the supernatural. For some reason, it is something I have always been drawn to.
From the very beginning, when I came up with these books, it was always supposed to be paranormal—no matter what else in their plots may have changed along the journey. To me, the fact that I was going to write paranormal, was a no-brainer, it just was.
One thing that I love about this series, is that two of the main characters (Sebastian and Maya, whom readers are introduced to in Through Life and Death), are half vampire and half god. Not to mention, their father, Tobias, is also the King of Hell! It leaves a lot of wiggle room for me to be able to create the mythology in order for it to work with the stories being told. In fact, it’s one of the great things about writing fiction, especially paranormal, you don’t have to follow any rules you don’t want to!
I’ve had a lot of time with these characters. They’ve spent years living in my head, telling me their stories, hopes, dreams, and about their lives. This is something maybe only a writer would understand (or, perhaps, I really am just crazy afterall?), but I’ve spent the last few years listening to these characters as they helped me with the way I shape their tales of love and tragedy.
So, in a way, this is where I did have some preparation in writing these books. when I’m trying to figure out a scene, I listen to the character tell me how it goes, and I sit there and imagine it happening in my head—as I’m speaking the dialogue out loud. This helps me find anything that may come across as out of place, or inconsistent.
At the end of the day, anything is possible in the world of my characters, and that’s what I love about it! It just involves taking the time to listen to the characters. Get the story right, do it justice. That’s what is going to make readers enjoy a book just as much as the author!
After college, where she received a degree in Education, Jennifer Felton reached out and networked with several authors and joined the ranks of ‘Editor”. There was nothing that could quite touch the thrill of being able to shape some unexplored world that would land in the hands of thousands – in the shape of a book.
All the books she had read throughout her life stoked her imagination, but she had never tried to put down on paper the characters she had in her own head. That was, until the characters began their rebellion. It seemed she no longer had a choice but to tell their tales.
Through Life and Death, is the first in her One Hell of a Romance series that is being published through Booktrope where Jennifer also serves not only as author – but also editor, proofreader, and book manager for their other authors!