Today I am speaking with Jennifer Mueller.

Hi Jennifer! And welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews! It is great to have you with us. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions. The readers would love to hear something about Jennifer Mueller.

Jennifer, your stories touch the reader and allows them to travel along with the characters. What is a traveling day like in the life of Jennifer?

With being a stay at home mom, it’s pretty much centered on my daughter’s schedule. Once she’s set with breakfast and such I start my world adventures. When she’s at Kindergarten then I usually try to work on the steamy stuff, less distractions. I have a wall of books about all sorts of odd things. I used to volunteer for an organization that sends books to Africa and going through all of the discarded books gave me some great reference material. Then of course, I have to check email several times a day, do all that promo stuff for the latest releases. I write a lot like the way I travel without a real set schedule; just see where walking down the road will take me. Guidebooks are just guides so you have somewhere to sleep at night. So no, I don’t plot. I like to enjoy the journey as much as a reader.

Jennifer, you have many exceptional works penned. Would you like to share your upcoming projects or soon to be releases?

What’s coming let’s see, in June I have Behind the Mask with Venus Press, it’s set in Renaissance Italy, at a masked ball no one has to know who is behind the mask. There is also History Lessons at Linden Bay Romance. Ayda is a doctoral art restoration student with permission to study the collection in a Scottish castle. The past is always there with 800 years at your fingertips, and she hears the stories of two of the previous inhabitants, one from 1328, and one from 1714. But it’s a Sinclair from the present that changes her future. In July, I have Her Father’s Daughter a story from Norman/Saxon England in Summer Heat 2 out from Midnight Showcase. With the Normans still fighting for control Robert finds not all Saxons are enemies. In August I have The Angel of Bally Ferriter coming from Venus. A school teacher named Robert is in Ireland learning Gaelic, but when another student starts harassing a local bar maid they team up to avo! id him. Learning Gaelic just got a whole lot more interesting. At this time, that’s it for this year. I have one called Samburu Hills coming from Chippewa next year. Another seven are submitted, and I’m working on getting the first of a mystery/suspense series finished to submit soon.

What is your favorite type of genre to write?

Historical without a doubt, but aside from that I write stories. I let the characters tell me if they want to fall in love or kick butt. I never thought I wrote Romance until people started telling me I did. I just wrote stories.

When you are deciding your genre, do your characters decide for you?

Definitely. Many characters have come to mind and I have to decide when they would have lived. Others the time or country is there but I have to decide who would live within that framework. The mystery story, Mine Death, I’m working on finishing up right now was originally more of a romance, but it never seemed right to me. No with her having a mystery to work through the characters seem happier.

What prompted you to seek Internet publishing?

I had tried to do the print route for about two years. But since I was submitting short stories there is a very small market for them unless they are literary, what ever that is. Then I saw a bit about Diskus Publishing taking short stories. The rest is history. I have 19 under contract now with eight different publishers. I have a long novel currently sitting on a print publisher’s desk. I’m really happy with internet publishing for all of my shorter pieces though.

There is a lot of talk about the value of obtaining "reviews" of your work. How do you feel about having your own books reviewed and what value, if any, do you get from them?

I get everything reviewed. Free promotion yeah, but you don’t always hear from readers about what they did or didn’t like. I see it as another person’s opinion about the story. I’ve met some great people from those reviewing my stories. I email to say thanks and the next thing I know I have a new friend.

Do you have a character that is especially close to your heart?

Elizabeth Cavanaugh, I know one you can’t go read about yet. She’s in that book that’s sitting in NY. She is the character that came to mind when I first started writing. I didn’t like a book and picked up a pad and Elizabeth poured out. All of the short stories came about because I tried to stick too much into her story. Then other eras beckoned with stories to tell. 40 plus stories later here I am.

While writing, how does the story develop for you? Do you go from start to finish or create scenes as they come to you?

Most usually I write a framework and then later go in and add things. I have been known to go ahead and write a scene so I don’t forget it, if the story changes by the time I get there the there’s always rewriting.

Most people only dream of becoming a published writer. Now that you have accomplished that is there anything else you dream of doing?

Traveling the world again. Life gets in the way, and there’s always the cost thing. My husband always says that after our daughter graduates from High School she’s going to have to live with the fact that we’ll probably be in the Peace Corps again. Bulgaria doesn’t sound too bad. After that I believe I’ve been told we’ll find a place near a trout stream. He can live anywhere he wants as long as I can travel.

Could you describe for us your idea of the perfect man?

One that does the dishes. He he he.
Okay so I met my husband in the Peace Corps. Three weeks before we were to leave, a friend wanted to take me out for roasted meat. Meat is too expensive they eat it only a time or two a week if that. I kept my mouth shut when he suggested where he did, and I ate. Two hours later, I was sick. 4 days later I was in the hospital. Dehydrated just from the fact I could hardly sit up to drink. It wasn’t until the day I was put in the hospital that the sickness symptoms started. My now husband sat there holding my hand while I shook uncontrollably, he was there as long as the nurses didn’t kick him out.

I know not a word about what he looks like in there.

What would your readers be surprised to learn about Jennifer?

I lived in Kenya for two years in the Peace Corps, I lived in a Ghost town in Montana for two summers, I rafted the Nile in Uganda, and spent five weeks tramping round Europe. I’ve gone all housewife since then I don’t think anyone meeting me would guess that side of me.

If you had a chance to either go to the past or the future, which would you choose? Do you have any particular year? What is one thing you would want to take with you?

Past, but I’d probably want something like Bill and Ted’s machine I’d have so many I would want to visit. One wouldn’t leave me any chance for experiencing all the diverse places I’ve written about. Take with me though that’s a hard one. Ahh, one good piece of Teflon cookware nice and sturdy to handle an open fire.

Do you have a habit that you know you will never change?

I’ll never like doing the dishes.

Do you have anything else you would like to share with your readers?

I just had two new releases, All My Dreams at Romance at Heart Publications www.rahpubs.com and The Wolf Within at Digital Pulp Publishing www.dppstore.com. All My Dreams is about a woman who has lost her family and then a movie comes to shoot at her house. The Wolf Within is a western romance, Gabrielle shows up at a cattle ranch with a very large gun she uses well, but there are a lot more secret to find out the longer she’s around and that’s only the middle of the story.

For Fun: What is your favorite comfort food?

Chicken and noodles my grandmother taught me how to make them from scratch when I was like eight. There the only food she makes that I really like. She got all health food me later in life. Carob cookies made with honey uh no.

For Fun: Hot showers or soothing bubble baths?

Bubble bath if I get the chance.

I love your website. Do you have a website other than http://www.jennifermuellerbooks.com that you would like to share with your readers?

I love to travel I just don’t get to do it much of late anymore. So I kind of have to do it in my head when I write. I wanted to show that love when I made my website. I have recently started a blog at http:// http://my.opera.com/Jennifer%20Mueller/blog/ and I have a yahoo group where I love to give away free books that I don’t post anywhere else. There’s a link to join at my website. With those three you pretty much see my entire world.

Thank you so much for spending time with us, Jennifer. Anyone interested in reading more about Jennifer and her outstanding books, please visit her website to read more about her superb works. It has been a pleasure Jennifer, and I wish you the best with your writing.

Interviewed by: Linda L