Cyber Walk Down Memory Lane

I figured that someone out there might be curious about my journey from wanting to write a novel, to where I am today. This is sort of a cyber-walk down memory lane :)

1) The first place of any real signifigance I joined to learn the craft of writing was Writer's Village University. There I met a wonderful group of women, though my Aunt Beth, who were my sisters for the first five years of my writing life. We went through much together and I still consider them the writing sisters of my heart.
Writer's Village University

2) From there, I branched out, and joined Charlotte Dillon's Romance Writer's Community, which is a fabulous website and email list. Their critique exchange helped me tremendously.
Romance Writer's Community

3) About a year into my first novel, I met a wonderful woman in a chat. Milli Thornton. She encouraged me tremendously, helped me get through a very rocky issue with my writing confidence, and eventually hired me to create her online writing course based on her exceptionally helpful book, Fear of Writing.
Fear of Writing

4) I struggled tremendously with self-editing and joined the Adult Creative Writer's Club. Their monthly contest was a real eye opener for me and when I finally--finally!!!--won that contest, I was over the moon! Having your writing judged annonymously by so many writers is truly a test of your skill and helped me learn what my strengths were, and where I truly needed to develop my craft.
Adult Creative Writer's Club

5) RWA contests, where I got detailed judges reports from more than one person, and then eventually went on to win one, gave me the industry insight I needed to understand the romance novel and how to write in that genre.
Romance Writer's of America

6) This last is a sort of no-brainer, but I have to add it because as a self-taught author, I spent legions of hours here: the library. While we were still a struggling young family, I coldn't afford much and all these wonderful writing books people recommended to me would have been out of my reach if it weren't for my public library. The research I did for each of my books there still saves me a mint on technical and/or informational books. (Such as using their college texts on genetics to create the basis for my werewolf novel.)

I hope some of you all will maybe check out one or two of these places and see if there's something that they might help you with as well. While I've been a member of many great places, like WRWA and online forums that helped tremendously, the above list is where I did the bulk of my growing as an author.

Do you have a fond memory of somewhere you began that you'd like to share? Or maybe someplace that is important to you today? If so, share them in the comments as I'd love us all to wallow in positivity today! *GRIN*

Warmly,
Jenny:)

Good and Bad News

First, the bad news, because I always like to end on a positive note :) As many of you know I was ill at the end of last week. Well, I went to the doctor today because while I was back on my feet, I never fully recovered.
It turns out that the stress I'm under is effecting my health. I was prescribed medication and told to lighten my load. So, I've decided that I'm going to postpone the workshop I planned for this weekend until the medication I'm taking begins to work and I'm back 100%. I hope everyone will understand and not be too disappointed. I will do this soon, just not yet.
Now to the good news! :)
I heard from Marc Vun Kannon, who is a fabulous writer himself, that he picked up my book, DFF: Dead Friends Forever at the SC Book Festival. He wrote: "I have been reading the latest books from Echelon, in particular DFF: Dead Friends Forever, and I've started Witch's Pawn. DFF is a stunningly good book, by far Jenny Turner's best book yet!"

I was over the moon!! What a compliment to come out of the blue like that, from someone I was always dying to hear enjoyed one of my books in that way :) He went on to say that he began reading it in a hotel room and actually got the heebie-jeebies because it was that spooky! :) He compared it to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with a darker edge, like Angel and then ordered extra for a library event he's going to.
How cool is that??
You can check out more about Marc Vun Kannon here:
http://www.marcvunkannon.com/


Okay, just wanted to share and I hope that everyone is having a fantastic week! :)

Warmly,
Jenny:)

Quick and Easy Contest

My blog at Teen Seen today includes a fun and easy giveaway! Head on over right now to be entered to win :) It only takes a minute, and hey, you never know, I might choose a few winners rather than just one *wink* *wink* :)

See ya there!!

Warmly,
Jenny:)