Interview With Jennifer A. Nielsen!

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Over the course of the past few months, TwoGirlsThatRead has been working on a really special surprise. 

When we started this blog nine months ago, we'd hoped that one day we'd be able to do cool stuff like this. However, we'd never in our wildest dreams (T Swizzle reference) thought we'd be able to do something like this so soon and with someone so kind and talented. This has been an amazing opportunity that we'd seriously like to thank Ms. Nielsen for.

About a month ago, Jennifer A. Nielsen released her new book "A Night Divided." It's a historical fiction based around the Berlin Wall. Us, being the fangirls we are, were curious. about how Jennifer A. Nielsen wrote her books, and why she wrote her books, and just her writing books in general. So, after pulling a few strings we got the opportunity of doing an interview with her and POOF! Here we are now!

For those of you that don't know, Ms. Nielsen is a New York Times bestselling author. She's written the award winning dystopian Ascendance Trilogy, the fantasy Underworld Chronicles, and the current Mark of the Thief series released earlier this year. She's also the mastermind behind Behind Enemy Lines, the sixth installment in the widely popular Infinity Ring series. As we'd mentioned earlier Ms. Nielsen also recently came out with her book A Night Divided.

 Here's our interview...

TGTR. Everyone has their own motives for why they do things. For example, we

started this blog because we had too many bookish opinions that we
shared and disagreed on, to cram into one conversation! :) Why did you
first start writing and how did you first get published?

J.N. I started writing after I quit work to stay home with my first child. And while I enjoyed that time with him, I needed something more to do during the times when he was asleep. So I started writing, and the more I did it, the more I loved it. However, it took me many years, and many pages of just awful writing to become good enough to get published.

TGTR. What does your writing process look like? How long does it usually
take to draft and edit a book?

J.N. Once I have my idea, I usually spend a long time turning over the idea in my mind, finding the characters, and figuring out where I want the story to go. Once it’s firm in my mind, I start writing. I write my first draft very quickly, and it’s usually somewhere between awful and really awful. Very often I’ll print out the pages I’ve written each day and take them to bed to review them and make them a little better. After I type my first “the end,” I start heavily into editing. I do several versions of rewrites, starting with the biggest problems and moving to smaller ones. And I keep editing until I don’t know any way to make my story better.
Every book is different, so sometimes I can finish a manuscript within a few months. Other times it might take me eight or nine months. My average is about six months.

TGTR. Although most of your work is fiction, many writers say that their
everyday lives inspire much of their books. How does your everyday
life influence your writing?

J.N. I think it’s important for every writer to draw in as much information from the world around them as possible, because everything is an influence: maybe a piece of a conversation, a stranger I get to know, a line of music, an event in the news, or a place I visit. As I keep my eyes open, I find influences for my writing nearly every day, though usually in the most common ways.

TGTR. Almost all authors are also readers, and we all know how books have a
tendency to change the way we see things. The False Prince for example
changed they way I (Ashvini) saw "Sage." Are there any books that have
changed the way you see things as both a writer and a person? How?

J.N. What an interesting question! Books that have most heavily influence my view of the world, or my perspective of a writer include Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (there’s a line in it that has always stayed with me that says, “It is impossible for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one.”), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (It is the first book in which Harry loses, and I though JK Rowling was exceptionally brave to write a book in which Harry’s poor choices don’t work out), and also 1984 by George Orwell, which I thought was remarkably ahead of its time, and really set my determination to always speak the things I think.

TGTR. Ms. Nielson, you write a great variety of books. The Ascendance
Trilogy was a more dystopian genre, and the The Underworld Chronicles
was fantasy, Mark of the Thief is more myths and legends and your
recent A Night Divided is a historical fiction. Are there any other
genres you'd like to experiment in or write book about next?

J.N. I never worry about genre. I only write the story that is calling me the loudest, and for that reason, I never rule out the possibility of any story I might write in the future. One day, I would definitely love to write a thriller though - I’m certain of that.

TGTR. Although it may be a little soon to ask this question as you just
released A Night Divided, but are there any other projects your
currently working on that you could maybe tell us about?

J.N. I’m always at various stages with several different projects. Right now, I am proofreading a fantasy adventure book called THE SCOURGE, which will be released next fall. This one involves a girl who is sent away to a Scourge Colony after being diagnosed with a deadly disease. However, once she arrives at the Colony, she begins to uncover a vast network of lies. I’m also writing the third MARK OF THE THIEF book, and I’m just beginning to organize the plot for a new series I’m planning which is currently titled THE TRAITOR’S GAME.

TGTR. I know a couple of our readers are also aspiring short story writers.
What advice/tips would you give them?

J.N. Short story writers might benefit from also writing poetry. Poetry teaches the value of every single word, and how to convey meaning within the shortest space possible. Many great short story writers benefit from also being poetry writers.

We'd like to thank Ms. Nielsen once again for her time, and we hope that you guys were inspired by this as well!

More reviews coming to a computer near you soon!

Yours Truly,

Emma and Ashvini