Guest Blogger: Heather Jensen

Our featured guest blogger for this week is

Heather Jensen

author of

Blood and Guitars

I’m honored to be posting on Talk Supe today. I feel right at home in a blog full of all things paranormal. I can’t say exactly when my writing addiction began but I know by the age of twelve I was constantly writing down stories. My best friend can attest to this, and I apologize to her regularly for having to read them all. A trip to historic Europe inspired my first novel, which I began writing as a teenager and self-published at the age of twenty. I’ve always been a big fan of fantasy but I didn’t find my niche until I discovered the world of paranormal fantasy. I actually had the idea for my latest novel, Blood And Guitars, twelve years ago while I was in high school. I was really inspired by the work of Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. In a twist of fate there was a post about her work on the site just this week. Her vampire novels were thrilling and made me see vampires in a brand new light (or would that be dark?) Amelia was a young writer and made me realize that if she could do it, so could I. I consider myself one of her biggest fans. Seriously. My only child is named Zane. It’s cool to be named after a snake, right? (TS: Yup Zane is a pretty cool name!)

In Blood And Guitars I combined two things I’m very passionate about: vampires and music. I’ve been playing drums for almost fifteen years and guitar for about ten and I did an apprenticeship in a recording studio after college. My passion for music naturally leaked into my writing a long time ago. I’m a fan of all types of music but there are a few specific bands whose songs fill up my writing playlist. Catalyst, the fictional band in the Blood And Guitars series, was inspired by bands such as The All American Rejects, Secondhand Serenade, 30 Seconds To Mars, Dashboard Confessional, and Jimmy Eat World just to name a few. If I could pick an actor to play Trey, the band’s lead singer/rhythm guitarist, in a movie it would probably be Chace Crawford. If Trey could jump off my pages and come to life, he’d look a lot like Chace. Trey is one of my favorite characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing. One thing I love about him is that he’s very down-to-earth and levelheaded, despite the fame and fortune the band’s success has brought him. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is fiercely loyal to those he cares about, making it hard not to love him. 

My inspiration for Aurora is a little different. I saw a picture on the internet years ago of a drawing of a young vampire woman with jet black hair and soulful, poison-green eyes. The image is still burned into my mind, although I’ve never been able to find it again. Luckily, I have another image of a woman who looks just like her. Aurora is a bit of a walking contradiction in the fact that she’s a beautiful, exceptionally powerful young vampire, but she feels very isolated and alone at times. Even her name means Goddess of the dawn, which is ironic for a vampire who has more control over her moon-given abilities at night and would rather sleep the daylight hours away. When I began writing the book, I had just started dabbling in oil painting, something I still enjoy when I find the time. Making Aurora an artist gives her that creative outlet that acts like therapy when she’s feeling out of place in a world filled with humans. She finds solace when she’s at her art studio, The Waking Moon. Aurora tends to be a perfectionist, meaning she has a good head for business, but she secretly craves the freedom and spontaneity that she finds in Trey.

My writing process has changed a lot over the years. Before I had my son I never went to bed on this side of midnight, but since then I’ve had to adapt my writing schedule to accommodate everything that comes with being a stay-at-home mom. These days I mostly write while he’s at school. When I start writing a story I make a general outline first. I still have the original outline and character bios for Blood And Guitars that I scribbled down in my 5-Star notebook in class when I was sixteen. Once I get to know my characters I find that they are quite capable of navigating the story in their own way, opening up paths that I could never have anticipated.

I’m currently working on the second book in the Blood And Guitars trilogy, tentatively titled Immortals and Melodies, and plan to release it in print and e-book next summer. (TS: Yay!)

I have a website/blog dedicated to my writing at www.heatherjensen.info . I love doing research for my stories, which leads to hours spent Googling things online. As a result, I have pictures of places and things from Blood And Guitars on the site. You’ll also find other fun things like Catalyst lyrics, Character bios, and more.

      

Thanks to Braine and Cimmaron for having me on Talk Supe today! I hope you’ll all enter to win a Blood And Guitars e-book in the giveaway.

Get your copy of Blood And Guitars at the following sites:

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

For other online stores and e-book formats, visit

 www.heatherjensen.info for more info.

Here are a few other places you can connect with me online:

            Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BloodAndGuitars

            Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/theedgeofwords

            Blood And Guitars Twitter hashtag: #bandg

            Blood And Guitars Official Book Trailer: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDmxkuxvAVk