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Melissa's Musings

What do you know about Jenna Jaxon? #interview #New_Release

8/23/2016

 
Today, I'm excited to share an interview with Jenna Jaxon with you. I've known her for years and even worked together on a box set, but I threw her my best crazy questions and we will both find out a little more about her! Take a chair and enjoy!!

What television sitcom is most like your family? Why?
MASH—because it always seems like a war zone at our house. LOL

What’s your favorite thing to do to relax?
Reading. I just open a book or turn on the Kindle and it’s like I’ve fallne down a rabbit hole away from the world for five or six hours.

If you could go back in time to when you were seven years old, what wisdom or advice would you pass on to yourself?
Keep up the writing! I wrote a lot when I was younger, then let theatre seduce me away for a lot of years. I wish I had been writing longer than just eight years.

For what are you grateful?
My very supportive family and my health. With those two things, you can move mountains.
At what age were you the happiest? What triggered such joy?

I was in my middle twenties, working on my MFA, doing exactly what I wanted to do for three glorious years.
 
Now about you as an author…
What authors had an impact on you growing up and as an adult?

Growing up it was Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose Little House books I read over and over, wishing I could have those kinds of adventures. As an adult, Stephen King, because I can lose myself in his works so easily and I aspire to writing well enough to do that.

What is your favorite aspect or writing? Your least favorite?

My favorite aspect, as all my chapter mates will tell you, is plotting. I LOVE TO PLOT! To me it’s the most creative aspect—taking that blank page and filling it up with a story.
​
Least favorite is promotion because it’s so time consuming, plus you can spend lots of money and not see a cent in returns/sales.
 
What aspect of writing would you most like to improve on?
Writing description. I don’t like to read it, so I don’t like to write it. After so many years in the theatre, I love dialogue instead to keep the action moving.

Do you have any “must haves” with you while you’re writing?

Quiet. I can’t have a television or even music playing if I’m writing. Also a cup of hot tea is nice and a crunchy snack of some sort. :)

Do you have a common theme or item that appears in each of your books?
Other than true love will out, no, I don’t think so.
​
What have you learned the most from being in the writing business?
Never burn your bridges. Never alienate anyone. That’s why I don’t talk politics. Democrats, Republicans, Indipendents, Libertarians, Green Party members may all want to buy my books!

Picture
Follow your heart to find your desire
 
Miss Katherine Locke is irked to start her third season dancing with the disagreeable Lord Haversham, her brother’s friend and her own arch enemy. After three years out, however, she’s finally interested in the dashing Lord Finley—only to find out her cousin has set her cap for him too. To make the man jealous, Kate feigns interest in Lord Haversham, only to be shocked to find the handsome lord apparently falling for her. With time running out, should she accept his suit and risk falling in love despite herself?
 
Marcus, Lord Haversham, is in a tight pinch. His estates are failing and worse, he’s just lost three thousand pounds to his best friend, Lord Ainsley. Ainsley’s solution: have Marcus marry his shrewish sister and he’ll cancel his gambling debt plus give him ten thousand more pounds for her dowry. With nowhere to turn, Marcus agrees, praying he can keep word of the wager from Miss Locke long enough to charm her into marrying him. But can he avoid falling in love himself?

EXCERPT:
“Who are you looking for?” Celinda peered in the same direction as Kate.

“That gentleman. The stranger I asked you about just now. Did you really not see him?” Had she imagined the man? “Where did he go?” she muttered.

“I have no idea who you are talking about, cuz.” Celinda snapped her fan open, catching the attention of a gentleman across the room.

“Why are you flirting with Bertie Symmons? We’ve known him since we were eight years old and he cried when his mama wouldn’t allow him to climb a tree.” Kate glared at the young man in question, the son of one of their neighbors in Somerset.

“One has to flirt with old friends sometimes if one wants to dance badly enough.” Celinda touched the edge of the fan with her finger, snapped it closed, and smiled at Bertie, who hastily excused himself and headed toward them.

“I’ve never wanted to dance quite that badly.” Kate sniffed and wiggled her toes in her new green satin slippers. Standing for so long during the early part of the Season took some getting used to. “I do wish I had an inkling of who I wanted to flirt with.”

“As do I.” Celinda laughed. “I have no idea so far this Season. I’m just practicing on Bertie so I’ll remember how.”

“Lady Celinda, Miss Locke.”

Kate whirled around, coming face to face with Lady Hamilton and the handsome stranger she’d been looking for. Lord, but he looked even more attractive up close. He smiled charmingly, revealing white, even teeth in a wide mouth with sensual lips. Her heart threatened to cease beating.

Celinda’s china blue eyes widened, a brilliant smile on her lips. She curtsied, and Kate followed suit, quite unable to take her gaze off the gentleman.

“Ladies, good evening once more.” Lady Hamilton nodded, smiling first at one then the other of them. “May I introduce Lord Finley? He is recently returned from some five years in America.”
​
Kate’s heart beat so hard her chest hurt. She snapped her fan open and plied it vigorously, hoping she wouldn’t swoon.


Back to the questions.......
How did you decide on your story plot?
This plot formed itself based on a line from one of my fave Johnny Depp movies, Benny and Joon. In a very wacky card game, Joon wins another player’s cousin. Benny just looks at the guy and says, “You can’t win a person!” And I sort of took it from there. :)

How did you choose your characters names and location for your story?
Location was decided when I made the choice to write the series. The last book of the series, Heart of Deception, was originally a short story, the first book I published. I wanted to expand that story and then I kept wanting to know more about all the other people in the ballroom that night. So I decided to write the series where all the characters in each book meet at this one ball in May of 1820.

The names for the characters of this book just “came” to me. Sometimes I have more of a story for them, but nope, these just came out that way.

Do you have a favorite scene? Why?
I think my fave scene in this book is the opening one where the hero and heroine are sniping at one another while dancing a waltz. Very funny.
​
Do you have a character that you identify with? Who and why?
Yes, my hero’s sister, Lady Letitia. I was always the one in the corner at dances too. :)

BUY LINK: AMAZON

Thank you Jenna for stopping by today and sharing information about yourself and your book. I think we are all grateful for our family and health. It's the thing we take for granted until it's gone. If you want to contact Jenna.... follow her links below!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jenna Jaxon is a best-selling, multi-published author of historical romance in periods ranging from medieval to Victorian.  She has been reading and writing historical romance since she was a teenager.  A romantic herself, she has always loved a dark side to the genre, a twist, suspense, a surprise.  She tries to incorporate all of these elements into her own stories. She lives in Virginia with her family and two rambunctious cats, Marmalade and Suger.  When not reading or writing, she indulges her passion for the theatre, working with local theatres as a director.  She often feels she is directing her characters on their own private stage.
​
Jenna is a PAN member of Romance Writers of America and is very active in Chesapeake Romance Writers, her local chapter of RWA.
She has equated her writing to an addiction to chocolate because once she starts she just can’t stop.
 
FIND JENNA HERE:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jenna-Jaxon/146857578723570
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jenna_Jaxon
Blog: https://jennajaxon.wordpress.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4960704.Jenna_Jaxon
Jenna Jaxon
8/24/2016 03:11:45 pm

Thank you so much for hosting my interview today, Melissa! It was a lot of fun! Loved the questions. :)

Liza O'Connor
8/24/2016 06:16:20 pm

This sounds like a really good book.


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