Jenna Jones

What’s the oldest book you own?
At my mom’s, we still have the Little House on the Prairie series–some I inherited from my older sister, the rest I bought myself or was given. At my own place, it’s probably Starting From Scratch by Rita Mae Brown. It’s a writer’s manual that my dad bought for me when I was a teeneager. I still reread it.

What’s the newest book you own?
I bought a couple at the Tattered Cover while I was visiting Denver in May. The Billionaire’s Vinegar, Fight Club, one or two others that I can’t remember at the moment.

Name a book that you like to have easily accessible?
Comfort lit, like most of my Jennifer Crusie, and reference books.

Mirrored from Jenna Jones.com.

I have a Thing for names. I think it has a lot to do with having the most common girl’s name of my generation (yes, I am a Jennifer, and no, I don’t like being called that): I looked it up once at this app they have at the Social Security site, where you can see how common a name was back to . . . 1890, I think; and the year I was born, something like 30% of girls were also named Jennifer.

I’ve been collecting baby name books since I was in high school, though I haven’t bought any for a long time. Once you realize they’re not going to tell you anything your other half-a-dozen books have already told you, there’s not much point. I’ve branched out a little: I’ve got a book about names of places, cities and states and houses and so on; and a few collections of ethnic names, like one that’s all Irish names.

My favorites, though, are the Beyond Jennifer and Jason series by Rosenkrantz and Satran, because they focus more on the feel of a name instead of the meaning. It’s geared towards parents finding a name that suits their personal style, but it’s incredibly handy for a writer: if you want to convey a little characterization in a word, a name is a handy way to do it.

Mirrored from Jenna Jones.com.

. . . at Rainbow Reviews. Thanks, xbmbgrl!

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June wordcount:

4835 / 16000 words. 30% done!

*sighs*

2009 wordcount:

109557 / 200000 words. 55% done!

*sighs again*

But, July wordcount so far:

1249 / 16000 words. 8% done!

Projects for July:

• fic exchange story (2000+ words)
• charity sip for Torquere (3000-8000 words)
• the big damn movie
• the eight of wands Arcana

Mirrored from Jenna Jones.com.

I’m hosting Torquere Press’s Happy Hour today. Come over, come over!

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‘Round about 1999, I had a terrible case of writer’s block. I didn’t write a thing that I didn’t hate for six months or so. When I refer to this episode, I always call it the Bad Nasty Evil Writer’s Block, because it made me so miserable that when I finally did start writing again (and not hating it from word one) my coworkers noticed, to the point that my manager said, “You’re writing again, aren’t you?”

Since then I read an article (which I think I’ve mentioned and linked to before, but here it is again) about how writer’s block is basically an invention of the Romantics, when the process of creation was thought to be passive, something received by the artist, instead of active, something done by the artist. The gist of the article is that writer’s block is another name for stress or depression or fear of failure or fear of success.

Since reading this, I’d decided I don’t believe in writer’s block. I didn’t feel there’s a need to put a fancy name on what’s perfectly normal: people get stressed, people get depressed, people get worn down by everyday concerns. Accepting that this is normal and will pass has helped me a lot in keeping the bad writing days to a minimum for the past several years.

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I just got my most recent work in progress up to the 50-page mark – barely a dent in my total word count for the year, since I keep getting distracted by fanfic, but a milestone nonetheless. This is the first long project I’ve felt much confidence in, when it comes to looking toward the float-for-publishing end of things, and it’s coming along nicely.

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stories by Jenna Jones, JJ Massa, and Alexa Snow

Who doesn’t love a wedding? The three stories in Going to the Chapel prove that everyone has a special day.

In Don’t Ask by JJ Massa, Captain Zachary Smith has always wanted to find out what boils behind Agent Falk Thayer’s calm exterior. Falk, on the other hand, isn’t looking for anything long-term. Never has. Never will. When things get hot and heavy between them, Captain Smith has to decide if he’s willing to take less than what he needs or sacrifice everything.

In Building a Life by Alexa Snow, when Levi goes to his best friend Cooper’s engagement party, he doesn’t expect to meet someone fascinating — and he definitely doesn’t expect that someone to be Cooper’s five-year-old niece Ashley. It comes as an even bigger surprise to find that Ashley’s father Philip is both fascinating and hot. But Philip is married, even if his wife is mysteriously out of the picture, so this ready-made family can’t possibly have room in it for Levi… or can it?

Finally, in Apples and Gin by Jenna Jones, country singer Sawyer Shaw loves photographer Noah Kingston and is tired of hiding it. He’s kept his sexuality hidden for the sake of his career and his family, but over the past ten years Sawyer has come to realize what matters most to him is Noah and his happiness, and Sawyer is ready not only to make it public but also to make it permanent.

From Torquere Books. Read a sample here.

Mirrored from Jenna Jones.com.

Father’s Day Blow Out Sale!

It’s Father’s Day and we’re celebrating Dads by offering you a 15% coupon!

Valid day and Monday until Midnight, just put father09 into the coupon code for your 15% discount.

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I’m hosting today at torquere_social today. You don’t need a Livejournal account to comment (though they’re free to create): you can comment anonymously (though signing your name is nice) or use OpenID. I’ve got a little contest going to win an ebook copy of the Going to the Chapel anthology.

Come over, come over!

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Observation #1: I’m vastly amused at how most of the spam jj.com has been receiving lately has been “See [insert various actress here] nude!!!!!!” I mean, talk about your misdirected marketing.

Observation #2: You really should not leave me along with a theme switcher and a browser, because I will change things. Longtime readers will recognize this one, which has always been one of my favorites, I admit. It’s just so clean and simple and pretty without being, you know, overly girly. My apologies to anyone who’s been reading today while I’ve been messing around.

The Squeal: Ten days until Going to the Chapel comes out! I’m tempted to set up a countdown thingamajig, just for the fun of it.

Who wants an excerpt? Well, you’re getting one anyway. This is most decidedly not safe for work.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.

Torquere Press will be releasing an anthology of wedding stories on June 24th, called Going to the Chapel. It will contain my story “Apples & Gin.”

Country singer Sawyer Shaw loves photographer Noah Kingston and is tired of hiding it. He’s kept his sexuality hidden for the sake of his career and his family, but over the past ten years Sawyer has come to realize what matters most to him is Noah and his happiness, and Sawyer is ready not only to make it public but also to make it permanent.

The first excerpt, where they meet, is here.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.

The meter can be found at Language is a Virus.

This month was bad.

5244 / 16000 words. 33% done!

Yup. That would be a whopping 33% of the monthly goal achieved. Maynowrimo? Nope. Script? Nope. An anthology submission or short for my publisher? Nope.

I believe, my children, this is what we call burnout. I’ve started a lot of things but finished none of them: nothing seems worth finishing.

It’s very depressing.

On the plus side:

104742 / 200000 words. 52% done!

So. That’s something.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.

When I was in college, my friend Melea wanted me to read her story. I glanced over the first page and gave it back. “I can’t read this,” I said, because it was a mess: no capitalization, minimal punctuation, no paragraph breaks, riddled with spelling errors.

“Oh,” she said, “I figured my editor would take care of that.”

No.

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We’re attempting something new here at jennajones.com: I’ve invited some friends to contribute posts on the various aspects of writing fiction and fanfic. This is the inaugural post.

Back in the mists of time, when I first started reading fanfic, I kept seeing author’s notes which included the line “beta’d by X”. I’d never heard of betas, and it took me a little while to figure out exactly what they did. My first impression was that they served the function of an editor – checking for typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors – and I arrogantly thought, as an English graduate, that I had no need for such a person.

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Jenna Jones is an incredibly common name. Jones is the second most common surname in the English speaking world, Jenna is a popular nickname for an insanely popular first name—it all adds up.

For the record, I am not: a model, in the UK, a volleyball player, a porn actress, a Miss USA contestant, or a writer of m/f Regency romances. There are a lot of other people I’m not, but they’re too many to list here.

I’m just a humble writer of gay romances, mostly contemporary.

Eventually I hope this gets cleared up, but I’m not counting on it.

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Imagine my delight on realizing this book fit the Cannonball Read requirements. Traveling is very conducive for reading: I started this yesterday in the airport, read on the plane, and finished it this morning on my friend’s front porch while I listened to her neighbor’s wind chimes. Practically perfect in every way.

The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, called Bod, who grows up in a graveyard. The story follows him from the night of his family’s murder, and his subsequent adoption by a dead couple in the graveyard and by extension the rest of the graveyard’s residents as well, through the next fourteen years. Bod learns the ways of the dead—the Fade, the Terror—makes friends with a living girl and a long-dead one, and shows himself to be a a good boy for all his strange home life. Like Mowgli in The Jungle Book, which The Graveyard Book is modeled after, Bod also learns you can’t straddle two worlds forever. Eventually you have to choose one.

The Graveyard Book is now not only a bestseller but also a Newberry Award winner, and is a great book for older children up. It also contains the most lovely and uplifting last sentence I’ve read.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.

From dark and graphic-based to bright and text-only here at JennaJones.com. I’ve had an itch for a new layout for a while now, so I decided to try something completely different. (It was either this or rearrange my furniture.)

Edit: And then I fell madly in love with another theme. I am nothing if not fickle.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.

For the past week the Livejournal community meta_writer has had an essay challenge about transitioning from writing fanfic to going pro (or its equivalent). My essay is posted here.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.

The meter can be found here, at Language is a Virus.

This month was much more relaxed than March: finishing up the big bang and then editing it, and a few little stories and essays.

Mirrored from JennaJones.com.