Ask the Author: Jen Swann Downey
Answered Questions (6)
Jen Swann Downey
Hi Barry - Thank you for entering the giveaway. I apologize for the delay in getting your book out, but yes, the book has now been mailed, and you should receive it shortly. Enjoy!
Jen Swann Downey
Only a minority of my writing sessions with gen-u-wine 100% Italian leather front-and-center inspiration. Most begin when the clock tells me its my husband's turn to take the kids. It's not that inspiration doesn't ever take me down with a flying tackle. It most certainly does! It's just that inspiration doesn't feel the slightest need to align its thrilling visitations with my planned writing sessions. When it pins me down to enthusiastically lick my face, I'm usually deciding which package of hamburger I should buy (Hm... 1.2 or 1.5 lb --- aaaauuuugggghhhh!) or enjoying a 2am stagger to the bathroom. In terms of deep-bone long-haul inspiration? As in, what makes me ever and ultimately pick up a pen? Two things. Delight and Injustice.
Jen Swann Downey
So far, I consider myself a person who sometimes writes, but should I turn into a writer, I will come back and supply an answer.
Jen Swann Downey
I think the seed for the series was planted when I saw the phrase “Petrarch’s Library” scrawled on a notebook I found in our never-very-organized, and always-very-clutterful house. Everyone in the family denied being the scrawler, but the phrase ignited my imagination, especially after I looked it up and found it associated with a collection of books that the 14th century humanist and poet, Petrarch, had carried around with him when he traveled on the back of a donkey. That made me laugh, because the phrase had suggested some sort of grand magnificent library. But then I thought, well, even a small collection of books IS a sort of imaginary grand magnificent place because each of the books is a doorway into a different world of ideas, and knowledge, and story.
Suddenly I was imagining “Petrarch’s Library” as a solid, if sprawling building, made out of library chambers from different times and places knitted together by magic into one incredible super-library.
Since I was a kid, I always had the feeling that librarians were masquerading at doing something mundane while actually doing something incredible, mysterious and magical. It seemed reasonable that the work of librarians who staffed the imaginary Petrarch’s Library would defend and protect the flow of information in shall we say, some additional warrior-ish direct action ways!
The rest of the interview is here: http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/ta... Though the giveaway on that site is over, I'm about to launch a goodreads giveaway for THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: THE ACCIDENTAL KEYHAND -- the first book in the series -- so keep an eye vaguely peeled for that....
Suddenly I was imagining “Petrarch’s Library” as a solid, if sprawling building, made out of library chambers from different times and places knitted together by magic into one incredible super-library.
Since I was a kid, I always had the feeling that librarians were masquerading at doing something mundane while actually doing something incredible, mysterious and magical. It seemed reasonable that the work of librarians who staffed the imaginary Petrarch’s Library would defend and protect the flow of information in shall we say, some additional warrior-ish direct action ways!
The rest of the interview is here: http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/ta... Though the giveaway on that site is over, I'm about to launch a goodreads giveaway for THE NINJA LIBRARIANS: THE ACCIDENTAL KEYHAND -- the first book in the series -- so keep an eye vaguely peeled for that....
Jen Swann Downey
I treat it as a luxury I can't afford. (Three kids to try not to ruin, two business-to-pay-the-bills to run, and that dang partridge to chase out of the pear tree on a daily basis).
I subscribe to the "I've got three hours out of the whole day to be alone with my thoughts and a writing implement. Just write SOMETHING, anything. Is a good deal of the result often dull, disconnected, or even dreadful? Yes!
But it's raw material. And even when none of it turns out to be worthy of being plopped on the potter's wheel for shaping during a later editing session, the act of producing the material seems to almost always kick off interesting cascades (on a fabulous day) or little (but powerful!) frog plops of insights, questions, sudden flashes of character, theme, scene and story structure for current or future writing projects.
I subscribe to the "I've got three hours out of the whole day to be alone with my thoughts and a writing implement. Just write SOMETHING, anything. Is a good deal of the result often dull, disconnected, or even dreadful? Yes!
But it's raw material. And even when none of it turns out to be worthy of being plopped on the potter's wheel for shaping during a later editing session, the act of producing the material seems to almost always kick off interesting cascades (on a fabulous day) or little (but powerful!) frog plops of insights, questions, sudden flashes of character, theme, scene and story structure for current or future writing projects.
Jen Swann Downey
Oh, goodness, Nafiza. I'm JUST seeing your question. My apologies! I'm just doing a lot of things after not doing them for a while. For instance, I'm JUST remembering that my fingers can do other things besides type words. It's December, 2015 and I only just turned in my last major revision for Sword in the Stacks. I know. I'm SLOW! The release date is June 1, 2016. ARCs available end of March I believe. Thank you so much for asking. Yours, Jen
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