Thursday, December 12, 2013

Jeanne Arnold - How I Became A Writer

I'm very pleased to round out my series on How I Became A Writer by introducing author Jeanne Arnold.

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Up until a few years ago, writing a book was not a factor of my reality. Barring college art history papers on the Baths of Caracalla and Roman Art and Architecture, or a resume, I had not typed a word of nonfiction, plot or anything resembling a chapter since high school. Yet it has recently occurred to me that I’ve always been a writer. I started life with a crayon in my hand. I drew everything that came to mind. I drew stories. I drew characters. I drew scenery and events and themes and emotions. As a first grader, I declared I was going to be a picture book illustrator and imitated all of my favorite book artists. I grew older and became let down by middle grade novels with sparse pen and ink illustrations. I wanted to be the artist, the creative hand who drew on the pages what I imagined in my mind.  In high school and college, my writing emptied out of a paintbrush in watercolor illustrations. Detailed faces and landscapes came out of colored pencils and charcoal. I spent a good portion of my adulthood doing portraits and random freelance design. Until one day my characters demanded voices, conversation and personalities. Now they grace the pages of my stories. 

It was a chilly winter day in 2010 when I first set my laptop on the kitchen table and watched the white backyard become striped with sled tracks and footprints. After a stretch of reminiscing and daydreaming, I began typing the story of how my husband and I met in high school. My tale of a seventeen-year-old girl blindfolded for a psychology experiment, being teased by her secret admirer in the art room, morphed into a young adult novel full of magical realism and teen romance. There was no method to my writing and I found myself pouring the words onto the pages. Something wonderful overcame me and in a handful of weeks I finished my first novel. Within a year I wrote a handful of books and signed with the Belcastro Agency where I began my journey to publication. I’ve penned several young adult novels and there are many waiting for their turn inside me. My upcoming young adult romance STUBBORN is available from Champagne Books on January 6th followed by THE HAUNT OF THIRTEEN CURVES in June. My writing gives me the most creative satisfaction, an outlet, completeness. So for now, the paintbrushes are stashed away and the laptop is my canvas.

Bio:

Jeanne Arnold is an author of young adult romance. At a young age she found her creative outlet in art, and for years her fictional characters came to life in drawings and paintings, until they demanded a voice. Now they grace the pages of her stories. Jeanne shares her time with her fictional teenage counterparts and her human family in Central New York.


STUBBORN blurb:

With a train ticket, a bad attitude, and an unfortunate scribbling of obscenities across her forehead, seventeen-year-old Avery Ross is tossed out of the frying pan and into the fire when she’s sent from New York to the vast oil field region of North Dakota.  When a green-eyed boy with a sultry Texan accent comes to her defense, Avery has no clue that his actions will lead her into a passion-charged summer, full of temptation and loss.

Defiant and relegated to work at her aunt’s boarding house, Avery discovers a connection between her aunt and the striking boy. He and his brothers are seeking revenge for the wrongful death of their sibling, and Avery becomes entangled in their battle over oil rights, loyalty, and love.  Avery falls for the brooding, younger brother, Gabriel Halden, against her aunt’s forewarnings and creates more tribulations than any of them could anticipate.

STUBBORN will be available in e-format on January 6th, 2014 at all major online retailers. You can follow Jeanne Arnold online at:

2 comments:

Cathrina Constantine said...

Wow, Jeanne, within a handful of weeks you finished your first novel! Very impressive. It takes me so long to write...I better step it up. Congratulations, can't wait to read Stubborn.

linda_rettstatt said...

Thanks, Jeanne, for being my guest this week. Wow, I love that cover for your upcoming release.