Blog Tour Day 6 - April Fool

April Fool originally started life as my entry into the 2014 April A to Z Challenge. The premise behind the challenge is that entrants post a blog every day except Sundays. This means there are 26 posts needed and each one should be linked in some way to the next letter of the alphabet.

Once I got started I realised that there was the potential to write a novella with each day being the next chapter in the story. It was a fascinating experience and written as it was I had no idea where the story was going until I wrote the following day’s chapter.

It got a little tricky nearing the end, trying to make sure everything come together but not until final day’s post.

After the project was over, I reviewed what I had written, tweaked and edited it and my novella April Fool was born.

Here is an extract from the book. Enjoy!

J is for January

I’ve been planning this since January. Four whole months and everything is going well. This has to be my best New Year’s resolution ever. I got a little low in February, when it looked like he was going to report the poison pen letters. I don’t know what stopped him, but I suppose even the bad guys have to get a little lucky every once in a while.

Everything is going to plan so far. I need to keep an eye out for that policeman but he’s no Sherlock Holmes. He hasn’t even worked out what it’s all about. He’s doing everything I expected him to do. I’m still one step ahead of him.

My master stroke was the letters. The police worked out pretty quickly the three I had sent. I can’t believe he thought the use of the student newsletter was a mistake. Does he really think I would be so stupid?

Shame Grandma rang when she did. I was hoping she would be incommunicado for a lot longer. Her living in a Spanish back water was a dream come true to my master plan. It got them out of the house and gave me the chance I needed.

The finger was harder to get than I thought. Getting it into the pile of presents was the easy bit. I’m a bit disappointed they haven’t spotted my clue on the wrapping paper yet, but you never know. Forensics takes a lot longer than you think in the real world.

Not long now and everything will finally come together. I can’t wait to see their faces when they realise it was me all along. Then they’ll realise what this is all about, but not before I get exactly what I want.

Biog

Jo Jenner started writing professionally at the age of 40 and hasn’t looked back since.

Jo still works as a certified accountant and manages to fit her writing in during evenings and weekends.

She enjoys writing short stories and a number of flash fiction stories have been published under the title of ‘So the Feeling Shows’.

Always one for a challenge Jo took on the A to Z challenge in April 2014. This resulted in ‘April Fool,’, which was written over 26 days in April, using a different letter of the alphabet for each chapter.

Jo lives with her husband on the south coast of England, her dream location, and says walks along the sea front always help generate story ideas.

Jo can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/jojennerauthor

Or twitter @jojenner40

And regularly blogs on http://jojenner.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

Busy Week Ahead

Looks like another busy week here at Jenner Towers. Everything is geared towards the 'Stripper of the Yard' launch on 3rd August. There is a launch party online and there will be giveaways and chats with the characters. The launch party lasts five hours but feel free to pop in when you can. Don’t forget to click going and then facebook will send you reminders and let you know as the competitions and conversations happen.

I have ordered plenty of promotional items, so keep an eye out and you might be in line for some great freebees.

 

Also this week I am very honoured to announce I have been selected as the 'Spotlight Author' for Rave Reviews Book Club. I have a live interview booked on twitter for 5pm BST on Thursday 10th July. Watch out for the #Spotlightauthorchat and come and join in.

I will have the pleasure of meeting Nonnie Jules for 'Who's on the shelf?' interview and I will be on a week-long blog tour. Check out the spotlight author tour page to see my blog tour and stop by each day and visit the next stop on my tour.

 

Make sure you keep your eye on my author page for the latest announcements and let me know what you think. I love to hear your feedback, so don't be shy.

 

Thanks you all for the support you have shown so far and I hope you continue to enjoy my posts.

See you on the blog tour.

 

 

 

 

Blog tour - The Writing Process

I very excited about joining this blog tour and would like to thank Dale Furse for asking me to participate.

Dale is the author of Curse Book 1of the Wexkia trilogy and it is available on Amazon now.

Why not pop over and read Dale’s answers to these questions here?

Here are the questions and my answers:

1. What are you working on right now?

I have finally finished my NaNoWriMo 2012 entry and am in the process of finalising the proof read for a launch on 3^rd August. The book is called ‘Stripper of the Yard’ and is the story of Jenny Cartwright and her friends. They are all strippers but when one of Jenny’s regulars collapses and dies, the girls must work out if there is anything suspicious about his death. When the girls start falling foul to a number of ‘accidents’ suspicions are aroused. Is it all linked to the fact the Jenny has been left shares in Charlie’s company in his will or is the culprit a little closer to home?

2. How does your writing differ from others in its genre?

This is a tricky one. Stripper of the Yard is a murder mystery but the main characters are all women, so it almost has a feel of chick lit about it.

I write from the heart and have many strong women in my stories. I also like to show people’s reasons for doing what they do. So even a murderer has a reason for doing what they do, and I want the reader to understand what that reason is.

In ‘Show the Feeling Shows’ I have written a collection of short stories that are all about why people do what they do.

3. Why do you write what you do?

I write the stories I do, to try and help myself and other people to understand humanity.

Stripper of the Yard is a story that has been running around in my head for the last six or seven years and I have written other stories to enable me to develop my craft to tell the best stories that I can.

I base a large number of my stories in places that I have lived in or are familiar with. I find that way that I can focus on the characters and not on their surroundings. I hope that by writing about places I know I don’t need to focus so much on trying to build an environment and can spend more time fleshing out my characters and look at their motivations.

4. How does your writing process work?

Unfortunately I am not a full time writer and so I have fit my writing in around my day job. I tend to find I work best in the early morning so I get up an hour before I need to and write. If I am really into a project I will write during my lunch hour and after work.

I tend to update my twitter feeds as I can but will spend longer working on that and my facebook page at the weekends.

I try to post on my blog weekly but have found that marketing and getting ‘Stripper’ ready for publication has taken up a lot of my writing time. I am looking forward to getting back to some new writing very soon.

 

Next week I’ll have my own guest from the Blog Tour answering the same questions. I’ll post the details as soon as possible.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and if so why not sign up for my blog or follow me on Twitter @jojenner40 or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/jojennerauthor