Jen's Writing Journey

Welcome to the new home of Jen's Writing Journey, the blog that chronicles Jennifer Roland's writing life and provides useful information for new and seasoned writers.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or my email updates or follow me on Twitter.

Thanks for visiting!

The things I am writing straddle genres to some extent, but I think the best category right now is paranormal romance.

I am trying to read more paranormal romances to get a good idea of what is good in the genre and what isn’t so good. The first not-so-good? The book covers.

I started with the Black Dagger Brotherhood books. From the covers and titles, you get the idea that the books contain vampire characters and most likely some steamy scenes. But, the covers are understated enough that you don’t mind (a) buying the books at a store and (b) carrying them around with you to read at lunch or whenever.

Then I started looking for other books in the genre to read. I came across such titles as Dark Needs at Night’s Edge and My Immortal Protector.

And don’t even get me started on the book covers featured at Bitten by Books!

I’m certain these are perfectly fine books. But the covers are a huge turn-off for me. What do you think about these book covers? Do they make you want to buy the book? Ignore the book? Buy it online and cover it with brown paper?

• Book Review: Self-Leadership and the One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard et al. This is not the type of book I would normally read, but I found quite a bit of useful information. And, it's a quick read. It took me about 45 minutes.The main lesson for those of us beginning or growing a writing career is the challenge assumed constraints. The......
• Writing Roundup, May 8 And, another work week for the 9-5 crowd comes to a close. I wonder if this song lyric would be true of me if I did not have a day job to do in addition to this crazy writing thing: "I wake up every evening, with a big smile on......
• How Many Banned Books Have You Read? In honor of banned books week, I looked at the list of the most challenged books from 1990-1999. I've read a lot of them, but there are quite a few I haven't. I've read: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain Forever, by Judy Blume Bridge to Terabithia, by......
• Writing Roundup, June 19 We've got some great resources this week--summer hasn't slowed down any of the bloggers! The Business of Writing Money, Money, Money, Money Author Lauren Dane shares her thoughts on the RWA president's position on e-publishing. It is a well-thought-out argument that asks the RWA to put the focus back on......
• Writing Roundup, July 31 Ah, another month draws to a close. We are nearing the end of a stretch of record warm weather in the Portland area, and the heat really sapped my energy. I did not do as well this month as I had hoped. What keeps you from meeting your goals? I've......

• The Weakonomist Reads a Book: The Economic Naturalist Like all the other behavior economics books you've read, this one has a long title too: "The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday...
• Your Website Title Could Be Costing You Money Nothing could be simpler than the title you give to your web pages right? Unfortunately, the vast majority of the websites I visit these days...
• Audio Review: Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Book 6) by Eoin Colfer by First Mate Keira, guest reviewer Title: Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, Book 6 Author: Eoin Colfer Narrator: Enn Reitel # CDs / Minutes: 8...
• Get into Bed with Laurie Brown (Author Interview) Keira: I noticed that the title What Would Jane Austen Do? appeared a few times in the book. Was this your original title? If not,...
• The Outboard Boater's Handbook: Advanced Seamanship and Practical Skills by David Getchell If you are looking for a book that covers practical outboard boating, this is a definite must read and revisit kind of book. Getchell did...