Ask the Author: Jennifer Vaughn
Answered Questions (9)
Jennifer Vaughn
Otherworldly? Perhaps, but definitely weird. To this day, we can't say for sure what happened that night. Propelled by some obscure need to forgo the bathroom next to my bedroom, I awoke and traveled downstairs, through the dark kitchen and over to the bathroom that overlooks the driveway. Maybe it was two a.m. or near to that. The night was silent; the darkness inky and complete. All the neighborhood noises were temporarily snuffed out by slumber. My eyes felt heavy, but my ears were sharp. They heard a distinct rumble. An engine turning over in the driveway. The ignition process was underway, but the driver of that car was fast asleep a floor away! What was happening? I shot up and peered out the window. Sure enough, the Maxima was glowing with life. My gaze flew to the table in the kitchen that held its keys. The metal was undisturbed against the counter, yet somehow its likeness--or some variation of it--had just been deployed! I darted up the stairs, invaded the bedroom like a gunshot, and awoke the Maxima's owner with a jolt to his restful back. Down he raced, grabbing a baseball bat from our son's bedroom...just in case...and charged toward the offender behind the wheel, certain the Maxima was mere seconds away from departing our driveway for the last time, en route to a secret location to be stripped for parts, or worse. Gripping the bat, hoisting it to shoulder-height, ready to strike, he sparred with the locked door. Expecting a burly opponent, he saw only empty space, and yet, someone (something) had been there. The Maxima rumbled and purred awaiting its next command. We gaped into the front seat with wonderment stirred by bewilderment and shock. The driver slid into his well-worn leather-bound perch, and inserted the key. With a deft turn of his finger, he ended the preternatural sound that had shattered the typicality of an innocent late-night trip to the bathroom. The Maxima remains an unyielding vault--the secret of that night, forever untold.
Jennifer Vaughn
Okay, this one came right to me--and probably NOT in a good way! Sure, I get all gooey inside when I think of a couple's love in its purest sense, but I tense and twitch when it's the kind of love that sparks diabolical, murderous otherworldly rage! Think Arnie Cunningham and that blood-red gal of his, Christine. Think of a languid heat that spreads like fire across this poor kid's heart and soul...eventually snuffing out whatever he thought was love and replacing it with desperation, hate, and pure vicious intent. Even death couldn't rip this couple apart...you got the sense Arnie will hunt her down in the afterlife until she is shiny and reborn again, with him perched behind her evil wheel forever!
Jennifer Vaughn
Hi Joan, thanks so very much! I'd love that...will email over all details, and both headshot and book cover ASAP.
Jennifer Vaughn
Legacy Girls takes us inside the unique environment of a co-ed boarding school. Young boys and girls, older professors and mentors, all living, working and learning in the same space. So something's bound to go wrong, right? I followed that theory--did some digging--and shaped a story.
Jennifer Vaughn
As a kid, I loved books. I could visualize the people, places, and circumstances of their stories. By high school I was fairly certain the right side of my brain was more developed than the left, so I followed the path of words, creativity, and images. My primary career, television news, is a daily journey through writing on a hard deadline, so working on books is a much different pace. I can allow the story to gel a bit longer, marinate the plot, and see it perfectly before I put it down in print. My inspiration has always come from an internal need to see words as images.
Jennifer Vaughn
At this moment, I'm about three-quarters of the way through the second book in my new Jaycee Wilder Series. It picks up where Throw Away Girls leaves off, with TV reporter Jaycee Wilder jetting off to bucolic New Hampshire to help find her cousin, a boarding school student, who has suddenly gone missing. Legacy Girls releases in 2017, along with a reboot of my debut novel, Last Flight Out, and another stand-alone novel, Echo Valley. It's going to be a really exciting time!
Jennifer Vaughn
Keep reading! I think the best writers are born from a lifetime of reading the work of others. Even though it's not always easy to carve out reading time when I'm working, and in the process of writing a new book, but I try. Right now, I'm plowing through several books I collected during my recent trip to Book Expo America in Chicago.
Jennifer Vaughn
Controlling the ending! Life is so unpredictable, and has surely thrown me a few twists that I didn't see coming, along with several turns that altered plans and expectations. When I write, I can craft the perfect outcome. Admittedly, I like to walk away from a book knowing exactly what's next for my favorite characters.
Jennifer Vaughn
Writers block, yes, that pesky little cloud that dims your creative sun. It will come and it will go--the trick is not to let it fog your work. To avoid that, I simply walk away from the keyboard for a bit. It helps that I have a busy full-time job, TV news, that keeps my mind whirling and humming. I have learned that it's in my best interest not to push, just to wait patiently for the next idea to surface.
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