Jennifer Hudock is an author, podcaster and freelance editor from Northeast Pennsylvania. Her first full-length novel, The Goblin Market, is currently available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. For more information about Jennifer Hudock, including updates on upcoming fiction, visit her official website: The Inner Bean.
K.S. Hello and welcome to the blog. I am very excited to have you here. Why don’t we start off with a small introduction? Tell us a little about yourself.
J.H. Thank you so much for having me on your site. My name is Jennifer Hudock, and I'm an author, editor, freelance writer and podcaster from Northern Central Pennsylvania. I just recently released my first full-length eBook, the Goblin Market, but I've been a career writer for just over five years now.
K.S. Any interesting writing quirks or stories you would like to share with my readers?
J.H. I am obsessed with writing dream sequences into every story I pen. I've always been fascinated with dreams, and exploring deeper plot points through the dream world is a favorite pastime of mine.
K.S. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? What sparked the desire to pen your first novel?
J.H. I started writing when I was about ten years old. I got a Playskool typewriter for my tenth birthday from my Nana and the stories just started to flow. I think what really sparked my desire to write was the ability at the time to explore my fantasies by writing myself into stories.
K.S. What genre do you write?
J.H. I write fantasy and horror, and sometimes I meld them together into dark fantasy.
K.S. What would you say has inspired you most in your writing career? Or, who is your favorite author and why?
J.H. My favorite author is Neil Gaiman. I started reading Gaiman when I was in high school and the Sandman comic book series was still relatively new. I fell in love with his storytelling ability and his knack for historical resonance. All of his plots and characters are just so imaginative and well thought out that by the time I get to the end of a story I am breathless because of how well he pulls it all together.
K.S. What does your family think of your writing?
J.H. My family is incredibly supportive. My husband, James Melzer, is also an author, so we share a lot of the same dreams and goals. I also have a sixteen-year-old daughter who used to think I just sat on the computer all day, but now thinks it's kind of neat that her mom is a writer.
K.S. What was one of the most surprising things you learned while creating your book/s?
J.H. It's incredibly hard to let go of a story and send it out into the world. As writers, our stories are a lot like our children. We put the best of ourselves into them, and when it comes time to complete them and let them go, it isn't always easy.
K.S. What inspires you?
J.H. As I mentioned above, I am obsessive about dreams. The bizarre and twisted nature of the subconscious mind fascinates and inspires me. I have written several stories over the years that were inspired by a dream I had, or a dream someone else told me about.
K.S. Can you tell us a little about any of your novels?
J.H. Fantasy, faeries, goblins and a twist of romance, The Goblin Market was inspired by the Christina Rossetti poem of the same name. Beyond the Goblin Market lies the remains of a lost and broken kingdom divided by war. The war has been over for centuries, but the kingdoms still stand apart, overrun by a creeping goblin darkness known as the Darknjan Wald. It has been written that only one holds the power to destroy that darkness and reunite the kingdoms, but she has no memory of her former life.
Meredith Drexler must save her sister, Christina, from the wicked goblin king, Kothar, who has kidnapped the girl in order to convince Meredith to uphold an ancient commitment Meredith doesn't remember making. Sent Upland disguised as a human child, she has no recollection of her former faerie life, or her uncle's promised marriage betrothal to Kothar.
When she ventures back Underground in search of Christina, every step Meredith takes brings memories of her forgotten past back to the surface. As the pressures of her former life entangle with her quest to save her kidnapped sister, Meredith's predetermined fate is revealed. Will she embrace it, or walk away forever from a life she barely remembers as her own?
K.S. Where can we buy your novel?
J.H. The Goblin Market is currently available on Amazon and Smashwords for just $2.99
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/The-Goblin-Market-ebook/dp/B004L2LL1A
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/39402 )
K.S. Do you have a website, fan site, or Blog that we can visit?
J.H. You can visit me at my official website, The Inner Bean (http://jennybeans.net)
K.S. Do you have any closing advice to aspiring writers?
J.H. Write stories you would want to read. There is nothing more fulfilling for a writer than sitting down to read your own novel or story and feeling as though you created something the reader in you will want to read again and again.