Interview with Jennifer Wright

This week's interview is with Jennifer Wright, Author of The Birth of Jaiden. She is giving away 3 copies of her book, so make sure to comment after you read the interview for a chance to win!

So, tell us a little bit about you. What makes you tick?

Well, first and foremost I’m a mother. I have five kids and have been married to my husband for 10 years, 11 in February. As you know, I’m an author and that is pretty much all I do aside from doing the mom and wife thing. I read a lot too, of course,  and I also enjoy photography.

I live in the northwest and love it here, except in the winter when we have been snowed in for months. I come from a very small community and prefer it that way. Big cities scare me. lol

What first got you into writing?

I don’t ever remember not wanting to write. Ever since grade school I’ve been writing poems and stories, but I’ve always known that this is what I wanted to do.

            Now on to the important bit, your book. Can you tell us about it?

The Birth of Jaiden is the story of a vampire named Alex, who finds a baby in a dumpster. Turns out, this baby is a child of prophecy and a very powerful witch. He has to protect her from the bad guy, Malcolm and his evil wife Levine. He is part of the great council. The great council has a member from each supernatural race to sit on the council. The council makes and enforces the laws of the supernatural so humans remain dominate on earth. The council has Angels, Dark Angels, Witches Warlocks and Vampires.

Together…and with some vampire slayers. They battle the bad guy to keep the baby safe. When I was writing this book I wrote it like I was seeing a movie. It has a little something for everyone. A good story line, a lot of action, loveable characters and even a bit of a love story happening somewhere in there.

            Is this your first book?

Yes, this is my first book. It took a really long time to write because my husband is in the military and we’ve moved around quite a bit, also having five kids takes up a lot of time. Lol.

            Do you have plans for more?

Yes, The Birth of Jaiden is the first in series. I’m about half done with the second one “The Rise of Jaiden.” I also, have a short story series called “The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter.” The first one is available and the second one should be up very, very soon. I’m writing the third one right now. People are really digging these shorts.

            Which comes first the character or the plot?

For me, the characters come first. I normally have this person or idea for a person that come to me and roll around for a long time before I start writing.

            Describe your main characters in a single word. 

Loyal.

            Okay, now you can tell us more about them.

This book has a lot of main characters. We have Alex, our vampire. Then there is Danielle who is an angel, Damion the dark angel, Victoria a witch and her apprentice Deanna, Jeremiah the warlock and his apprentice Stewart, Chris who is Alex’s vampire apprentice (Alex is also his maker) And finally we have Isabella the nanny and Michael the vampire slayer. These characters are all very different, but have a common goal. They are all very loyal to each other and more like a big family, rather than people who work together.

The bad guys in this book are Malcolm and Levine. They are both vampires and she is actually worse than he is. I really, really liked writing Levine’s character. She never failed to surprise me.

            Prophecies are always an interesting thing, what inspired this one?

I really don’t know. I just had an idea of a vampire raising a human baby and it evolved from that. I needed to have a reason why this baby was so important that the bad guys and the good guys would both want her.

            What is your favourite scene?

Oh…to choose! If I had to choose only one, it would be Michael and Deanna fighting. I love the intensity in that scene. 


Where can readers connect with you?I am everywhere, I’m on Facebook where you can find me as Jennifer Wright or The Birth of Jaiden fan page


I’m on twitter as @jennichad217


I have a website www.jenniferwrightauthor.com 


And I also have a book review blog called Storytime Book Reviews. 


Where can readers purchase your book? 


You can find The Birth of Jaiden on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords and various other distributors.

            Can we read it?

            Sure, you can read it. Here it is!

A man with frumpy blond hair and a rough face loitered in front of the building where she was supposed to be. He wore blue jeans and a parka. The building happened to be a large two story ware house which looked abandoned.

“You Deanna?” the man asked her as she approached. His voice sounded older than he looked.

“Yes.”

“Follow me, then.” He moved toward the side entrance.

Deanna was hesitant. She knew a man was supposed to meet her outside the address that she had, but it still seemed as if she were walking into some kind of trap.

The man turned to her.

“You coming?” he asked impatiently.

She knew it was all or nothing on her mission and, in any case, her magic would protect her, so Deanna followed him silently.

They passed through a metal door and into a room with a ton of junk lying around: pieces of wood with nails sticking out, all kinds of garbage and even a few dead rats here and there.

Deanna tried to hide her disgust at the smell. Once they had passed through the smelly room, they walked through a few empty rooms, dirty but empty. Then, the man turned up a narrow staircase which had several broken, caved in steps.

She navigated the staircase with extra carefully because of her high heels. When they reached the top of the stairway and were finally facing the top level of the warehouse, Deanna was surprised to see that it was the complete opposite of the bottom floor.

The top level consisted of mostly one large room. The floor was very shiny hard wood. A lot of exercise and weight machines occupied one section and a large mat covered the center of the floor. A variety of weapons, such as guns, swords, bows, and stakes, were shelved and hung near the mat.

People, mostly men, formed a ring around the mat and watched a man and woman fight. All of them chanted and cheered as the couple beat the snot out of each other. On the other end of the room, three men threw stakes into the hearts of plastic vampires.

Deanna realized it was the training area for the slayers. The others whom she had met had not let her see anyone but the guy in charge, so that was new to her.

“This way.”

The man who was leading her motioned her in the direction of the stake throwers. He led her to a door which had no window and rapped two times on it.

“Bring her in,” a gravelly voice hollered.

The man opened the door and held it open so Deanna could slip past him. It was a small office with a desk and two metal folding chairs, one in front and one behind. The chair behind the desk was occupied by a very large black man who wore no shirt. His head was shaved bald and scars covered his head as well as his chest.

“Come in,” he said and motioned Deanna to a chair. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Yes, that would be great,” Deanna answered as she sat down in the folding chair. He got up to pour the coffee and she saw that he had a pair of sweat pants on. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved about that or not. It wouldn’t have been bad to see him in a pair of nice fitting jeans that showed off a toned rear end.

“You can go.” He waved to the man at the door who immediately turned and shut the door behind him. “Sorry about him, he doesn’t talk much.”

“It’s ok, I wasn’t offended.”

He handed her the coffee.

“So Deanna, I am Michael.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Michael.” She appraised Michael’s muscular chest and arms with her eyes.

“Well now,” he sat back down in his chair, “so you tell us that you want to go after Malcolm.”

“Yes, that’s right. I already have been to see two other bands of slayers and they have agreed to take part.”

“What makes you think this time will be different from the other times we have gone after him?” Michael’s voice was not sarcastic, only honestly curious.

Deanna explained her plan, or at least that part of it which was supposed to be known. “The number of slayers taking part will hopefully be large. It will be like an army instead of small groups hunting him.”

“If I understood correctly, Malcolm can’t even be found right now. How do you propose that we find him?”

“We have people taking care of that right now.”

“What people?”

“My people,” she simply told him.

“And how, may I ask, are they doing that?”

“That’s confidential.”

“Oh, I see how it’s going to be.” He nodded his head. “Don’t’ worry, Deanna; we have our secrets as well.”

Deanna couldn’t tell if that was some kind of threat. It didn’t sound like a threat and he didn’t look threatening to her, yet the actual words sounded somewhat like it.

“You are entitled to your confidentiality, just as we are,” she responded.

He nodded again and smiled. “Well, aside from all that, we are going to have to take you up on your offer.”

Deanna smiled. “Great.”

Michael put his hand up. “But none of my people will do a thing until we know the whole plan and are informed. I will not send them into something like this blind.”

This time Deanna nodded. “Completely understandable, I wouldn’t either.”

Michael rummaged around on his desk until he found a pen.

“I’m going to give you my cell number and you can call me when you have a plan sketched out.” He wrote his number on what looked like the back of a bill envelope. “Until then, we will continue with our training like we usually do.”  He passed her the envelope.

She accepted it, folded it in half, and slipped it into the pocket of her jacket. “All right, we will definitely be in touch soon.” She nodded and rose to go.

“Wait.” Michael stepped in front of her and she sat back down a little too quickly. “I just want to know why your people would send you out as a representative. It seems a little dangerous for a woman when there are men who could go in your place.”

Deanna’s eyes flashed with anger. There was nothing he could have said which could have riled her up more than a sexist remark.

“Well, Michael, not that it’s any of your business, but I can take care of myself.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That so?  I wouldn’t send any of our women out alone to meet other bands of slayers.”

“Well, maybe your women can’t take care of themselves as well as I can.” Deanna stood and reached for the doorknob. “Next time you want to be a sexist, you can do it to someone else because you only get one chance with me.” She yanked the door open.

Michael looked satisfied with Deanna’s demeanor. “Now you’re acting like a slayer. Before, you seemed a little too feminine to be a slayer.”

“Like I said before, it’s none of your business how feminine I am, and it sounds to me like you need to concentrate on your own women.” A grunt of disgust escaped from her throat as she stepped away from him.

He stopped her again. “How ‘bout having a little fun before you leave?”

She turned slowly to face him. He appeared to hide a smile, by the way his lips were twitching.

“What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.

“How about we try some hand to hand combat, you and me?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. Her first thoughts had been that he tried a sexual advance. But then, nervousness kicked in. He wanted to fight her! And there was nothing she could do about it; she couldn’t decline.

“What, some kind of test?”

He grinned. “You could call it that…or you could just call it fun like we do.”

Deanna was thankful that part of her training as a witch included knowing a combination of martial arts and street fighting.

“Fine, I accept.”

“Let’s go.” Michael led her out to the mat. “Ok, everyone off the mat,” he ordered.

The slayers that were gathered there turned to look at them while the two slayers on the mat got up and joined the group. Their stares made Deanna nervous.

Michael addressed the group. “This is Deanna; she and I are going to have a little match here.”

One of the slayers hollered out to Michael, “Don’t you think you should start her off a little easier?”

Michael did not take his eyes off Deanna as he answered, “She fights vampires every day. I think she should be able to hold her own.”

Deanna could read it in his eyes that he knew she was not a slayer, but she also knew she needed to continue the ruse. She removed her coat and handed it to Michael before she walked out onto the mat.

“I’m waiting, Michael,” she said in a sugar saturated voice.

He gave the coat to someone else and met her in the middle of the mat.

She couldn’t believe she was in a vampire slayer training area about to fight a huge scar covered black man. When Michael came toward her, Deanna drew in a deep breath.

She was ready for him. He moved quickly and forcefully; an arm swung toward her. Deanna grabbed his arm and hung on. At the same time, she kicked him in the chest with her heel.

Then she let go of his arm and, at the same time, she threw a fierce punch at his cheekbone. Michael wasn’t fazed. He reacted and returned her punch with one that connected into her stomach.

Deanna, however, was fazed. But, the pain only made her angry. She moved in for another kick and threw her leg up high. The heel of her boot met with his chin and stunned him.

She saw him waver and snatched the opportunity; she went down toward the mat, threw her leg out again while keeping herself steady with her arms and forcefully swept her leg across the mat, pummeling both his legs.

Michael went down hard but was up again before Deanna could get into a full standing position. He lunged at her and took her down with him.

She lay under this large man panting heavily, and tried to catch her breath again. But still, she would not give up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and somehow managed to roll him over till she was on top of him. His huge hand moved up, covered her face and pushed it painfully backward.

The crowd around them chanted and cheered as they had for the other previous couple on the mat.

Deanna repeatedly threw punches at his face with her right hand. Quick, tight jabs. Michael rolled her the around like she had done to him and then threw a solid punch at her face.

The left side of her face felt like it was going to explode. She forced her eye open and saw a blurry Michael staring at her. She knew he thought she was done. Somehow, her long legs found their way up and around his neck. She pulled downward and flipped him onto his back, then grabbed his throat with her right hand and planted her knee into his groin.

Michael growled and grabbed himself.

“You cheat,” he said through clenched teeth. He rolled over onto his side while Deanna stood.

“I do what I have to do to survive.” She blew a mass of red hair out of her face.

Michael swung his leg out quickly and knocked her face first into the mat. He moved swiftly and sat on top of her back. Then, he grabbed a fist full of her hair and brought his lips to her ear.

“Who are you?”

“Does it matter?” she whispered back. “We are both after the same thing and we need your help.”

He released her and they sat next to each other on the mat, catching their breath. The crowd seemed to realize the bout was over and began parting to do other things.

Michael looked her into the eyes. She saw a good man behind those eyes.

“We would have helped you anyway. You didn’t have to pretend to be a slayer. That kind of lie just tells me not to trust you.”

“I didn’t know how else to approach you.”

Michael stood and helped her up. Her cheekbone felt like it had been crushed.

“Well, I admit it was dangerous for you to come here regardless of who you are. But, these people are on my watch and I know that you want Malcolm; I would have taken care of you.”

Deanna was surprised with Michael’s honesty.

“I’m sorry…Do I still have your word that you are with us?”

“Of course you do,” he told her.

~ * ~ 

A big thank you to Jennifer for taking time for our interview. This Wednesday we will be chatting with her live on Blog Talk Radio at 3:30 Pacific Time. You can set a reminder for the show on our channel here.

If you'd like to win a copy of The Birth of Jaiden, please leave a comment along with your email address in the following format: parayournormalteam(at)gmail(dot)com. We will announce the winners this Sunday.