Jess Jenkins's Blog: Torrid Tales of the life of an Author Living on the Edge of Boredom.

I know I have had several messages asking for book two...it's been a long time, I know. Unfortunately, due to life and other such things I stepped away from the writing world for a while. During that time, I realized I wasn't happy with Breaking Point and it's in rewrite stages. Hopefully if I can make myself focus I'll have it done and have feelers out to publishers/agents out sometime by the end of the year as my previous contract is up.

Until then,

Jess

So, what’s up with the sad kitty, right? Well, sadly I must report that it has been nearly 2 years since Breaking Point was released. Why is this significant, you may ask? It is significant because I have not yet put out the sequel.

I don’t blame anyone, not even myself really, I just wanted to explain some things about the writing process. First of all, I need time. Lots of time. My publisher, wonderful as they are, cannot pay me to write, I don’t get an advance and because of this, I don’t have a deadline. Writing, as much as I would LOVE to make it so, is not my career. Currently, it is a hobby, and hobbies as we all know are usually last on our lists of priorities even though they’re usually the things we want to spend the most time doing.

I’m a nurse in an Emergency Department. I work four 12-16 hour shifts a week. I’m up by five in the morning almost every day and I’m not in bed til at the earliest eleven at night. I work weekend premium which means in addition to the other days I work, I have to work every Saturday and Sunday. I have two school age children. I have a fiancé who is also a full time college student. I have a house to clean and three animals to keep up with. Basically, I’m busy and I’m tired. Writing is enjoyable, but it’s also hard work. At the end of the day when I have a few minutes to sit and write, I have to have some brain cells left in my head that aren't fried from the day to be able to do it.

Sometimes I get a few pages written; most times it’s just a few sentences. Believe you me; it’s not for lack of trying. I have four (yes, I know) books that I have started. Trapped, the sequel to Breaking Point is the one that gets worked on the most and the one nearest to completion. However, any good writer knows, when you have an idea for something else banging around inside your skull it’s hard to work on anything else until you have gotten that out of your head.

So, I’d like to apologize to all those waiting for a sequel, it is coming, I swear, it’s just coming slowly. And I would like to thank you all for your patience thus far and for your continued quest for the next book. When it is complete and to the editing process I will happily post it on here for all of you so you all know it is one step closer to being out for you to read and, hopefully, enjoy. Thank you all so much.

Much Love,
Jess

Follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/AuthorJessBowen for the latest news!!

Jess Bowen

Ever find your yourself looking back at something you've done and cringing. I will always be proud of Breaking Point as my frist novel and the work it required to create this world that my characters live in, but sometimes I wish I could take back the book and completely rip it apart and start over.

As I'm working on Book 2 sometimes I look through Breaking Point and I read parts and I just think...ugh, why did I do that?? Why did I make that so wordy? Why did I make that creature??

So, as I write book 2 I find myself stuck sometimes working with things from Breaking Point that I'm not completely happy with because so far I am loving writing book 2 and I can't wait to share it with you all. I'm just having one of those morning where I just look at what I've written and I tear it apart in every way imaginable and wonder how I thought this was a good idea.

I've also, on the side, been working on a new story line too. As to if it will pan out into a fully fledged novel or if it's just something in my head that I'll write for a while and discover it's nothing really is yet to be determined but strangely, it's helping me work out some plot points in the next Order of the Elements book so I'm enjoying it. Until we next meet folks...I must say, check out (if you haven't already) The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins as it is truly excellent and I can't get enough of it and am eagerly awaiting the movie.

Jess Bowen

Hello lovely friends and readers.

So, as I get more reviews and opinions on Breaking Point I just have to say...bad reviews or even reviews where something negative is mentioned about the book are hard. :/ This is something I put a lot of work into and you always publish with the hope everyone will love it but the knowledge that not everyone is not going to. Still, seeing it just brings you down a little bit.

However, after the few moments of being down, I find it makes me more motivated to be more picky and work harder on the future books to bring you a better story with great story lines and more developed plots. Breaking Point was by no means my first foray into writing but you know what...I've learned a ton since then and I'm hoping to apply it to my future writing. I myself have even seen in an improvement in my writing for book two.

So what I'm saying is...don't be afraid to say if there was something you didn't like about that book. Please don't be harsh about it, but it does me good to hear different opinions. Sometimes it helps me improve and sometimes I know it's just different readers preference in what kinds of books they read but either way it's still nice to know.

By the way I have another new blog post on my website...feel free to stop by... www.theorderoftheelements.com

Again, I’m working on a Monday night so I apologize for my lateness in posting but I've been sleeping all day. I’ve tried to think about what to write about and then I looked at facebook and the answer came to me.

Curiosity.

It’s kind of a funny thing, actually. It’s how I always start a story after all. You see, the funny thing about me is, I kind of always write a story backwards. The ending always comes to me first and then when I have it perfect I say…well, what got these people in this story to this point? See? That one little seed of curiosity is what takes an ending to a middle and a beginning.

Right now I’m looking at my facebook page and it tells me someone has answered a question about me. Cool. So I click where it tells me to click to find out what the question was and what the answer was. Not so simple, it appears. The question and answer are listed…the person who answered what question with what answer is not. But, for the small price of fifty questions I answer to gain fifty coins, I can pick one question and find out who answered it.

Now, if it were one question, or maybe two…not so much a huge deal. Problem is, there’s twenty to thirty questions answered and I don’t have the time to answer all the questions required to find out who answered what questions about me. So what are my other options? It looks like my other options consist of paying money to attain these all powerful coins the unlock these answers.

My question is…what is the price of curiosity?

It’s a powerful thing. The drive for knowledge will push people to limits they didn’t even know they had. Am I going to spend hours answering questions to get the answers to who answered what questions about me? No, probably not. Will I spend money to know these answers? Definitely not. Do I want to know? Yes, I suppose. However, the questions are somewhat inconsequential to my everyday life. It’s not going to drive me crazy if I don’t know. But, I’ll still wonder.

The truth is, most of those questions were probably answered by people who were just looking to figure out who said what on a question for them and therefore their answer didn’t require any thought on their part, they’re just on their own quest for information. It’s crazy, right?

It’s kind of like the fundamental force that drives our whole lives. The more you think about it, the more you’ll realize, we are all on a constant quest for information. Every day we talk to people and we take conversations home and pick them apart in our heads, trying to figure out if people were sincere in what they said…what they really meant when they said this or that… It’s almost like we lack the ability to take something at face value, we have to find the real meaning of everything. Which means we’ve basically talked ourselves into believing that everything in the world around us is false and will always be false therefore we must constantly analyze everything for its real meaning…

It could, and often does, drive a person insane. Hence the madness that has led this entire post. Funny how one small post on facebook has led me to this whole train of thought. These are the things I think about and lead to insomnia on my part. Because I’m curious. I’m one of those annoying people that needs to know what’s going on at all times and picks apart everything and drives myself crazy with questions I don’t have answers to.

So I come back to my original question…what is the price of your curiosity? What do you most want to know? If you had the chance to ask one question and have the absolute utter and complete truth with no catch…what would your one question be? The problem is…the answer to one question always leads to another question…
Curiouser and curiouser…

As Alice would say…


Don’t forget, Monday blog hoppy time…say hi to other awesome authors for me… http://theorderoftheelements.blogspot...

Well, it’s time for the Monday post, and I’ve gone back and forth on what to write for it. After much indecision, I’ve finally decided to go with…the holidays. I know, cliché, right? Ah well…we’ll live through it. Walk with me, talk with me.

So, New Year’s is coming up and that time for resolutions that no one ever keeps but that we make with the best intentions. Like I’ll probably make a few that say something like lose a few pounds, read more books, write faster… Eh, I’m a rebel, I rebel against my own goals for my life. Hahahaha.

Here’s the thing about New Years Resolutions… The New Year is supposed to be a time for renewal or whatever, right? Putting the old behind you and moving forward, right? Honestly, what part of resolutions meets that standard? Let’s think about it, you resolve to lose weight, means you think you weigh too much and it’s time you think about getting rid of it. Which basically just makes you think about yourself negatively.

Me, for instance, resolving to write faster…means I’m too slow. Again, let’s think about this…I can either force myself to write something substandard (in my opinion of my own writing) or I can take my time and just write as my ideas come together and have something I’m happy with. J.K Rowlings spent 15 years putting together the epic masterpiece that is the Harry Potter series. She did things her way and she created something that still makes my jaw drop when I really think about it. That’s not saying that you have to take that much time to write something good, just that some people do. Everyone’s different, I’m not knocking it. I’m a slow writer. I nit pick at things. So really, I could resolve to write faster for any number of reasons, and in the end this is not something that’s going to make me happy.

Anyway, you see where I’m going here? We make these resolutions about the negatives in our lives, or what we perceive as negatives.

And, no matter how hard I try, I’m probably always going to be a few (*coughtwentyorthirtycough*) pounds heavier than the pretty models on TV. You know what I can do? Throw a few more fruits and vegetables into my day, maybe evaluate which vitamins I take and what’s necessary and what’s not, take my kids to the park more often and run around with them. Then I’m not resolving myself to hell while I try to calorie count and self deprecate myself when I don’t exercise three hours a day every day. Positive!

Maybe I’m never going to write faster. Let’s face it, I work full time as a nurse at night, I sleep during the day, I have two little kids and basically life is life. Writing doesn’t get to be my job (yet). Instead, I can say what I’m going to write is going to be my best because I think anyone who reads and enjoys what I write deserves the best I have to offer. Even if it does take me longer than it takes someone else. See, another positive.

I could make a list of all the books coming out next year that have excellent reviews that I definitely should read and buy them and let them stack up on my bookshelf (or in my kindle, as the case may be)…or, I could go to the bookstore now and then and spend an hour or two browsing the titles and finding a book I know I’m going to enjoy and read because it’s what I want to read.

Anyway, my examples are probably long enough already, my point is, this New Years, think about what’s going to make you happy this year. If you really are going to make resolutions and intend to really stick with them, make them realistic. Are you really going to lose fifty pounds by June by doing the colon cleanse once a week to look like skin and bones in that bikini for your vacation? Maybe not…but you could be a wee bit healthier and maybe lose a good few pounds in the process and what’s so bad with that goal? Am I going to finish The Order of the Elements book 2 by the end of February? Probably not (and for the record, I know my writing speed well enough that that was never a goal…LOL). But I know what I’ll have written by then I’ll be pretty darn happy with.

How about we make a New Years Revolution to revamp New Years Resolutions. Let’s make it about what’s going to make your life brighter, happier…enjoyable…not all the things we think are wrong with us that need fixing. I may not have learned a lot in my short little life, but I have learned one thing, happiness is what you make it, it doesn’t come in a box and one day POW…you’re life is suddenly changed and all better. Find happiness in the everyday moments and then every day…life gets a little better. Sure, you’re still going to have bad days where you want to kill the world, but when you can smile and not sweat the small stuff, those days are fewer and more far between.

Happy New Year everyone, I wish you all the best and brightest of years. Feel free to post your New Years Resolutions in the comments section below, I’d love to hear them. On New Years day, I’ll post mine.

I’m posting this a few hours early as I have to work tomorrow and may not be able to post til late.

Meet an Author Monday…bloggy hoppity time….hip hip hop. I’ll post the linky to the blog hop tomorrow.

Xoxo Jess

No, I'm not talking about dreams for your future like living in a mansion with a world famous cook making all your meals and a maid service that people would kill for...although all that would be awesome.

I mean like...actual dreams. I think most of the time people don't think a lot about dreams, I know a lot of the times we dream and don't even remember it. I dream just about every time I close my eyes and I think I remember most of them. Being of course that I have to analyze everything, if I cannot figure out what in the world my brain was thinking when it gives me some crazy dream...it drives me nuts. Because I dream about everything.

I have dreams about going hunting with Sam and Dean Winchester. I have dreams about my ex-boyfriend from six years ago. I have dreams about work and the people I work with (Umm...sorry people at work. Not in a creepy way, you just make appearances in my dreams sometimes. Sorry.). I have dreams about fighting and falling and stuff that doesn't even make sense, like homicidal cats. The other night I had the weirdest dream that my mom's cat turned psycho and murdered my whole family. I inherited the house but I couldn't go over there because the cat was crazy and I was afraid I'd made it mad. You see what I'm saying here? I dream about the most random, crazy things that my head just throws together and I wonder...HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN??

I even have the same dreams over and over and over again. I used to have a dream as a kid that I was riding in the cab of my Dad's Ranchero pickup through the desert just bouncing along having fun and suddenly I find myself in the bed of the truck and a huge snake is trying to eat me. I yelled for my dad's help but the radio was too loud and he never heard me. I still have that exact same dream all the time. And I'm still the same age in it too...I just don't get it. How is it I have the same exact dream over and over again and it never changes? Ugh, frustration.

I know the human brain is complex and no matter how much research is done we'll never truly know exactly how it works. Still, this will not stop me from trying to figure out what's going on that my head gives me such crazy things to dream about. All things considered I live a pretty run of the mill, boring life. Maybe my brain is trying to make up for it somehow while I'm sleeping.

I try to write them down if I can remember to before details get too fuzzy.

So, I challenge you, think about your dreams. I know I think I've actually learned a few things about myself that I didn't know just by thinking over things I was dreaming about and how I felt in the dream itself. Write them down, you never know when one could inspire you or help you learn something new. Sometimes your best imagination is the one you only have access to when you're sleeping.

It's Meet an Author Monday...join the blog hop...Hippity hop!

Start here: http://theorderoftheelements.blogspot...

(So, I wrote this yesterday on my blog and forgot to post it here. My bad. :D )

Since the release of Breaking Point I've had one question that has been asked of me many, many times. Okay, make that two questions. First being: where can I get it and what's it about? Which I'm happy to direct people to my website: www.theorderoftheelements.com for.

The second question...

How's it doing??

Now, I guess this is a question I should have been expecting when I published a book. I mean names like J.K. Rowlings and Stephenie Meyer didn't get to be common names because they sold a book or two...they sold millions.

Granted, I'd love to be able to make writing my full time job (No, really, I mean...LOVE IT) if it brought in the financial means by which I could quit my job and still make the money I need to pay bills and such because I am responsible for little bodies that need food and shelter. Although, that being said, who knows if I could actually completely quit my job as I do like getting out to be among people as well, and as of the moment, I'm loving my job as a ER nurse. Back to my point though...

Yes, I'd love to make a living as a writer. But right now, I'm not expecting to. I wrote a book and it got published and that's pretty cool and I'm pretty excited about it. Everyone put a ton of work into it and it looks great and everyone who's read it so far has loved it and that makes me super happy. I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to promote my book for a couple months before it's release as it hit a few snags and I was slow in getting them fixed and time ran out and all that so I'm kind of putting it out there as much as I can now that it has been published and I think..??.. it's going well??

Here's the truth...I don't know. I have no idea how well it's going, I can say I've got 150 adds on goodreads and 200 followers on twitter and it's growing everyday and I have a few really good reviews and most of my family has bought a copy and I've signed a few copies and so on and so forth. But, I don't know how many copies have been sold. I could ask, I suppose...but then I feel awkward, like it looks like I'm expecting for it to have sold millions of copies by now or something. What counts as it's doing good or it's doing bad anyway?

And on that note, I'm not saying...Hey, people, don't ask me!! I'm just saying, I honestly don't know.

My other problem is...I suck at promoting it. Seriously. I don't really know what I'm doing or how to go about it so how do I keep any kind of word going out about it? *sighs* It's actually kind of a frustrating battle, there are ideas I have, I suppose, but not the time or financial means to make it happen. You gotta have a little money to make a little money, yeah? I'm also really bad at saying...hey, look here at what I did! You should buy it!!

Now, let's set the record straight, I looooooveeeee to have fun and be with people and all of that...so long as attention isn't directed at me. I'm more of a blend into the background and watch what everyone else is doing type of girl. Rarely do people really know what all is going on with me behind the curtain because I just don't talk about myself...no matter how much I love to talk. Which basically means I run my mouth a lot without having anything to say. HAHA!

My last note for today... How's book 2 coming? Well, here's the problem, I have a decent amount done, the writing is going well, the story is developing the way I want to and everything is peachy. But...I'm tired. A lot. I work 12 hour nights and try to catch some sleep during the day. I pick up extra shifts because our economy sucks and everyone needs a little extra cash which makes me more tired and I have two kids that do not know the how to be any quieter than a mosh pit or move any slower than cheetahs so it's usually sounds like a crowd chasing stampeding bulls at my house when the kids are awake...which is tiring too. So, between working and sleep and kids...I don't have a lot of time to write or the mental processes functioning at the right times to formulate a story. Even when I'm exhausted, I still have a ridiculous problem with insomnia.

I also have this bad ADD thing going on where I write and/or read several different things at once. So at any given time, I could be writing five different stories and reading four different books which means EVERYTHING moves slowly. Which, for the record, is the story of my life. But the good news is, I do have a sort of goal in mind for having the next book done, which I guess is a good thing...if I can make it, that is.

So, I've written all this to basically say....I don't really know much, I just make it up as I go. :)

I'll have another post for tomorrow for Meet an Author Monday...oh and I have an interview with Artists on Demand radio tomorrow at 8:30 EST if anyone is interested in listening in. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artistso...

Today is also my little brother's birthday...he's old enough to drive now. Scary thought. Happy birthday, kid!

xoxox Jess

Greek Mythology, Roman Mythology, Celtic Mythology...

Many cultures have their own versions of mythology. What's the point of this statement? I LOVE it. Actually, to be quite specific, I'm VERY fond of Greek Mythology. I've been reading about it for as far back as I can remember and it's always just fascinated me.

In fact, though my own novel is not strictly based on mythology, later along in the story you may see a lot of mythology referenced in it.

I've also been reading a lot of Rick Riordan recently. I've read his Percy Jackson series before and loved it and I find myself re-reading it over and over again due to the unique way in which he brings all my favorite stories of mythology together in his unique YA book series. I've also read his new series, the Kane Chronicles which is based more in Egyptian mythology which I'm not at all familiar with but it's something I'm enjoying learning more about and I'm nerdily finding myself having FUN doing research on it.

Recently I started reading his new Camp Half-Blood series that starts with the book "The Lost Hero" and it's integrating the Roman mythology, which while very similar to Greek has it's big differences as well and I'm simply loving how he pulls it all together. I can't imagine a more imaginatively put together book series involving so closely the original characters of Mythology that I'm familiar with and love while at the same time he's updated it and made the gods modern which takes some serious skill to pull all that off in one story.

If you haven't checked out his series or if you have any Mythology interest at all, I encourage you to read his. It may be YA but I find the humor in the books refreshing and the characters are very real and connectible and you can't help but just be engrossed in the story.

Sherrilyn Kenyon is another one that bases a large part of her writing of the Dark-Hunter series on Mythology and I can't get enough of her books. Good thing she's not done writing them.

I'm also a huge fan of the writings of Homer and other Greek writers of the very, very long ago past. True, their writing is at times a struggle to read and understand and follow but I love the challenge and love reading about the stories in their original form, it's a challenge and hey, I never back down from one.

The gods and goddesses of mythology are such an intricate work of art and I can't help but be fascinated by them. One of my favorite Disney movies to this day is still Hercules. Yes, I push it on my kids to watch often just so I can watch it. Troy is another one of my all time favorite movies (and not just because Brad Pitt is gorgeous, which is most certainly true) and even Pirates of the Caribbean with it's association with Calypso(not to mention my illegal love of all things Johnny Depp). I even love the cheesy, horrible effects of the old, old movies about the Greek Mythology stories. Yeah, I'm a geek.

I also have tattoo's on both my wrists with Greek writing on them.

So, here's my point...go read some Greek Mythology!! It's amazing...and also, if you have any books based on or including Greek Mythology in them...please, rec away to me, I'd love to read them.

And guess what else...it's meet an author Monday...go blog hopping! You can start with mine on blogger...

theorderoftheelements.blogspot.com