Kelly Jensen's Blog, page 13

Brian’s Story

Brian’s story began two and a half years ago when I realized I’d been naming all the cheating exes of my characters “Brian.”

[image error]

I didn’t know then that Building Forever would become a series. I simply wanted to tell Charlie’s story. But Simon came equipped with a best friend and a dastardly ex, so when one of my first round readers asked for Frank’s story, I began to wonder if Brian might have a story too.

Obviously, he did. Everyone has a story tucked back there somewhere. I wasn’t sure I coul...

New Release: Renewing Forever

It’s release day for Renewing Forever! This book is for everyone who ever wondered about the one who got away. In Renewing Forever, I combined two of my favourite tropes: friends to lovers and second chances.

Frank and Tom were best friends and each other’s first love. Maybe each other’s only love. But the night Frank finally found the courage to kiss Tom, everything went wrong.

Now, thirty years later, they have the chance to set everything right.

This story broke my heart a few times, but t...

Thinking About Nothing

Sometimes there is so much stuff in my head—the two TV shows I keep up with, the three books I’m usually reading, the plots of my own books, marketing strategies, ideas for new stories, the classes I teach, when we’re going to move all the boxes of books I’ve packed for the library—and I really just want to think about nothing for a while.

I have tried meditation. The nearest success I had was about twenty-five years ago, during a yoga class. After leading us through a series of postures desi...

Frank’s Story

I have a Big Book of Ideas. My “book” is actually scattered across several notebooks and my ideas are sandwiched between outline sketches, snippets of dialogue, pages of brainstorming for plot points, and journal entries. There is no order to any of it—but I always know which book to grab when I’m looking for my notes about a specific idea.

Frank and Tom’s story happened in two separate notebooks. I had an idea for a story about an abandoned resort and the guy who was living in one of the bro...

New Release: Building Forever

It’s release day for Building Forever! I’m terrifically excited about this release because, while I love all my books, this one is special. I blogged about the long road to publication last week, so today I’m just going to raise a glass and say, “I sincerely hope you enjoy this one.”

 

About the Book

[image error]Charlie King is doing fine. Sure, he’s a widower raising a teenage daughter who just got her first boyfriend, his book series isn’t writing itself, and he has a crush on his new neighbor — the gu...

Publishing is a Journey

Last month I promised my newsletter subscribers a story. Here it is…

Publishing is a journey that requires a lot of patience. Books have to be written and revised, submitted, accepted (hopefully), revised again, edited to within an inch of their precious lives, and then, finally, made available for purchase. For me, on average, eight to eighteen months can pass between typing “The End” and seeing my book in readers’ hands.

Then there are the books that take a more circuitous route to publicat...

What I’ve Been Reading

September 2018 Edition.

With a long summer of revisions and edits behind me, I’m looking forward to reading something other than my own work! I did manage to read a few good books over the past few months, though. Here are the best of them:

 

[image error]The Dark Defiles (A Land Fit for Heroes, #3), by Richard K. Morgan

I tried to read The Steel Remains, the first book in this series, several years ago and put it aside after only two or three chapters. I can’t remember why, but the usual reason for putti...

Wrapping the Kenways and Completing the Initiates

I had actually thought both Unity and Syndicate were a part of the Kenway saga. The names of Edward and Haytham pop up often enough for them to feel like they are. But apparently they’re their own thing, which doesn’t really affect this post all that much except making naming it more complicated.

I’m talking about the endlessly fascinating Assassin’s Creed series, by the way. I’m behind in posting my thoughts on Rogue, Unity and Syndicate.

[image error]We’ll start with the game I finished playing just las...

The Cheez-It Book

If you follow me on social media you probably already know a little bit about the Cheez-It book. Standing in the kitchen one day, stuffing my face with Cheez-Its, I was struck by the idea that having a mouthful of Cheez-Its (and I mean full, with crumbs spilling everywhere) would be a fun and awkward way to meet the love of your life. Or maybe just really awkward.

Packing for My Last Holiday

There are times when I’d welcome a good apocalypse. By good, I mean one where we don’t necessarily die right away—not all of us, anyway. The world isn’t at war, and a plague isn’t following neat little flight paths across the globe. Your neighbors aren’t munching their way toward the end of the cul-de-sac. Let’s say all the lights went out (a popular one), or all the annoying people in the world suddenly disappeared. Poof! Either way, I’m at home, doing okay, and suddenly I have time to read...