An Interview with Jenna Petersen

Not only is Jenna Petersen a top-notch romance writer, she is also one of the nicest authors I've ever met (by email). Check out our review of Lessons From a Courtesan here. Our review of her latest release, Her Notorious Viscount, is coming soon. And if you're looking for writing advice, I highly recommend visiting the site mentioned in question #9. Thank you so much, Jenna, for stopping by!

1. When did you first start writing? Why?
I started writing in 1996 when I thought it would be “easy” to write a romance during college. It wasn’t. I returned to writing in 1999, though, and started to write full-time. The rest is history!

2. What was your road to publication like?
Bumpy? LOL I wrote a lot of books, I submitted a lot, I stopped counting rejections around 100ish. But I’m glad I went through all that because it toughens you up a bit.

3. Do you having role-model authors for your writing or critique partners?
Not really a role-model for writing itself. I think each author has to find the path for them on their own. I couldn’t write “like” anyone and get it to work. I do have authors whose behavior I respect a great deal. Teresa Medeiros and Jacquie D’Alessandro are both really genuine people and I hope I can be that way, too. As for critique partners, I do trade full, revised books with Kathryn Smith.

4. Do you have any writing habits/rituals?
I try to write at least ten pages five days a week while I’m actively writing a book. That keeps me on schedule which is good. Otherwise, I don’t really have rituals. I don’t listen to music while I write or only eat pears or anything.

5. Have you ever had any encounters with “writer’s block”? If so, how do you cure it?
I don’t really believe in writer’s block. Honestly, I think if I’m stuck I’m either just being lazy and need to push through it or I’ve gone off the track on the story. If I go back and tweak a little, I’ll almost always get “unstuck”. That’s just me, though.

6. What gave you the idea for Lessons From a Courtesan?
I had a very strong image of Justin looking across a room and seeing London’s Most Celebrated Courtesan and realizing it was his wife. Then I just wanted to know why and how they had gotten to that place.

7. Who/what inspires the villains for your novels?
I’m not sure I’ve ever been inspired by a “who”. Although I’ve probably had villains behave in a way I didn’t like to be treated before. LOL but I just try to give them the right motivation so that what they’re doing makes sense to them.

8. A lot of your books are historical romances- what influences your choice of time period?
Actually all my books are historical. And 90% of them are Regency-set. I just like that time
period the most.

9. If you could give aspiring writers any advice, what would it be?
Probably all my best advice is at my site for writers, http://www.passionatepen.com/ The site celebrates its ten-year anniversary this year and we’re having a HUGE celebration, so I hope readers and writers will stop by each month to see what’s new (the site is updated each week).

10. If you could name one song to sum up your past week, what would it be?
Baby Love. We just got back from Tucson where we got to spend a few days with our nephew who turned one this week.