Meet the Author: Jenny Schwartz

JENNY’S TOP WRITING TIP: Believe in yourself. No one else knows the deepest reasons of why you write or your most secret dreams. Protect both. Work with people who behave professionally, and behave professionally yourself. It’s about respect. Publishing is a tough business, but you can survive and flourish, and help others to do the same.

Jenny Schwartz is a hopeful romantic with a degree in Sociology and History — people watching and digging into the past. She lives in Western Australia and is working towards her dream of living by the sea. Jenny writes contemporary romance, paranormal romance and steampunk. Her website is http://authorjennyschwartz.com/

Summer Kiss is Jenny’s latest release. Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XJ2UF9M

AUTHOR INSIGHT

Why do you write? I enjoy it. I love crafting a story, developing the characters and setting them challenges that they resolve. I feel genuinely lucky to have the chance to write stories of hope and love. Storytelling is one of the most ancient arts and it’s how we bind a community together. It is memories and meaning and the energy to build a better world.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer? Communicating in some form. The nice thing about the skills that you pick up as a fiction writer is that they’re transferable; especially now when authors have to be social media savvy professionals.

What was your toughest obstacle to becoming published? Self-confidence. I think the hardest thing initially is to overcome the doubt demons and put your work out there for the world to love or hate. It’s a risk.

What’s the best aspect of your writing life? The fictional characters I meet (they just wander into my mind), and the real life readers, reviewers, editors and fellow authors, all of whom are amazing.

—the worst? Bad reviews. Totally devastating.

What would you do differently if you were starting out now as a writer? I’d listen harder to good advice. People have trod these paths before. Even if self-publishing is changing some things, the mechanics of writing and writing well remain the same. Re-inventing the wheel gains you nothing.

What do you wish you’d been told before you set out to become an author? Find your audience. Know who you’re writing for, how to communicate with them, where they hang out, what promise you’ll make to them, and how you’ll deliver on it.

Or to put it another way, recognise from the beginning that you’re a brand and act accordingly.

What’s the best advice you were ever given?  Be kind to yourself. And this was expanded to – what would you say to someone else going through this stuff? Now, say that to yourself, and listen!

 Summer Kiss

Freedom! For the past 11 years, schoolteacher Tessa Fraser has been raising her much younger brother with the help of their grandmother. But now her brother is 18,headed for college, and Tessa is finally free to indulge her adventurous spirit. Only, Sheriff Caleb Gascoyne has other ideas.

Fishing at midnight, Caleb never thought he’d catch the woman of his dreams, but Tessa is sweet and funny and sparkling with the joys of summer. She’s a world away from his old life when he served his country on secret missions overseas. But she wants freedom, and he’s just settled back into Gascoyne Junction.

Tessa knows Caleb is used to far more sophisticated women than her. She’s spent her whole life in the Texas Hill Country, while he’s travelled the world. Never has she regretted her lack of sophistication so much as when confronted by an honourable, old-fashioned cowboy-sheriff who just won’t be tempted into a midnight kiss.

For fans of first kisses and gorgeous Texas cowboys. Summer Kiss is a short story, a 45- minute read. Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XJ2UF9M