Jennifer Lane Books Blog

In honor of young adults everywhere (including those adults who are young at heart), Z is for ZOMG! My first A to Z Challenge has come to an end, with the last day of April and the last letter of the alphabet. Overall I'm glad I participated. I hope this exercise will help me blog more frequently--if I can blog every day, surely I can blog twice a week. My pub sister Nicki Elson is the one who encouraged me to give the Challenge a try, and it's great she introduced me to this universe. The best part of the challenge was meeting new bloggers! Here are some of the noteworthy writers and bloggers I came across: * Roland Yeomans at Writing in the Crosshairs blog : His dead and undead characters in New Orleans have been interesting to follow! * Kyra Lennon at Write Here Write Now blog : She just finished her sports romance (I love this genre) and it was great to hear from the various characters on a professional soccer team * Heather Gardner at The Waiting is the Har...

In the midst of writing adult romantic suspense books (The Con duct Series), I decided to publish a Young Adult novel I'd written back in 2007: Streamline . It's been interesting to cross genres so far, and I have a feeling I'm in for quite an education with the upcoming blog tour for Streamline on May 7-12. About 40 YA bloggers will be reviewing my baby, eek! This story isn't your typical YA, for several reasons: 1) It's 129,000 words, when most YA's are about 80,000. (It started over 200K words(!), so my editor and I have done a LOT of chopping.) 2) It features many points of view beyond the hero (Leo) and heroine (Audrey), including parents, siblings, and coaches. 3) It's a murder mystery that's for older teens and adults due to mature themes of abuse, violence, and sexual situations. 4) There's no love triangle. Because of these anomalies, I'm nervous about the reception to the novel by passionate bloggers. I hope there's ...

Are you a fan of erotica? I'm a prude at heart, and I used to blush when reading any sex scene. But when I started reading and writing fan fiction, my reaction changed. Now I enjoy a well-written sex scene, and I've read quite a few stories with BDSM, male-male romance, and kink . . . nothing fazes me anymore. I do prefer more plot than sex in romance novels, but a well-crafted intimate scene that advances plot and characterization is wonderful. At my book club last night (see the Book Club tab above to learn more about these lovely ladies) we not only discussed our chosen read for the month (see my review of the hilarious Domestic Violets HERE ), but also the erotica Dom-sub sensation Fifty Shades of Grey . I still haven't read Fifty but I must see what it's all about soon. My friend Sally wasn't impressed by the writing but there's definitely something in there that keeps you reading. Sally shared one theory about our attraction to books like Twilight...

Have you heard of actor Wentworth Miller? He's my favorite actor, and an inspiration for my writing. I loved him in the TV show Prison Break . He played the lead character Michael Scofield with intelligence, passion, suaveness, and just the right amount of vulnerability. I think he is so sexy! Who's your favorite actor or actress? How have they inspired you? And now it's time for the Author Blog Bounce! Check out instructions HERE .

A character that fascinates me is the vixen . I'm referring to the slang definition of vixen--"a sexually provocative female"-- not "a woman regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, or malicious". My favorite TV vixen is Samantha Jones from Sex and the City . Do you remember the melon episode? Kim Cattrall plays her brilliantly. She cracks me up. Samantha is coy, intelligent, sexually adventurous, and disdainful of monogamy. She doesn't want to marry and she sure as hell doesn't want children. My mother, who is in her seventies, claims that women like Samantha Jones don't really exist...that women aren't really sexual aggressors. I have to admit I don't have any friends like Samantha, but I believe there are women out there who do crave sexin' it up with multiple partners. What do YOU think? **Blogger help!** The past two scheduled posts have not published. Is that happening to anyone else? Any suggestions for how to fix i...

Here's my review of my favorite read of 2011: What a perfect title to describe the real-life hero of this novel, Louie Zamperini: UNBROKEN. One tip for writers to evoke emotion in their stories is to put their characters through hell, and I've never witnessed such emotional torture of a character. I was on the verge of tears for most of the book and at one point sobbed, reading what Louie suffered. What makes this story even more emotionally compelling is that Louie isn't a fictional character. He's a real Olympic runner, Air Force veteran, and inspirational speaker, now age 94. Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit , did exhaustive research for this novel and I'm proud to say I attended the same liberal arts college as she did (Kenyon College). I loved learning about the early days of competitive running . . . the firm belief that no human could break the 4:00 mile barrier . . . archaic ideas that training hills would make a runner slower . . ...

I had the pleasure of watching my favorite movie in 3D yesterday: TITANIC. What an incredible love story! The romance has all the elements I find intriguing: a strong hero and heroine, sacrifice, drama and humor, star-crossed lovers facing all sorts of conflicts including different backgrounds and a meddling third party, but most of all...two people making each other better through their love. And of course I loved Rose guessing Dr. Freud would have something to say about men being obsessed with size, and Mr. Ismay replying, "I haven't heard of this Dr. Freud...is he a passenger?" Hee hee. Have you ever referred to a movie in your writing? I'm about 2/5 done with On Best Behavior , the third novel in The Con duct Series (adult romantic suspense). I just had to mention Titanic leading up to a love scene between my hero and heroine, Grant and Sophie. Here's an excerpt: Grant locked the door behind him and strolled into the darkened apartment. He hesitat...