Questions and Answers What are you currently working on? Right now I’m working on the fourth book in the Blood Ties series, which is still untitled, and revising book three, which will come out in the summer of 2007. That one will be called Ashes to Ashes. With which of your works are you most/least satisfied and why? Whatever I’m working on at the moment is the work I’m least satisfied with. Who (Fact or Fiction) would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them? Fact or fiction? I guess I’d really like to meet Inspector Javert from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. He’s my favorite character in literature, so he’s the automatic answer. I don’t know what I would ask him, but it would have to be pretty simple because I don’t speak much French. Really, I’d probably just yell, "Don’t jump!" Is there a book or story you wish you had written? So often I’ll watch a movie or read a book and go, "I wish I had written that!" Most recently, it was the movie "The Lake House", with Sandra Bullock. I watched that movie and wished I’d thought of it. Is writing your full time occupation, if not what is? Writing is my full time job. What was your first professional sale? How did it feel when you received the acceptance? The Turning was my first sale. When my editor at the time, Shannon Godwin, called to tell me they were interested in buying the book, I didn’t believe her. I think I actually told her to shut up. Who is you favourite author? I have way too many favorite authors to list here. Recently I’ve been reading a lot of Antonia Fraser, and I’ve just discovered Gena Showalter, so I’m looking for her backlist. If you could give one piece of advice to a would-be author, what would it be? Finish your manuscript. If you don’t finish it, you’ll never take it seriously enough to pursue publication. When did you first decide that you wanted to be an author? Originally, I wanted to be a singer on Broadway. I never in a million years thought I would be a writer, and I’m still not quite sure how I ended up writing a book. I had a good idea for a story, I wrote it down, and then it snowballed out of control and I ended up published. I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision, but it seems to have worked out well. When did you first feel that you were an author? When I held the finished book in my hands. Before that, I knew I was a writer, but I felt like I could call myself "author" when the book was actually in print. Are you for or against e-books? Personally, I dislike them. I like the feel of a book in my hands, the smell of the paper, to be able to put it on a shelf. If it floats other people’s boats to read e-books, that’s fine, but I stare at a computer screen all day-I don’t want to do it in my off time. I can see where people find them convenient, though. Are you a music fan? If so, what? I’m a fan of nearly every kind of music. I listen to show tunes, new age music, celtic music, classic rock, pop, classical music, you name it. Lately I’ve really gotten into Blackmore’s Night and HIM -- HIM is kind of how I imagined Lestat’s band to be when I read Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned. Do you have a favourite place to write? I have a gorgeous office, all decorated to my tastes with colors that are supposed to spark creativity and all these gemstones and new age stuff that is supposed to help me write. But I write in the living room so I can watch television. Do you enjoy book signings/conventions? I love signings! I love being able to meet fans. I have a little demographic I have affectionately nicknamed the "Jen Armintrout Super Fans", teenagers that come out in black clothes and pentagrams and rubber bracelets. They’re always the most enthusiastic and devoted, and they know the book from cover to cover. I’m always blown away by how into the characters and the world people are. As a reader do you prefer Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror? As a reader, I actually prefer fantasy. But everything has to have some romance to it. I recently read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke, and while the romance isn’t at the forefront, it’s a story about a man who goes into utter darkness to save the woman he loves. Very romantic. What influences the names of people and places in your work? The places are all real places, with the exception of Nathan’s bookshop, so the place names have been pretty easy. I name my characters for the sounds of their names. Cyrus is an evil character, so I picked a name like a hissing sound. Nathan is a name that, in my head, I hear as very sturdy and dependable. And Carrie is one of those names that is so common, everyone can relate to it. In The Turning she refers to it as a "first pick out of the baby naming book". A lot of minor characters are named after real people. In the second the book I have a jogger that gets slaughtered. I named her after one of my best friends. And I have another character named after my husband’s aunt. And Carrie’s ex-boyfriend, who is mentioned briefly in The Turning is named after an ex of mine, as is Dr. Fuller. What book are you reading at the moment? Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser. It’s heartbreaking, because you know how it ends. Do You Always know a Story's Ending When You Begin Writing? Do the characters ever insist tweaking the masterplan? I usually have a general idea of what needs to happen in the story to make it good. After that, I make it up as I go along. The characters don’t seem to interfere all that much in the plot of a single book, but I’ve noticed that the overall series story arc has been affected by their actions. Actions which, at the time, seemed weird to me. For example, I tend to have these thoughts of "Oh, it would be so cool if I could do this, but I’ve written too much around it", and then I’ll find a loophole where a character will have said or done something in a previous book that makes it possible. Those are the moments where I sit, completely aghast, going "My gods, my subconscious is the best writer!" What's the most memorable thing said in a review of your work? I had a bad review where the person said I robbed them of their day because they didn’t like the book. It made me laugh, because it’s not like anyone had a gun to their head, forcing them to read it. This is my official plea to everyone who reads my books: If you don’t like them, please, don’t feel beholden to me to finish them. It won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t. In fact, I will probably never know. You've made your vampires very distinct. Was there any particular inspiration for the way you innovated that world? Blood Ties is both familiar and original, which seems like it would be hard to pull off, but you did very well. Well, thank you. Basically, what I did for the Blood Ties> world is, I would think of things I liked about vampires in fiction and things I didn’t like. Obviously, I threw out the things that I didn’t like, and then the things I did like that would be just too hard to get around. Like vampires not being able to cross running water. I think that would be very cool, if we didn’t live in a world with rain gutters where my vampire could be stuck standing on the corner for hours. What I had left, the bare bones of the popular myths, I tweaked. For example, I liked the idea of vampires having some physical change when they feed. You see in almost every movie a vampire’s fangs extending or their eyes changing color, and on Buffy they get that Klingon forehead thing. And all of that is great, but I wanted it to be different, so I thought "Okay, let’s make their entire head just morph into something awful. And let’s have them completely vulnerable emotionally to their sires". There really isn’t anything different you can do with the vampire genre, so you really just have to twist it and make the existing myths your own. Plug away - what do you have coming out? Readers can look for Blood Ties Book Two: Possession in February! Many Thanks! Relevant Links Jennifer Armintrout's Main Listing Jennifer Armintrout Website