Welcome to our Writers Wednesday Spotlight! Each week we will be highlighting a different geeky writer we think you might like to check out. For this week’s spotlight, we are excited to introduce you to J.D. Blackrose!
Her book “Runaway: A New Templar Knights Novella (Monster Hunter Mom Book 2) ” was released on February 6, 2018 from Falstaff Books!
You can purchase “Runaway: A New Templar Knights Novella (Monster Hunter Mom Book 2)” here.
About J.D. Blackrose
(in her own words)
When not writing, Blackrose lives with three children, a cranky orange cat, her husband, and a full-time job in Corporate Communications. She’s fearful that so-called normal people will discover exactly how often she thinks about wicked fairies, nasty wizards, homicidal elevators, and the odd murder, even when she is supposed to be having coffee with a friend or cheering her daughter on during a soccer game. As a survival tactic, she has mastered the art of looking interested.
About “Runaway”…
Most ordinary parents can chaperone a field trip without monsters attacking the museum.
There’s nothing ordinary about Jess Friedman.
Jess is one of the New Templar Knights, a secret band of Monster Hunters working with (and sometimes adjacent to) the Catholic Church to protect the world from magical and supernatural threats. Perfectly normal hobby for a nice Jewish mother of three, right?
Between Japanese fox spirits and disapproving trophy wives, Jess’s first outing as a chaperone is fast reminding her why she doesn’t go on field trips. Then there’s the whole thing with the egg, and the police, and then things start to get weird.
From the author of The Soul Wars comes the second installment in the hilarious, raucous, often explosive Monster Hunter Mom series, set in the world of Bubba the Monster Hunter, Mason Dixon, and Spells, Salt, & Steel.
5 Questions with . . . J.D. Blackrose
- When did you first realize you were interested in becoming an author? What drives you to write?I wrote my first story, Jack the Horse, when I was seven and my father told me it was good. Thank goodness he liked it or I wouldn’t be writing today. Truly, when I look back at it, it was a genius piece of micro-fiction. It’s five lines and tells a whole story.I continued writing all through school and college and my writing teacher at my university said, “You are a born writer.” How’s that for a compliment? So, ignoring the Universe, I went to a highly academic, hoity-toity graduate school, and got a Masters Degree in Communications, and every ounce of creativity was beaten out of me, and became the place where I mastered the art of passive voice and long, complicated sentences.After that, longer story longer, I got married, raised three kids, and worked in corporate communications for more than two decades. Until the day I watched my son sit at the kitchen table and apply for colleges. That was a huge wake-up call that I’d better do something for me because the children were going to leave me behind.I decided to start writing again and, completely out of the blue, decided to attend DragonCon by myself. Luckily, some wonderful people popped into my life and that was how I started writing seriously. Falstaff gave me my first real break, not counting a couple of short stories, and published my first novella, Souls Collide, which is the first book in the Soul Wars series.
- How would you describe your style or genre of writing to a potential fan?
I write humorous fantasy, mostly, although I also write straight fantasy, contemporary romance and paranormal romance, but everything has humor worked in. I love making people laugh using juxtaposition of language and unexpected pairings of characters or scenes. Monster Hunter Mom is full of tidbits like that. I conceived of Jess Friedman, Jewish suburban mom of three who kills monsters for the Vatican, in that mode of thinking. Luckily, John Hartness let me play in his Bubba the Monster Hunter sandbox, and Jess became Cleveland’s Knight Templar. - What are you currently working on? What are you working on next?
I’m working on a short story and a novel, and I have no idea where either of them are going to go. The novel is meant to be the first in a series so I guess I need to finish it up and get going on novel #2. - What existing book do you wish you had written and why?
I wish I had written Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It’s just beautiful. A tiny piece of genius in a world swimming in useless words.
From a fantasy side, I adore Seanan Mcguire’s Every Heart a Doorway. It’s so deep that you have to read it several times to get all the nuances. When I interviewed her though, she said that’s it’s just an adventure story. I beg to differ. It’s about teen self-identity and being different. It’s amazing. - What is one piece of advice you would give to a budding writer?
My single best piece of advice is to recognize that you will not be good at first. You might not even be adequate, but no one ever is. There is no way to do this work other than to do the work. It’s a very simple mantra, but it is hard to do because our egos get in the way all the time.
I did a whole post on my blog about this entitled The Beginner’s Guide to Writing the Beginning. I followed it with the Beginner’s Guide to Writing the Middle. I haven’t yet written the Beginner’s Guide to Writing the End, so that tells you something right there.
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