Jill Jenkins

Jill Jenkins

YA Fantasy

 
Jill Jenkins started writing on an ancient Underwood typewriter–that she still misses. That machine witnessed the birth of one play, reams of bad poetry, and the false start of at least four novels. Years later, and blissfully upgraded to a MacBook Pro, Jill wrote The Goddess and the Bee after an inspiring trip to Greece. Jill loves writing fantasy fiction that allows her to indulge her love of myths monsters, magic, and mouthy chicks with swords. Jill lives in Northern California with her family, her dog, and her growing collection of shiny rocks. She is currently working on the next two books in the Sworn to the Goddess series.

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Books by Jill Jenkins

Goddess & Bee

The Goddess & the Bee

The Goddess & the Bee
Sworn to the Goddess
Published 2021

Goddess & Bee

Book 2

Coming Soon

My Story

I started writing in earnest in junior high, probably seventh grade. I’m sure I wrote before that. I recall writing a play with friends in second or third grade. And from there, I never really stopped.

I got distracted by other things–trying to be pre-med in college, for instance, and special needs parenting later–but the writing was always there.

I ended up going into publishing and from there, I went into corporate communications and was a high-tech marketing writer professionally for several years.

I didn’t make serious inroads with my writing until I was diagnosed with ADHD and appropriately medicated. I didn’t have the prefrontal cortex to manage a project of that size. I’d managed to get through graduate school and write a 75-page master’s thesis, but that’s about as far as I could ever get. Also, years of being a special needs parent ate up much of my brainpower and creativity. I had to wait until my kids were older and settled in school before I made progress as a novelist. I’d started several books over the years, but it wasn’t until I finished the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge of 50,000 words for the first time in 2015 that I realized I could write one. I had two more 50,000-word NaNoWriMo projects that didn’t go anywhere, but in 2019 I took a great trip to Greece. That trip inspired me to write the first few chapters of a manuscript that became The Goddess & The Bee.

Genre

“I write YA fantasy because that’s what I enjoy reading. It’s all a part of the fairy tale-mythology-magic-adventure continuum that first captured my attention and heart when I was a girl. I’ve always been a reader. I read–and write–to escape and explore life through a different lens.

I’d also like to write a caper someday, maybe in a fantasy setting like Six of Crows or The Lies of Lock Lamorra. Something like Ocean’s 11 meets The Hobbit.”

"The first piece I ever wrote,

“I wrote a short story for a creative writing class in college that the professor liked enough that he told me I should expand it into a novel. He’d started the course by telling us no one in that class would be good enough to write a full-length book and we should get over ourselves. I never did write that book, but I loved the encouragement.”

Inspiration

” So many things inspire me: mythology, art, books, my family, my spiritual path, movies, travel, the ocean, and occasionally allowing myself to be bored. There’s no one answer. ”

Favorite Authors

“I’m not a person who has definitive favorites in a ranked list. I have clusters of things I love. I love anything Terry Pratchett or Kathleen McGowan wrote because their books saved my life and sanity. One of my all-time favorite books is John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, just because it’s exquisitely written and holds up to repeated reads.

I’d also list The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt–again, beautifully written, delves into art, lost souls, who we love and why, and if we’re redeemable, The Vampire Lestat by Ann Rice, because she wrote the best monsters, hands down. The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold puts a middle-aged woman front and center in a fantasy novel that won the Hugo Award. River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay is lyrical and moving. It’s an alternative history and a study of the aftermath of war. I loved A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles for its unforgettable, charming characters. Oh, and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson because it’s complex and imaginative on a level higher than anything I could achieve. I just love basking in his genius. Ask me tomorrow and I’ll give you a different list.”

Completing a book

“I had to abandon my initial timeline. Books take time to write and edit. You’ll re-read your book more times than you can count. I realized I needed to embrace the process and not try to rush through it. Writing a book is not the same as writing a paper for school or a magazine article.”

What I love about writing

“I love getting lost in a story, achieving that flow state where I’m just a pure channel of creativity. I discovered I liked putting it together like a giant puzzle–making sure I had clues and breadcrumbs of detail that supported the finale. I also like having written–looking at my book and knowing I did that.”