Jen K. Blom's Blog

When I was a kid, there were a couple different days I couldn’t wait for. Most of all, I waited for Saturday and Sunday, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think (I didn’t start to sleep in until my university years, but that is a story for another time).

My family got the local city paper, and the real, honest to goodness truth was I waited on those suckers so I could read the Weekend funnies. Imagine: an entire four page color spread with joke after joke, drawn out (no TV!), following the action piece by piece. I loved it.

You know, there weren’t – and aren’t – that many cool horse cartoons around. I love Fergus the Horse *waves* but I haven’t found that many others that I really like.

And, as they say, if you don’t find it, make it yourself.

So I present the PONY101 WHATSITS! A Sunday weekly comic/saying/advice column starring my three favorite characters: Josie, Floki and Pasta:

Horses and ponies and cats and kids, oh my!
Tagged: PONY101 Whatsits

When I was a kid, there were a couple different days I couldn’t wait for. Most of all, I waited for Saturday and Sunday, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think (I didn’t start to sleep in until my university years, but that is a story for another time).

My family got the local city paper, and the real, honest to goodness truth was I waited on those suckers so I could read the Weekend funnies. Imagine: an entire four page color spread with joke after joke, drawn out (no TV!), following the action piece by piece. I loved it.

You know, there weren’t – and aren’t – that many cool horse cartoons around. I love Fergus the Horse *waves* but I haven’t found that many others that I really like.

And, as they say, if you don’t find it, make it yourself.

So I present the PONY101 WHATSITS! A Sunday weekly comic/saying/advice column starring my three favorite characters: Josie, Floki and Pasta:

Horses and ponies and cats and kids, oh my!
Tagged: PONY101 Whatsits

So, we did it. 

Mix one pony mad kid with a writer mama, add in a little bit of Sharjah book festival magic and add a bit of determination, and voila!

It’s done. New Pony Day (both English AND German!) is out. Horse loving ladies and gentlemen, and pony mad kids, we’re starting down that ambitious road of a picture book series about Josie, her Floki, and of course Pasta. 

Next week begins the super fun blog tour, which is exciting in its own way. But nothing beats the satisfaction of being able to read it with m’girl and her seeing it up on the Zon. 

Cool. :) Happy birthday, you crazy kids. 

  

Well, this book I’m also pretty excited about – presenting the next book in the series!

ALIEN VS PONY

When they find out that the aliens are coming – and the parents can’t handle it – Floki and Josie go to their town’s rescue … but is what the alien wants and what everybody else thinks the alien want two different things?

I’ll have a release date soon. I’ve got a 5 year old on me for it, so no time to waste!

This is some exciting news.

The FIRST BOOK in Pony101, NEW PONY DAY!, is now available for pre-order!

Amazon pre-order link!

Smashwords pre-order link!

I am so proud of this book. The next one is coming, but this one is just…the best. I am so excited. :)

 

Hey pony lovers!

 

I am loving creating this book for my Loki. She’s really cottoned on to the fact lately that I’m making a picture book *just for her* and she is dyyying to read it.

 

To which I reply:

But seriously. It’s so much fun to anticipate a thing that I can’t help teasing her a little bit. And thanks to a great husband and a great friend, we’ll have a German version released at the same time!

 

This is pretty exciting.

 

The choosing of a German book title is, however, NOT. If you never knew, German is an extremely long, complicated language, and yuck. One of the suggestions was (no lie) like ten words long!

So to have a little fun on this hot, hot day, I thought I’d show a couple peeks from the upcoming book!

True Love:

Klaus the cat astronaut. No cats were harmed in the making of this book!

Thank you so much to the many many people I’ve talked to over social media and email that are looking forward to this book. I’m just as excited as you are.

And I think Loki beats us all in excitement, though.

So now you all know that I started with Heba and Nosy as a way to give my daughter a book about something she was interested in (horses) that was specifically tied to her (all details only add to her story). Since she is only five, and doesn’t have opinions yet, I call her Loki online.

I had a friend that recently posted an interview with her child and I thought it was such a great idea I did it right away with Loki. And so this will give you an idea of my inspiration – my darling, darling girl, Loki.

1.How old will you be on your birthday? Five

2.Who is your best friend?  Dennis

3.What is your favorite thing to do? Play with Horses

4.What is your favorite color? Pink

5.What is your favorite food? Bread

6. What do you like to do with your family? Play silly with papa

7.What is your favorite toy? Heisse Po (he’s one year old, says Loki) (He’s a stuffed elk)

8.What do you want to be when you grow up? A Stuffed Toy Doctor

9. What makes you happy? Funny words.

10.What makes you sad? Flies. Flies are scary.

11.What is your favorite movie? Lillifee  

12.What is your favorite book? Peppa Pig 

13.Where is your favorite place to go? To Dennis’ house  

14.What do you like to do outside? Play with horses

15.What is your favorite animal? Elk families and horses

16.If you could go to dinner with anyone in the world who would it be? Amara 

17.What is your favorite snack? Raisins

18. What do you want for your birthday? A toy airplane

19.Who is your favorite Super Hero? Heba

20.What is your favorite song? Happy

So here we go. A real glimpse into Loki’s little brain. She is the best.

Hi guys!

I’ve got a great thing to show you today – the cover of the first book in the PONY101 Series: NEW PONY DAY!

Heba’s out to get her very own pony – ALL FOR HERSELF – today…if she can find her!

The release date for the first of many PONY101 adventures is the FIRST OF OCTOBER, 2015! Expect lots of activity sheets and games to be added to the site in the next month or so. I’m so excited about this book – more than any book I’ve ever done, as it’s first and foremost for my little girl and me. THIS was the book I wanted when I was a kid.

And soon it will be available! Crazy.

My name is Jen. And I’ve always been a writer. And a RIDER. One of my first memories is trying to reach a big huge blob of horse through a barb-wire fence. I must have been three or four years old.

Life goes on, and I did most everything you could do with horses that was any fun. Western, dressage, jumping, eventing, trail, and then I found polo. Which gave me the biggest high of all but also lots of bumps, bruises and broken pieces of my anatomy! I eventually got married and moved to a whole new country, and then I had a kid.

Who loved horses and reading as much as I do. It got me to thinking about other ways to share horses with her. Did I happen to mention I had also (after a long time of working really, really hard) managed to become published in both the US and Germany with my Middle Grade books? True story.

So I had all the skills to make a book for her, full of her favorite things – horses, cats and adventures. There was no time like the present – why couldn’t I do it? I started thinking about it, and Heba and Nosy (and let’s not forget Klaus!) were born.

These books – the PONY101 series of books, activities, and everything else coming up – is for her. And YOU. Do you like ponies or horses? Do you want to learn cool important facts about horses and ponies (and that darned cat!), and help yourself become a better horse person?

Then THESE are the books for you. THESE books are written by a horse person for horse people and full of the things WE enjoy the most – HORSES (and the cat, he would not be ignored)!

Tagged: General

Well, the secret is out. Mostly.

Last week I:

- Gave notice to my job.

- Started a company.

- Finished the official webpage for said company.

Let me introduce MY NEW COMPANY (which already has customers ohmahgawh!):

TRISKELE LITERARY SERVICES

This is right up my alley, and the entire thing has fallen into place with an ease that frankly astonishes me. I guess they're right when they recommend to do what you love!



This doesn't mean I'm stopping writing. What this means is that I now have a job that enables me writing time on the clock AND an excuse to read anything I can get my hands on.



So YAY for me! And YAY for Germany, this is gonna be awesome for all of us!!!