Today we’re in for a treat chatting with J.R. Turner, author of My Biker Bodyguard, Stark Knight, Silent Knight, The Knight Before, Bulletproof Bride, and Extreme Writing.

Hi Ms. Turner, first let me say thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with us here at Fallen Angel Reviews.

And thank you so very much for giving me the chance to share!

For anyone who hasn’t read one of your books yet, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your books?

I love romance, explosions, and happy endings. My real life is not as exciting as what happens in my novels. I tend to live fairly drama-free, by choice, but I’ve always been fascinated by how natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, and otherwise destructive events challenge average, every-day people to feats of heroism and courage they (or others) would never have thought they were capable of achieving.

When I was a kid, The Incredible Hulk was a family thing. The image of the woman lifting that car to save her child always stuck with me. We were shown the nuclear holocaust movie “The Day After” in school at a time we were taught to hide under our desks if a nuclear bomb were to detonate nearby. Even as a child, I saw the futility of that particular drill.

I don’t recall the title of the movie, but the image of children being led up a mountain to escape a volcanic eruption, and the ensuing lava flow, has also stayed with me. Other defining moments; Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, reading Gone With the Wind and The Stand by Stephen King, and surviving a real-life tornado.

I believe strongly that without love, real, honest-to-goodness, true love, sincere heroism doesn’t exist. Whether it’s love of country, love of family, romantic love, or the love of deeply held beliefs, such as honor, integrity, and justice—without love, nothing has meaning, purpose or is worth fighting for.

I just finished reading My Biker Bodyguard and I have to say that it kept me on the edge of my seat, great book, and for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, you’re in for a treat. Where did you come up with the idea for Jess and Mitch’s story?

I’m so excited that you enjoyed My Biker Bodyguard! It really was one of those books that just seemed to fly for me. Jess is probably more like me than any other character that I’ve written, though I didn’t intend that when I wrote the book.

With every book I try to challenge myself. I have been avoiding writing “what I know” because I didn’t think the life of a Polish housewife in central Wisconsin was very intriguing. When I came to my fourth book, I had already challenged myself to write my first book (an historical, thankfully unpublished!) with a complicated plot, a contemporary, with a plot twist, and a character-driven plot. Now was the time to challenge myself to “write what you know” as the adage goes.

So, I began thinking of my past and what jobs I had held that might be a bit off the beaten path. I had been a tattoo artist for about a year at 19 and thought that might be interesting. I was also raised around bikers, and thought I could do something with that. One thought led to another and I had occupation, location, character, and dynamic.

Mitch is truly the first character that I based on a favorite actor of mine. I wanted to create a distinct voice for him, one that I could hear in my head that was different from anything I had written before. By using my knowledge of this actor’s body language, voice inflection, and role choices as a foundation for Mitch, I could literally hear his dialogue and imagine physical movements in a more concrete way than every before. It was definitely a useful exercise for me.

When you were writing their story did you have it all mapped out before the first word, or did any of it surprise you as you were writing it?

I generally work from a synopsis. I developed this method years ago when I first uncovered the fact that a published author could sell future books on a synopsis alone. Now I think I’d be lost without a synopsis to work from. However, I generally don’t complete a synopsis until I have the first three chapters written. I tend to try an idea out before I commit to writing the full novel. I probably have about fifty or so different ideas that never made it past chapter two on my computer somewhere.

With My Biker Bodyguard, I think because I was drawing heavily from my own life to write the book, I knew it was a go before I really began. My synopses are never written in stone, though. The last third of the book (aside from he climatic ending) developed into a stronger, personal conflict for Mitch and Jess than I had counted on. I had always pictured the villain as a bit like Jason Alexander’s character on Seinfeld. He turned out to be very different than I imagined.

I loved how you portrayed Dirty Dan Owen and the gang. Are any of them based on anyone you know or just from your imagination?

Yes! All of them are based on people I grew up with. Some of the names were changed and some of the personalities were merged into one character, but all of them were created directly from the adults I’d known in my childhood. Dirty Dan looks like my own father does, but his name is drawn from a friend of ours named Dirty Bob. J.D. is an echo of my uncle J.C. (John Charles) and a good friend who unfortunately died from complications related to a motorcycle crash. Tiny is probably the most direct representation as it was hard to alter the reason for the nickname in this context.

How long does it take you to research for any of your books? Is that the hardest part for you to do, the research?

Yes, research is definitely the hardest part. Coming up with ideas is simple for me—but finding out if they’re believable, or if I can make those ideas realistic, is far more difficult. I’ve spent an entire year doing just research for one novel, and have researched as I went along for others. In general, I would say about three months is devoted to research before I think I can handle the sometimes complicated and technical aspects of any plot I choose to write.

This is one reason why I don’t write historical novels. I enjoy them immensely, read them often, but researching them is a bore for me. I think that if the research doesn’t intrigue you, if the discovery of information on a particular subject doesn’t excite you beyond measure, then it’s most probably not a book you should write. Most likely, this is partially why many of my ideas never make it past chapter two.

With having a husband and three kids, how do you find the time to write? Do you have a set time or is it only when everyone is in bed so to speak?

I hate it—but I’m a morning person! I never used to be. I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning in my previous profession as a contract artist. For writing, however, I found that I’m most in tune with that “other world” at about five a.m. Maybe it’s because my mind is well rested, yet still connected to the part that takes over when I’m dreaming, I’m not sure. Whatever the cause, I definitely do my best work before sun-up.

My husband is a truck driver, so it can be difficult to get any real chunk of time past 8 or 9 a.m. to write. On the weekends, however, he’s so supportive; he’ll take over everything and let me write all the way through until dinner. This gives me the chance to write about 20K words on the weekends. During the week, the later the day gets, the more time I spend on editing, promoting, and researching. I’m finding more and more time to write too as the children become more independent with age.

In Stark Knight, tell us how this book came to be? BTW, I love the heat between Stark and Drake.

Thank you so much! I believe whole-heartedly in sexual tension—it’s explosive!

Stark Knight was the third book I wrote—the character-driven plot challenge I issued myself. In both my previous books, the feedback I got was that my action scenes overpowered much of the story. This told me I was an action-oriented writer and that I should focus my efforts in that direction. Yet I still had to deal with the fact these scenes were taking away from character development—hence the focus on writing a character-driven novel.

My worst fear, as a writer, is making emotional scenes appear melodramatic. I tend to be fairly private about deeply emotional topics, even with close loved ones, so when it came to delving into them for public consumption, I was a little lost. I wanted to tackle that in Stark Knight because I knew my writing would never be honest if I didn’t.

Before I began writing the book, I had already written down an idea for a big action sequence involving a helicopter that came from an argument I had with my husband about how unbelievable an explosion appeared in a movie we were watching. I knew as well that I wanted a kick-butt female lead in my next book. Between that and my personal challenge, the book solidified into an exciting premise I wanted to write.

I forced myself to write the book chronologically and I don’t think I’ve ever written a book so fast in my enthusiasm to get to that helicopter scene.

Is there any genre that you’d like to write in that you haven’t as of yet?

Paranormal fantasy—but I do have plans to tackle that genre since a new opportunity has opened up for me.

I know from reading your bio that you love chocolate . If you could only have one and had to pick between dark, milk, or white, which one would you choose and why?

LOL Dark, always. I think it tastes the most like true chocolate. My favorite candy bar is Mounds. I make my own truffles and there’s always dark chocolate—either in the center, the coating or striped across the white chocolate. You can’t imagine my jubilation on the day the study came out that dark chocolate was good for you!

Now for a couple of fun questions , If you and your family were in a time machine, what year would the dial be pointed at and why that one?

Oh gosh, I wouldn’t want to go into the future because I love the mystery of seeing what will happen next. So that leaves the past. I think I would say either the late 1790’s/early 1800’s to see how the people of that time thought and what they believed after the Revolutionary War, and how that led to the formation of our country, or 1735, the year my first book was set in, just so I could see how much of my research I got wrong!

I read where your cat is a budding typist, do you allow him/her to help with any of your stories?

Allow? Allow? There is one truism that I’ve discovered: dogs think they’re human, and cats think they’re God. If my cat wants to walk all over my keyboard, she’ll do it whether I allow it or not. Thank goodness I’m not using carbon paper and a typewriter anymore!

I’ve been toying with the idea of a children/Young Adult story where the family cat walks on a kid’s keyboard and when the result is decoded, it actually foretells future events.

At least she’s inspiring!

How would your husband describe you and how you are when your writing?

My husband would say that I’m intelligent, opinionated, compassionate, and gregarious (but don’t listen to him, he’s blinded by love!) when I’m not writing. When I’m writing, he’d say I’m a space-case hermit who asks odd questions completely out of the blue. (Okay, you can listen to him now because that’s true!)

Please tell us about your works in progress and when can we expect them out?

Right now, I’m working on finalizing the manuscript of Good Knight to send to my publisher. It’s the third and final book in the Knight Inc. trilogy (Stark Knight, Silent Knight are the first two.) The challenge I faced in this book is completing a series and working on setting and detail descriptions. I tend to be very sparse on those in my writing as I like a fast-paced read. I’ve heard though, that some of my scenes are a little too fast-paced for my readers and I agree.

Each book in the series draws from real or current events. Stark Knight was about a terrorism threat I uncovered when researching the Congressional record. Silent Knight explored the ethical and practical use of human chip implants, biological weaponry, and a bit on a “shadow government” conspiracies. In Good Knight, I play on the complex dynamic of diplomacy vs. targeted militaristic actions and the differing options and outcomes each creates in the global arena.

I also explore the struggle between good and evil inside all of us through Sara’s personal conflict between choosing a lesser evil to reach a greater good, and risking everything by staying to true to her principles. Good Knight was a real challenge to write and I’m hoping it’s my best book yet.

After that, I’m launching into a new Young Adult series based on a future earth where natural disasters (not global warming related) have killed nearly all the population and created a paranormal aspect that I think brings real excitement and opportunity for much adventure.

How can readers find out more about you and your books?

They can visit my website at jennifer-turner.com and read excerpts from each one of my books as well as my bio and writing history. You can also see some pictures of my children and read the short story we wrote together during a rainy day camping last summer. There’s an exercise up now that I did years ago that I’m using as the basis for my Young Adult series too.

If you follow the links to my blog and my MySpace site, you’ll find a ton of info about me, more “behind the scenes” on My Biker Bodyguard and an interview I’m asking teens to fill out as part of my research on the series. Every teen who responds will have their name used in the series.

If interested, I have newsletter as well that one can sign up for. Every month, I host a new and fun contest for my subscribers.

Ms. Turner, again thank you so much for your time. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you and I can’t wait to read your next book. Readers if you’re looking for a great action adventure writer, look no further than J.R. Turner, you can’t go wrong with her books.

Thank you so very much for your time too! I’ve really enjoyed answering your questions. They were tons of fun!

Warmly,
Jenny (J.R.) Turner ;)

Interviewed by: Donna