Author Spotlight: Interview with Jennifer L Armentrout

All about the Blood and Ash series

Who is Jennifer L Armentrout?

#1 New York Times and #1 International Bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, hanging out with her husband, her Border Jack Apollo, Border Collie Artemis, six judgmental alpacas, two rude goats, and five fluffy sheep. In early 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and death of cells in the retina, eventually resulting in loss of vision, among other complications. Due to this diagnosis, educating people on the varying degrees of blindness has become of passion of hers, right alongside writing, which she plans to do as long as she can.

She is the owner of ApollyCon and The Origin Event, the successful annual events that features over hundred bestselling authors in Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult Fiction, panels, parties, and more.

What is the Blood and Ash series about?

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

Interview

What was your inspiration for the Blood and Ash series?

The inspiration for Blood and Ash started while I was watching the 2016 Summer Olympics, which really has nothing to do with Blood and Ash, but that’s where the idea started. This also applies whenever I’m asked why I got the inspiration there. It’s a hard question to answer because it often doesn’t make sense. It just comes from the strangest things, like commercials or songs. In this case, it was the Summer Olympics.

How did you choose which character to focus the story on?

After I got the idea that I wanted to write a fantasy with a society consisting of supernatural creatures, Poppy’s character came to me first. She was sheltered from the truth and raised to represent everything she would have stood against, and that’s how I knew she would be my protagonist.

What was your process for writing the Blood and Ash series, and does that differ from the Flesh and Fire series?

You know, it’s always hard to answer what my process is because that can be in terms of plotting out a book or a series. I think when I write the first book in a series, I don’t really allow myself to think beyond how the very last scene of my main characters will end.

So, what that means is…I don’t think of everything at that moment because I have to get the first book out of my mind. I need to set the world. When I started From Blood and Ash, it was a lot of me focusing on the world building, but by the time I got to the end of FB&A, I knew several key points for the rest of the series.

During the process of writing the Blood and Ash series, I knew I would be introducing the gods, and as I began to tell their story, I was kind of thinking it would be more exciting if I actually showed how we got to where we ended up with the gods instead of doing a big info dump in Blood and Ash. That idea led to Flesh and Fire, which is a prequel series. The writing process was very similar to Blood and Ash, except I had more structure because I already knew what the ultimate ending was. But in the end, they’re very similar, as I knew the beginning, middle, and end.

How would you describe A Soul of Ash and Blood in five words?

Cass is very, very complicated.

Did you have a favorite moment to write?

My favorite is really hard to pick. In From Blood and Ash, I think it’s when Poppy realizes who Hawke is. From the moment she sees Kieran shift to the moment she realizes he is Casteel, up to when they are outside in the snow… All of those were favorites of mine.

Do you have a favorite genre to read?

I would say my favorite genre to read is historical romance because it’s a genre I don’t write in.

What was your favorite book growing up as a child?

LJ Smith’s The Secret Circle series.