Young Adult Mag: WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO START WRITING?
Jennifer Armentrout: I started writing when I was knee high to a grasshopper. I used to write really bad poems on my bedroom walls with a permanent marker.
Luckily my parents discovered paint primer and I gave up on the poems.
The very first novel I wrote was in between middle and high school, which I wrote by longhand during algebra class. And that is why I suck at math.
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YA: TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR LATEST WORK.
JA: Right now I am working on two adult novels under the name J. Lynn, and a steady stream of edits. This summer is panning out to be mostly an edit summer. I’m also gearing up for the release of Onyx, due out August 14th. Onyx is the second book in the Lux Series, which continues the stories of Daemon and Katy and deals with the consequences that arise after the close of Book One in the Lux Series, Obsidian. The new book delves more into the world of the Luxen and the DOD. I do believe the print version will include two scenes from Daemon’s POV.
YA: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE QUALITIES IN YOUR LATEST WORK THAT SET IT/YOU APART FROM WHAT’S CURRENTLY OUR THERE ON THE MARKET?
JA: That’s such a hard question to answer because I think it’s hard to see your own work in comparison to what’s out there, but from what I gather from readers, they seem to really like the snark and humor that are always evident in my characters. No matter what kind of genre I’m writing, I like humor, even if the material is dealing with darker elements. And I’ve also learned that when people say “Sexy YA” my name usually gets thrown in. =)
YA: WHAT ATTRACTS YOU TO THE YOUNG ADULT GENRE SPECIFICALLY?
JA: The passion! When writing YA, you get to go through all those strong emotions that teenagers feel and all those firsts: first love, first heartbreak, first loss, and so on. Even if you’re writing about Greek gods or aliens, you get to take the characters through a supernatural world while they’re dealing with what it’s like to be a teenager.
YA: WHO WOULD YOU COUNT AMONG YOUR STRONGEST INFLUENCES FOR YOUR LATEST WORK, AND WHY?
JA: Well, for the Lux series, the strongest influence is actually book bloggers. There’s a big blogging theme throughout the series and their love for books is what created the character Katy. I’ve also always been influenced by what I call the old school YA writers: LJ Smith, Ritchie Cusick, RL Stine, and so on.
YA: WHO OR WHAT DO YOU HOPE NOT TO BE COMPARED TO?
JA: Twilight and The Hunger Games? Ha. Ha. Just kidding. It just seems like a lot of books are compared to those if they have one similar trope, or those novels are mentioned in the blurbs. But both are great series, so who’d be upset with that comparison?
YA: DO YOU HAVE PURSUITS OUTSIDE OF YOUNG ADULT FICTION?
JA: I write adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn, from category romance to paranormal romance and urban fantasy.
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