Meet Your Muses

Who are these muses you ask?

We’re Kristen and Jolene. Learn a little more about what makes our literary worlds.

 Kristen and Jolene first bonded over literary crushes. Move over Mr. Darcy, we’ve got the Hardy Boys.

We soon discovered we have a weird affinity about…well everything. Except black licorice jellybeans.

If life were a YA novel, we’d be twins living in a dystopian world, separated at birth.

We’d title it Pen and Muse, of course.

Kristen writes eclectically, but tends to lean towards YA dystopia and NA contemporary with an edge.

For the day job, she works in marketing – often teaching indie businesses and indie writers how to market and brand themselves. She strongly believes that writers need to treat their passion as a business, learning what to do – and what not to do. Whether you’re traditionally or self published, marketing is still an important part of the process.

If you want the writing accolades, she’s won a few Virginian awards for short stories and poetry, had poetry published in some no-longer-with-us national magazines, and written copy for popular bridal companies. (Hint: No matter where you live in the US, you’ve heard of the top one). She also worked in an award-winning advertising firm, which became an indie publishing shop – before self publishing was cool.

You can follow her on Twitter and she’ll bake you cookie butter brownies or Guinness cupcakes.

Keep current with her writing musings at her website and blog – www.KristenJett.com/blog

 

 

Jolene loves writing strong female protagonists and has a passion for YA novels on the dark side.

In addition to her day job, she is an intern with Entangled Publishing and also contributes to YA Stands, an online community for young adult writers.

She recently finished her first YA horror novel Bump In The Night – and is currently seeking representation. Works in progress include a YA psychological thriller and a YA urban fantasy.

Her background is in English Literature and Composition, with accolades from California State University of Fullerton.

She’s a member of SCBWI, ALA, and YALSA. (Muse Kristen is jealous of this).

Follow her on Twitter  - she might give you some jellybeans.

For more on Muse Jolene, visit her website – www.JoleneHaley.com

 

Self Published Muses

J. Meyers

J. Meyers started in publishing about 19 years ago when she lucked into a job at an educational texts publisher. She spent the next decade and change freelancing as a writer, copy editor, and proofreader, and then co-authored two parenting books before taking the plunge into fiction—a move that she can’t quite see ever abandoning because she’s totally in love with making things up for a living. (Who needs facts when you can make it up yourself?) She chose to self-publish her work (as her first choice, not as her fallback) for many, many reasons—all of which she’s happy to tell you if you ask. She is the author of Intangible, Indomitable (an Intangible novella), and the up-coming second book in the series, Imaginable (April 2013). Originally from Vermont, she lives in central New York with her very favorite people on Earth—her husband and four kids.

 

Leigh Ann Kopans

As a rabbi at The Ohio State University surrounded by college students, Leigh Ann found her niche writing young adult science fiction and romance. Her debut novel, ONE, about a girl with half a superpower and the boy who makes her fly, will be published on June 11, 2013.

 

Faith McKay

Faith McKay writes stories about characters with real world struggles in otherworldly settings. She is the author of PROPHECY GIRL, a story where characters struggle with the idea of having a destiny. In comparison, she feels really lucky that her destiny was to struggle with comma placement and be that awkward lady who points out puns at parties. She is hard at work on several stories, including the second novel in the Lacuna Valley series, due to be released in mid 2013.

Indie Published Muses

Cara Elizabeth

Jack of all trades and stereotypical black sheep, Cara has been writing somewhat dark and morbid since that teen angst hit somewhere in the early 90′s- probably because her dad was a mortician. After pursuing a degree in English, she changed gears to photography and design in 2006… although she kept penning stories for fun while reading the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde and Hemingway (whom she adores even though he was a huge douche canoe). In 2009, her life shifted considerably and she found herself writing Elegantly Wasted- helping her sort out a bunch of stupid feelings and other lame stuff.

She enjoys cynical debates, cupcakes, making her mother-in-law sew her aprons that she never wears, zombies, the Fifth Element and Tomb Raider. She gathers her life inspirations from Neil Gaiman, Julia Child and Paul Simon. When she isn’t out photographing her next project, she’s studying color, concept and design or writing stuff down in hopes it makes sense one day… or she’s on Pinterest.

Cara lives in Las Vegas with her husband, John and their three genetically altered dogs all of which have personal vendettas for the guy who cleans the pool.

 

Rebekah Crane

Rebekah Crane fell in love with YA literature while studying Secondary English Education at Ohio University, but it wasn’t until ten years and two daughters later that she started to write it. Inspired by her past students, growing up in Cleveland with its fabulous musical theater community, and music of all kinds (particularly the Avett Brothers), she created PLAYING NICE. It is her first published novel, but having an unbridled imagination, it’s not the only fantasy world she’s lived in (just ask her husband). ASPEN, her second YA creation, is set to release in January 2014. She now lives in Colorado, where the altitude only enhances the experience.