Interview with Jes Young

Hey all you readers and writers! Emma Michaels here to introduce our guest author of the day:

Jes Young

Hello Jes and welcome to The Writers Voice!

What would you like for readers to take away from your novel/novels? 

I’d like them to feel like they want more. Even at the end of the series when everything is wrapped up, I still want people to think fondly of my characters, to miss them, and to say, “I wonder what happened to them next?” 

What part of your first novel did you find hardest to write? 

The fight scenes! I’m a peace loving kind of girl; I don’t know anything about fisticuffs or sword play. Not only did Tab need to learn those things, she had to learn them from people who were supposed to be masters. There’s a scene where Alex, the hero, is teaching Tab to fight and she starts jumping up and down, just sort of hopping around him with her fists up and he laughs at her. What no one knows, except you guys now, is that scene is inspired by my real life introduction to fighting which took place in my living room in the fall of 2011.

The second book (Tab Bennett and the Underneath, which will be available on 12/1/12) has even more action. Tab throws knives! But rest assured, I didn’t practice that in my living room.

Was there ever a moment when you wouldn’t trade what you do as an author for the world? What was that moment for you? 

Without a doubt, the moment that made me feel like all the sleep I’d missed while writing this book was completely worth it was the first time a stranger contacted me to tell me how much she enjoyed reading it. I was absolutely giddy about it in the most uncool kind of way. I think I managed to keep most of that out of my response to her though. 

What makes you feel like you’re reading or have read a truly amazing book?

When I get to the end of the book and I say, “Man, I wish I wrote that.” Not to be confused with the very jaded, “Oh, I could have written that better.” 

Is there one book that has had an impact on not only your writing, but on you personally? 

I think every book I’ve ever read Considering that I write urban fantasy and fantasy romance, it may seem odd that my answer to this question is Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. But when you get right down to it, every single one of the many, many poems in that collection is about love – whether it’s romantic or platonic or fraternal – and that is exactly what I write about. Leaves of Grass is the source of my theory that everything people do (both in real life and on the page) is ultimately about the search for love and on the flip side, what happens when someone doesn’t get it. 

Tell us something most people don’t know about you!

I’m shy person. Most people don’t know that because I cover it up by forcing myself to be friendly and gregarious, but on the inside I’m a complete shrinking violet. 

Thank you for joining us here at The Writers Voice!