# 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia.

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true.

Well, mostly. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

She is the author of the Covenant Series (Spencer Hill Press), the Lux Series (Entangled Teen), Don’t Look Back (Disney/Hyperion) and a yet untitled novel (Disney/Hyperion), and new YA paranormal series with Harlequin Teen.

Jennifer also writes New Adult and Adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn. The Gamble Brothers Series (Tempting the Best Man/Tempting the Player) and Wait for You. Under her pen name, she is published with Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

 

City or Country?
Somewhere in between.

The Host or The Mortal Instruments?
I probably won’t end up seeing either at the theater, but more interested in TMI.

Pepsi or Coke?
Pepsi

Nashville or The Vampire Diaries?
Vampire Diaries

Ian Somerhalder or Matt Bomer?

Is that a serious question? Ian.

Romance or Paranormal?
Paranormal Romance

Vampires or Werewolves?
Vamps

Twilight or The Hunger Games?
Uh… I haven’t read The Hunger Games. Gasp. I know.

Sweet or Savory?
Saucy

Sarah Billington is an Australian writer and editor who likes to write stories with love, laughs, suspense and zombies. Sometimes all in the same story. Her favouritest thing to write about are those horrendously awkward moments that come with being a teenager. Or a human being. Sarah was extremely accident-prone and klutzy as a kid and teen, so her cup runneth over with experiences of horrendously awkward moments to draw from in her writing. Thankfully, she has grown out of her klutziness. Mostly.

 

She loves a variety of random things, which include dogs, swing dancing, ice hockey, fly ball, weekend markets and she is a bit obsessive about paranormal investigation shows and channel E!.

 

Stalk the Author:

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Sweet or savory? Sweet!

The Gilmore Girls or Parenthood? Gilmore Girls

Cats or Dogs? Dogs. Definitely. I’m such a dog lover, you have no idea.

Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy? Harry

Tacos or Burritos? Burritos

 

Can you tell use about your upcoming book, Over It?

Sure can! It’s summer and Poppy’s royalties for penning the surprise hit song The Kiss Off are in. She knows exactly what she’s going to do with it, too: Academy of Lies are playing at Bay Fest so she’s taking her best girl friends camping at the beach-side music festival to make some amazing memories.

Well. Um. She makes some memories, anyway.

 

What was your favorite scene to write in Over It?

There is a scene in which Poppy and her friends go swimming at the beach, and just as everyone is staring at Poppy, she gets dunked by a wave and her bikini top is sent to the shore without her. It’s embarrassing and typically Poppy. I think the scene came out really well.

 

I have to say, the covers for your books are gorgeous! How much control did you have over them?

Thank you! I’m really happy with them and am proud of how they turned out. I actually had COMPLETE control over their design. I made them myself!

 

You’ve written quite a few books. How do you make that transition from ending one book to starting another?

Most of my published titles are short stories, some of which I wrote years ago and some of which I wrote for specific purposes. When I have a clear ending in mind it’s easy to go from one to the next.

With novels it can be a bit harder, as I work on them for so long that it can be hard to say goodbye to characters and move on. And sometimes the opposite can happen and I feel the need to take a breather from one world and do something completely different. Right now I have a new, completely different book idea in a different genre that I’m developing, but I still have work to do on Over It and there will be a third book in The Kiss Off series, plus I’m really close to finishing the first draft of a completely OTHER book that I’d like to release this year as well. It’s a juggling act.

 

Do you ever experience writers block? How do you work around that?

A couple of years ago I was very much of the “writer’s block doesn’t exist” frame of mind, but now…

Actually, no. I’m going to rephrase that. I still have ideas and projects to work on. I have lots of them, but at this time I have other, higher, priorities which has stopped me from writing. And once you stop it can be really difficult to get started again. But I will when things calm down. And how to get around it? I think it’s going to be a case of butt in chair, teamed with scheduling time for writing, starting small and not expecting too much from myself to begin with. And using Write or Die. Write or Die works every time.

 

What has been the best compliment you’ve received, so far?

That they’ve laughed out loud every other page, that they’ve read my books not once or twice but multiple times, that they can relate to the characters, that they wish they were friends with Poppy… people say some really lovely things. I’m especially proud of making people laugh out loud when reading. It’s tough to do so I think it’s quite an accomplishment. I embarrassed someone on her daily commute because she was laughing so much in public that she had to stop reading. I love that.

 

What advice do you have to aspiring authors?

Keep writing. Write what you want to read. Don’t publish too soon - you can only debut once, so make sure your debut is your best work, it’s what readers are going to remember you for. And don’t get too caught up in the administration and marketing side of the business - if you’re not careful, it can take up all your time so that you don’t have time to write your next book!

 

As an Indie author, what have been your personal struggles throughout your writing career?

The last question really leads into my answer here: I kind of hate all the administration involved and tend to put it off a lot. Like updating titles on distributors (e.g. Amazon) and loading my books onto new distribution venues. I have a lot of titles so it takes a lot of time. Also, marketing and distribution in general. It would be great to have someone else who could handle turning my ebooks into paperbacks and audio books and getting into schools and libraries and book shops. It’s all complicated and mundane, and takes away from writing time and the joy of the job, but it’s necessary.

I also have trouble with making decisions at plot forks. Which direction should I take in the book? How do I know this is the more interesting direction? Have I done the right thing? I second guess myself a lot, but I guess that’s just a part of my process.

 

What is currently in your TBR pile?

So many books, OMG. I just finished These Broken Stars by Meagan Spooner and Amie Kaufman. It was fab. Those trixy ladies do this THING in the book that will shock you. You’ll know it when you see it. I’m also in the middle of reading Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout and Ashfall by Mike Mullin and I’m really excited to start Demons of the Rich and Famous by Tawny Stokes. Sounds like a really clever premise. I start multiple books at the same time which is a habit I want to break (but I’m just too impatient - there are so many amazing sounding books!) and I really want to finish these before starting the next one.

 

THE KISS OFF DESCRIPTION

 

When sixteen year old Poppy Douglas writes a song about her ex-boyfriend Cam and ex-friend Nikki, she has no idea that her heartbreak is about to go global.

 

A local band picks up her song from Youtube and soon she’s along for the ride with her own fanbase as they blow up on the local club scene and hit the international charts. Though it turns out leaving Cam behind isn’t as easy as she had hoped.

 

Tangled in a web of unfinished homework, ill-considered sexting and a new lead-singer boyfriend, Poppy has a choice to make between the ex that inspired it all and the rock God whose poster lines the inside of half the lockers at school. But as she struggles to keep her emotional dirty laundry private, she learns that the truth can be hard to find when your life is in the headlines.

 

Add The Kiss Off to your TBR list on Goodreads!

 

OVER IT (THE KISS OFF 2) DESCRIPTION:

 

Warning: Sexual References, occasional coarse language.
Teen Youtube song writing sensation Poppy Douglas’s lead singer boyfriend Ty’s been criss-crossing the country and living it up on tour for months while Poppy has been stuck in the boring suburbs, finishing out the school year.
But it’s Summer now, and the best thing just happened: Poppy’s royalties for writing the hit song The Kiss Off just came in. She’s minted, and she knows just what she’s going to blow it on.
Ty’s band Academy of Lies are headlining a summer music festival, and Poppy is taking her girlfriends along for the best weekend of their lives. It’s all organized: the weekend is going to be full of camping under the stars, backstage passes, VIP rooms and partying like rock stars, not to mention some long awaited one-on-one time with America’s favorite front man.
Except, when someone drops out of the trip and Poppy takes the opportunity to mend a broken friendship, it doesn’t quite go according to plan. And when she meets her boyfriend’s BFF from another band, the paparazzi form their own totally wrong conclusions. There’s also the matter of Ty’s ‘super fan’ stalker, but the less said about her the better.
The biggest test of all comes in the form of an opportunity too good to pass up. But will insecurities and jealousy stand in Poppy’s way? Can Poppy and Ty’s relationship even survive it?
Life is about to get much more complicated for Poppy Douglas, but what can you expect when your boyfriend is a rock star?

THE KISS OFF 2 is coming 2013.

 

Add The Over It (The Kiss Off 2) to your TBR list on Goodreads!

 

Purchase the Books:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Itunes

Book Depository – The Kiss Off paperback only

Fishpond – The Kiss Off paperback only

# 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia.

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true.

Well, mostly. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

She is the author of the Covenant Series (Spencer Hill Press), the Lux Series (Entangled Teen), Don’t Look Back (Disney/Hyperion) and a yet untitled novel (Disney/Hyperion), and new YA paranormal series with Harlequin Teen.

Jennifer also writes New Adult and Adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn. The Gamble Brothers Series (Tempting the Best Man/Tempting the Player) and Wait for You. Under her pen name, she is published with Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

 

Fans of the Lux series are dying to get their hands on the newest book, ORIGIN. What can we expect from it?
Origin is a game changer in the series. There will be several things that I don’t think the readers will see coming. There are new
characters and old ones that you’ll be saying goodbye to.

I have to ask. Why aliens?
I don’t think aliens are as over exposed as some other creatures and you really have no limits or preconceived notions of what an alien is.
So you get to really create something unique.

Both the Lux and Covenant series are going to be wrapping up soon. Do you have another YA series lined up?
Yikes. Wrapping up a series is so scary and I do have two them ending soon. I do have another YA series sitting in the wings, plus a few
standalone novels like Don’t Look Back which releases from Disney/Hyperion in Spring of 2014.

In the Lux series, Katy is a book blogger. You included everything from her writing Waiting on Wednesday posts to freaking out when new books arrived in her mailbox. How fun was it to do that and what encouraged you to include that?
It was a lot of fun doing it. I have a very close relationship with several book bloggers so I was able to pick up on a lot of what they
do and how they feel. And I have book bloggers to thank for any success that I have had, so that was encouragement enough to recognize
them by creating a character like them.

To put it nicely, Daemon was known as a bit of a sarcastic jerk. Was there any difficulty in creating his character? I’m assuming there’s a bit of difficulty in writing about the opposite gender, but if there was, I didn’t notice.
Actually, writing the male character comes easier to me than it does with the female character and I had a lot of fun writing Daemon, because he is such a jerk and says what most people are thinking. The hardest part is walking that fine line between redeemable jerk behavior and not so redeemable.

Did you have any inspiration for any of your characters or is it all just from brainstorming?
Just brainstorming.

You have another book coming out called OBSESSION. We know that it takes place in the same world as Daemon and Katy, but it is an adult novel. Are we going to see any familiar characters in it?
Yes you will!

Opal ended with a bit of a surprising twist that upset almost everyone. Please tell us that this is going to be fixed very soon in the next book?
You’ll just have to read Origin to find out. =D

Has there been any talk about turning any of your books into television series or movies?

Yes. There has been interest, but it is up to the people who make shows and movies to want to do so, but there has been interest.

When you actually get some downtime to read, what are you planning to read next?
Down time? What is that? I can’t wait to read the new Black Dagger Brotherhood book coming out soon.