Can you introduce yourself to my readers a little?
Sure! My name is (alternatively) Jenna Bennett or Jennie Bentley. Jennie writes the NYT bestselling Do It Yourself home renovation mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime (6 books and counting), while Jenna writes everything else. At the moment, that’s another mystery series (the Cutthroat Business books; self-pubbed) and a variety of romance, from contemporary to futuristic, and from paranormal to romantic suspense, for Entangled Publishing and my own gratification. My first science fiction romance, Fortune’s Hero, just won a 2012 SFR Galaxy award for best enemies to lovers story, which has me pretty psyched at the moment!
I can be found at: website | Jennie Bentley | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads
Can you introduce us to the world that you have created?
I’ve created a lot of worlds. :) My DIY mysteries (Fatal Fixer-Upper) take place in Waterfield, Maine, which is a small fictitious town about 45 minutes north of Portland on the coast. It’s old, and full of Victorian houses and Craftsman bungalows and mid-century ranches, and even the occasional center-chimney Colonial, for my characters, Avery and Derek, to renovate in between solving mysteries.
The Cutthroat Business mysteries (A Cutthroat Business) take place in Nashville and middle Tennessee, where I live, and stick pretty close to real life. The small town where Savannah, the heroine, grew up – Sweetwater – doesn’t exist – there’s another Sweetwater, TN, near Knoxville, but that isn’t it – but Nashville is Nashville, pretty much. I’ve changed a few street-names around, but people here recognize themselves. The house that inspired the first book belongs to one of my readers, who thinks it’s great fun that her house was the one that kicked off a whole book series.
Fortune’s Hero, the science fiction romance, takes place in the future, in a galaxy far, far away, on a little moon called Marica-3, which orbits a planet called Marica. Marica is currently under siege by Rhenian forces – people from the planet Rhene – and the Rhenians have built their prison on Marica-3. The characters’ task is to get themselves out of prison, their ship out of impound, and everyone out of orbit… and along the way this four-man crew picks up women they fall in love with and take them along for the ride. Book 1, Fortune’s Hero, takes place on the moon, book 2, Fortune’s Honor, downside on the planet, and book 3, which I haven’t written yet, will take place mostly on the space port, I think.
And finally, in Tall, Dark, and Divine, which is the first book in a paranormal romantic comedy series, the setting is Astoria, Queens: a neighborhood in a borough of New York City. I spent a few of my formative years there – those in my early twenties – and it is (or was, at the time) a heavily Greek neighborhood. When I needed a place to drop a bunch of the ancient Greek gods, to see how they’d cope with modern life, I chose to put them in Astoria. Eros, god of love, runs a matchmaking agency, Dionysus, god of wine and debauchery, owns a bar, and Alastor, the minor god of vengeance, is a private investigator who specializes in cheating spouse cases. Zeus and Hera live in a rowhouse on Ditmars Boulevard. In every other respect, it’s Astoria as I knew and loved it, only with Greek gods wandering around, unbeknownst to the mortals.
Will this be your first RT or are you a veteran? Any advice for those who are going for the first time?
I am a newbie, actually, so any advice anyone wants to give would be gratefully appreciated. I’m a bit nervous. From going to other cons, I know that it helps to be friendly and to wear comfortable shoes, because the days are long.
Are you speaking on any panels during RT? Are there any you are looking forward to?
I’m on a couple of reader-focused panels. An Entangled Category Cover Bingo – all Entangled Category authors, and bingo with the covers of our books – as well as a panel on gods, Greek and otherwise. And on April 30th, around 4pm or so, I’ll be at Dog Eared Books in Independence, MO, for the early bird tour before the conference kicks off. The lovely ladies at Dog Eared Books invited me, and I was thrilled to accept.
As for what I’ll attend, it’ll probably be some of the self-pub panels and business panels, and maybe a few of the science fiction panels, since I’m fairly new to that genre and I don’t know near enough about it.
If someone were wanting to meet up with you at RT, who should they look for?
Um… me? Five-seven or so, brown hair, green eyes…?
