Ask the Author: Jeni Lee
Answered Questions (4)
Jeni Lee
THE CAGE came from an article I read some time back about people who are choosing to take their babies to chiropractors in the hopes the alignments would inspire enough health in their child that they wouldn't need vaccines.
That made me ask "what if" vaccines were replaced with chiropractic treatments? Then, what if the entire world's governments got together to support this form of medicine? And then, what if it worked?
Then, of course, I knew what my answer would be, but that's what the book is about, so I don't want to spoil it!
But, it is really strange, sometimes, where ideas come from. I've found that by asking "what if?" for anything, you can get some interesting and fun ideas!
That made me ask "what if" vaccines were replaced with chiropractic treatments? Then, what if the entire world's governments got together to support this form of medicine? And then, what if it worked?
Then, of course, I knew what my answer would be, but that's what the book is about, so I don't want to spoil it!
But, it is really strange, sometimes, where ideas come from. I've found that by asking "what if?" for anything, you can get some interesting and fun ideas!
Jeni Lee
In 1945, my mother's biological father left while my grandmother was pregnant. He stole her car, had his girlfriend forge Grandma's name on her war bonds to cash them, then left. He called just as Grandma was due, but she gave no indication of interest and the conversation was awkward and short. Over the years, several things have come to light that makes me suspicious he was a Russian or German spy. 1) My grandmother worked as a bookkeeper in a plant that build planes/bombs for the war and he always grilled her about production, product, etc. She never told him anything, though. 2) He said he worked as a pilot for PanAm, but the one picture we have of him in "uniform" is not a PanAm uniform, nor does PanAm have any record of him ever being a pilot with them. 3) The year before she got pregnant, he and Grandma had a huge fight one day over a party they were supposed to attend together and she decided not to go if he wouldn't. He urged her to go anyway and "made up" with her enough that she went. She never made it to the party. Her brakes gave out on the mountain road and she rolled her car, her legs going through the glass of the windshield and nearly severing both legs at the knees. She stuffed the wounds with her silk stockings which kept her from bleeding out. Later, when her aunt called from the hospital to tell Earl about her accident, he didn't answer the phone with "Hello," but "Is she dead yet?" 4) He claimed his parents came through Ellis Island and their name was shorted from a complicated Polish name to Maher. No such record exists with Ellis Island for a Maher from Poland. 5) There is a death record for Earl Harland Maher dead at age 6 months in the year Earl was supposed to be born. So, those are some of the suspicious things about this man that we know nothing concrete about. Probably make a good story?
Jeni Lee
Currently, I'm working on the third installment of the Colony Series. Based on fantastic feedback, I realized I needed to course correct my failed experiment in narration and mystery, so I've gone back and re-vamped quite a bit to hopefully clear up the confusion. My hope is that readers will give the trio a chance and if not, maybe my next offering will be more suited to their tastes. (A supernatural-type adventure about the Threads of Fate!)
EDIT: Fast forward a few months. I'm still stalled on part three because I no longer like the story as much as I did. I'm still puzzling through it and trying to course correct the fail I created. In the meantime, I've written a very short story about what potentially can be lost during a single minute of a stroke (One Minute of Death), and I'm currently working on a new story about a young woman who lives far in the future where chiropractic intervention, rather than vaccination, has become the norm for treatment of disease. Miraculously, this has worked and the whole world is now disease-free, including from cancer and every neurological disease we currently battle. What we don't know is what Kaya learns through a mistaken download to her Healthy Harness from the government, and her whole world collapses as she is tracked down to retrieve the information she received. The Cage.
EDIT: Fast forward a few months. I'm still stalled on part three because I no longer like the story as much as I did. I'm still puzzling through it and trying to course correct the fail I created. In the meantime, I've written a very short story about what potentially can be lost during a single minute of a stroke (One Minute of Death), and I'm currently working on a new story about a young woman who lives far in the future where chiropractic intervention, rather than vaccination, has become the norm for treatment of disease. Miraculously, this has worked and the whole world is now disease-free, including from cancer and every neurological disease we currently battle. What we don't know is what Kaya learns through a mistaken download to her Healthy Harness from the government, and her whole world collapses as she is tracked down to retrieve the information she received. The Cage.
Jeni Lee
I deal with writer's block a few different ways. Sometimes, I will take the last paragraph before the block and rewrite it in different styles and genres. Sometimes, I will describe something in the most minute detail. Other times, I will go to a completely different part of the story arc and write a completely different scene. I feel like the best way to stop writer's block is to not stop writing.
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