Author interview with JEN GRAY!

Today I got the chance to interview up upcoming teen author, Jen Gray! Jen's book Tamarisk is expected to be published December 12, 2012 and she is only 13 years old! Here is our conversation: 


Question: What inspired you to start writing a novel? 

Answer: The inspiration for my novel came from my passion to write. There wasn't anything in particular that inspired be to write Tamarisk. I didn't actually just sit down and say, "Im going to write a book". The start of Tamarisk was simply a rushed shot story for a writing contest through my school, I thought nothing of it. After a few weeks of doing nothing, I looked back at the story. I really liked it. That's when I decided I wanted to add on to it, making it a longer story. I just kept adding, and it became a book.

Question: How long did it take you to write Tamarisk? 

Answer: I was 12, turning 13 in a few weeks when I started Tamarisk, and I finished it on September 15. So about half a year. 

Question: How did you end up getting Tamarisk published? 

Answer: I'm actually getting Tamarisk self published. I'm not sure how I ended up thinking about publishing it, the thought crossed my mind, and I decided to self pub.

Question: Do you have any advice for other teen authors? 

Answer:  The best advice I can give is, never stop. Don't give up, because if you do, then what good was all that work? Just because we're teens, doesn't mean we can't live up to adults expectations.

Question: Have you ever had the chance to collaborate with other authors? If so how was that experience?

Answer :  Actually, I have. But our project is a secret, more info soon to come.. 

Question: When is the expected date that Tamarisk will be published?

Answer: I'm hoping 12/12/12, but it could be later. 

Question: Who was the first person to ever read Tamarisk? 

Answer: My two best friends, Ainsley and Michelina

Question: Did you always know you wanted to publish a novel? 

Answer: Actually, I had no thoughts or intentions of it until I was about halfway through Tamarisk.

Question: Did you ever post Tamarisk on any websites to try and gain feedback?

Answer: No I haven't, working on doing that once the manuscript is fully complete. 

Question: Do you plan on writing a sequel to Tamarisk? 

Answer: I'm still thinking about that, possibly!


For more on Jen follow her twitter https://twitter.com/writingjen403

Summery of Tamarisk: 16 year old Angel White fights for her life in the unknown dimension of Tamarisk. She is tortured by "The Voice", the leader of Tamarisk who puts her through agony, kills her loved ones, and makes her life far from normal. Angel must work with five friends to destroy Tamarisk, but an unexpected secret changes their lives, forever. 

The main character (angel) is based off myself, but more of an enhanced version. She gets trapped in another demention/world, that's nice at first but turns out to be not what she thought it was. The world is called Tamarisk, named after the small tree with pink and white leaves, called the Tamariak Tree. In the book there is a tamariak tree planted in the centre of tamarisk, its the heart of tamariak and thats what tamariak runs off of. There is a mans voice (named "The Voice" at first, but later angel learns his name is Victor) that is coming from the sky that tells her commands, that if she doesn't follow, get her badly injured. Victor tortures her by making her fight herself, but the evil, scratched up, version. She is put up against "Tamarisk Mutants" and more. She meets people living there, that have built a small "house" underground in tamariak, one of the people living there (Dave) has the power to travel through a portal back to the "real world"  to get them things. If he wanted to he could return to his family, but he's had a bad home life and his family is no longer the ones in the real world, but the others living in the underground house. The others living there (Candice, grace, mike, and ace) are all very close and family like. They all have back story's that Would take me hours to explain :D. Angel and Ace have a connection and fall in love. Eventually, more characters are met (Alice, Dr. Martin, Lily) and they find a way to leak tamarisk to the real world, that means that all the hundreds of kids trapped in tamariak (that they didn't even know of) are set free. All the tamarack kids meet in an abandoned hotel on the edge of a city, and each take a room to stay in for while, to plan their attack on Victor and the tamariak mutants. The rest is a secret. :)





Stay tuned for more author interviews in the future! 

https://twitter.com/writingjen403