Jen Minkman - YA Paranormal and Dystopian Author: mei 2014

donderdag 29 mei 2014

Naval terminology - the bane of my existence

I hereby vow I will never again write a book in which people set sail to go somewhere. If I really need my main characters to travel somewhere by ship, I will conveniently gloss over the time they spend on board or I will make sure they never get on deck to watch anything remotely related to marine navigation, hoisting/reefing/dousing sails, or other such things.
Why this naval rant? Because I am nearly done translating the third part of my Island series (it's called The Deep and it will be available next week, June 4th) and of course, Walt and Leia needed to see the World across the Waters, so I needed to stick 'em on a boat. And that's when I became painfully aware of knowing next to NOTHING about sailing. I have a hard time using the right terminology in Dutch, let alone English.

Of course, if any of you are real sailing buffs and wouldn't mind assisting me when I am lost in translation, drop me a line and I just might decide to once again let my main characters brave the waves :)

For now, grab yourself a copy of book 1 in the series (it's a free ebook everywhere!) and sign up for release notification if you want to know when the Deep is available in stores (and any other books I might decide to write during my life, of course).

donderdag 15 mei 2014

The Deep (The Island #3)

Oh yeah. I did it again! I wrote a book in two months' time :)
As some of you might know, I broke my own 'standalone' rule and wrote a sequel to The Island last year, and since the characters kept telling me there were more adventures in store for them, I had to come back to the Island one last time and write The Deep - the story of Walt and Leia on the Other Side. Today, I wrote the epilogue. And now, all I need to do is translate the book (which is a 62,000-words novel instead of the 35,000-words novella I had planned to write) into English and publish next month. Keep an eye on this blog to find out when it will be available, or sign up for my New Releases Mailing list!

vrijdag 9 mei 2014

Find, Read, Love Romance Giveaway!

Lots of e-books and gift cards to win!

Let’s celebrate our love of books with this giveaway! You can win a lot of books by awesome authors, and also Amazon gift cards to buy this new and shiny book you’ve had your eye on! ;) a Rafflecopter giveaway The giveaway starts on May 10th and finishes on May 17th.

donderdag 8 mei 2014

I visited Julia's world! :)

Fifteen years ago, I lived and studied in Salzburg. That's why I chose this beautiful town as the setting for one of my books. However, I hadn't been back to Salzburg ever since writing The Boy From The Woods, so it was high time to revisit all those places I'd used in my story and see if they were like I remembered them!


Salzburg 2014 (with my sister Marije, who proofreads all my books!)

The first thing we did was walk around town. Quite a lot of the story happens in the Old Town (or Altstadt, in German) of Salzburg, so walk around with me.


The river Salzach that flows through Salzburg and features in the story quite a lot, and the castle up on the mountain overlooking the town


Höllrigl, the bookstore where Julia works, outside and inside - plus the loading/unloading quadrangle where she takes a cigarette break with Michael after their kiss. The real Höllrigl employees were all giving me some weird looks when I was taking pictures of this patio :P


O'Malleys, the pub where Julia hangs out with her friends, outside and inside.


Florian's house is in the left picture, and Michael's house bordering on the river is the middle house in the right picture. :)


The front of Mirabell Gardens, overlooking the town and castle, and the quieter woodland part where Julia goes on a real date with Michael for the first time.

After strolling around town, it was time to take the bus to Birkensiedlung, where Julia and Thorsten live. Of course, this is also where Julia's forest is. :)


Thorsten's house, front and back.


Julia's house. (this is where I used to live)


The main trail leading into the forest, and one of the oak trees in the woods.


... and this is me, going off-track to venture into the woods, just like Julia. :)

It was a wonderful, inspiring trip! If you've never visited Salzburg, Austria before, I suggest you go ASAP :) Lots of friendly people, good food, and almost everybody speaks English.

donderdag 1 mei 2014

Win a Kindle Fire and learn about great #YA #books #amreading

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