Welcome to the Saturday Spotlight, a weekly feature that shines the light on Indie and Debut authors. This week I have the pleasure introducing readers to:
JENA LEIGH
~Author of Revival~
Endless Possibilities
By Jena Leigh-2013
I’m often asked during interviews where I find inspiration for the stories that I write. The honest truth is that there’s never one single source. Everything in my life serves to inspire my writing. A beautiful sunset, a conversation in line at the grocery store, broken relationships, overheard conversations, music, dreams… When it comes to my writing, all of it is fair game.
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| CC-Simmons |
For Revival, the original spark of inspiration came to me out of the blue one morning when I found it staring back at me from a mug filled with piping hot, caffeinated goodness. Like a lot of creative types, I'm hopelessly addicted to coffee. When I still lived in North Carolina, my apartment was within walking distance of this fantastic coffee shop called Bohemia. They used to serve up their cafe latte's in a giant blue mug with different designs and patterns drawn into the foam on top.
One day the barista drew a wonderful image of a bird in flight... and it looked to my sleepy eyes a little like a phoenix in flames.While I sat there staring appreciatively at the image—and having an internal debate that went something like, "I can't drink this! It's too beautiful!" and "It's not artwork, it's a beverage. Stop staring and just drink it, you weirdo."—I conjured up the mental image of a young girl running through a burning bookstore.
The image was so vivid and full of possibility that I wound up ignoring my coffee completely in favor of writing out a scene that would later become the opening of Chapter 4 in Revival. The themes of resurrection and renewal can be found woven throughout the series, and it all started with that one image. Inspiration in a cup of Joe! (I did get around to drinking the coffee eventually, although it was pretty cold by that point.)
What I'm saying is that, provided you keep your mind open and your imagination on standby, you can find inspiration in almost anything. Once you realize that everything in the world around you has a story to tell, the possibilities become endless. So keep your eyes open—you never know where your observations might take you!
Born and raised in Tampa, Florida, Jena Leigh spent ten years in the mountains of North Carolina before returning home to the lightning capital of North America.
A shameless geek, she loves bad sci-fi movies, Skittles, writing cracktastic e-mails to friends and taking shenanigan-filled road trips to faraway concerts. She has a degree in English from Appalachian State University. Revival is her first novel.
GIVEAWAY
Today Jena is giving away one signed paperback copy of her book Revival. To enter please fill in the copter. Winner will be drawn Jan 26, 2013.
Possessing the uncanny ability to fry a television set from twenty paces can really wreck a girl’s social life.
If you’re looking for proof, just ask sixteen-year-old Alexandra Parker. After catching her boyfriend in the arms of the prettiest girl in school, she made the journey from social elite to social pariah in a haze of electricity and exploding electronics. But finding herself at the bottom of Bay View High’s social hierarchy was nothing compared to the shock of discovering who—and what—she really is.
After being zapped out of a burning bookstore by the mysterious Declan—a hero nearly as handsome as he is infuriating—Alex finds herself under the protection of the powerful Grayson family. It’s through them that she learns the truth: that the world she’s always known is nothing like it appears to be... and that she has far more in common with them than she might want to believe.
Now, on the run from a fire-wielding hit man and a secretive government organization, Alex must navigate a strange and treacherous new world filled with superhuman mutants known as Variants. As she begins to unravel the many secrets of her family’s past, she uncovers the real reason for her parents’ death twelve years earlier—and finds out that the threat to her family, and to everyone she cares about, is still dangerously real.
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Thanks Jena for being on the spotlight today!! To find out more about this author check out her website.
Sounds interesting, would love to read it! Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! If you decide to read REVIVAL, I hope that you enjoy it! :)
DeleteLove hearing about the "little things" that can set an idea for a book in motion!
ReplyDeleteIt's always fun to trace a story back to its origins—you never know what might have inspired it. Sometimes, it can be something that you see every day and never even notice, really... But if you stretch your imagination far enough, almost anything is worth writing about. :)
DeleteThanks for sharing about the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. :)
DeleteHer powers sounds fun to have but also hard to manage :)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely hard to manage! Poor Alex. She's such a mess in the beginning! :)
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