Author Interview: Jennifer Snyder

Jennifer Snyder lives in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina with her husband and two children. She finds great joy in blank notebooks and a smooth writing pen.
*Bio taken from Jennifer's blog

What drew you to the young adult genre? Have you always written YA or was there some moment that inspired you to write from a teenagers POV?

I've always read YA novels, so writing YA just came naturally.

Shattered Soul is a very dark story, with a lot of pain in it. Were there any scenes that you found extremely hard to write?

Yes, there were a lot of scenes I found hard to write and all for different reasons.

On an emotional level, (highlight for a little spoilery info) the scene in which Seth visits Ali and realizes she's been using all by herself. This was a heartbreaking scene for me to write because it appeared so vividly in my mind that it almost felt real in a sense. It's a scene that I felt really shows the type of person Seth is and how deeply rooted his feelings for Ali had become.

As a writer, the ending was also difficult. Not because, as readers have said, the ending was so shocking, but because I actually wrote another ending first and it just never felt 100% right to me. It wasn't until a few weeks before I sent Shattered Soul off to my editor that I came up with the current ending, which I felt would leave the reader with more weight and more feeling a story about issues this serious deserved.

I totally did not see the ending coming. I figured something big would happen, but wow. Just wow. It really does leave the reader with a heavier feeling and lend to the seriousness involved.

 

Source

You write teenage boy very well. Did you do a lot of eavesdropping at the mall or something, or did it just come naturally?

Thank you. Seth's voice did just come naturally. I actually sat down with a spiral bound notebook and a pen and wrote out the first four chapters in a day.

I'm pretty sure many writers are jealous right now. Four chapters in a day! You're a beast :)

 

Is there any book you always recommend to others? What are some of your favorites?

Hollowland by Amanda Hocking is one of my top recommendations to others. I LOVED that book! Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice and Blood And Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause are two of my all time favorites, but I have recently read a lot of good ones. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire to name a few. 

The Hunger Games is absolutely amazing. I'm happy you got around to reading it. I've never read anything by Amanda Hocking, but Hollowland has been on my wishlist. I'll probably get it soon.

Source

Are you working on anything right now? Should we expect more dark and gritty stories in your future?

Yes, I'm currently finishing up a project titled TOUCH. It's a YA Paranormal Romance Novella I'll be releasing this Fall that I'm super excited about! Also, you can be expecting more dark and gritty stories from me in the future. I've been jotting down ideas for a future novel as of recently.

Good to hear! I'll definitely be on the lookout for whatever you put out in the future.

Find Jennifer Snyder online:

Blog | Twitter

Buy it online:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

Jennifer Snyder has kindly offered up two copies of Shattered Soul.

Giveaway has ended