JenTuranoA USA Today Best-Selling Author, Jen Turano has written the critically acclaimed Ladies of Distinction series, and A Class of Their Own series, published through Bethany House Publishers. Her novel, After a Fashion, was chosen as a top pick from Romantic Times, as well as being named a top ten romance of 2015 from Booklist.Β  It is also a nominee for Romantic Times 2015 Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her book, A Most Peculiar Circumstance, was chosen as a top ten romance by Booklist in 2013. Her seventh book, Playing the Part, released in the spring of 2016, and will be followed by a new four-book series, Apart from the Crowd. When she’s not writing, Jen spends her time outside of Denver with her husband and neurotic Cattle Dog, enjoying herself as an empty-nester since her son recently abandoned her for the college life. She can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jenturanoauthor/ or visit her on the web at www.jenturano.com. She is represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency. Her books may be found in fine bookstores, or follow the Baker House Publishing link to find additional places to purchase her work – http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/authors/jen-turano/1761

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Welcome back to the blog, Jen. I’m so excited to have you here today. Congratulations on your upcoming release, Out of the Ordinary. What a fun cover!

Thank you so much for having me, Savanna! I’m delighted to be here.

What do YOU love most about this story?

I adore Mr. Harrison Sinclair, the hero of β€œOut of the Ordinary.” He’s just such a man, trying to muddle his way through life, surrounded by women he simply does not understand. He was simply a riot to write.

Did you come up with the title? If not, can you share with us the previous title you had picked?

Curious as this is going to seem, I don’t come up with any of my titles. In all honesty, I’m awful at it. Fortunately, my editor is fabulous at coming up with unique ideas, so she came up with this title. The only input I normally give is a theme or a word. For this one, Miss Gertrude Cadwallader believes she’s an ordinary woman – but she’s nothing of the sort. So I suggested a title with the word extraordinary in it, and Raela, my editor, came up with β€œOut of the Ordinary” which I thought was an extraordinary title 😊

Love it! πŸ™‚

How long does it typically take you to write a story?

This is a tricky question because it depends on a lot of factors, such as what my editing schedule looks like, marketing time for upcoming releases, and, you know, life. Before I got published, I wrote first drafts much faster, as in a couple of weeks. But, after I got published and began working with a team of editors, I began changing how I wrote first drafts. It’s like I can hear those editors as I’m typing away now, telling me a chapter isn’t moving fast enough, or I’m giving too much backstory, or, here’s a good one, I’ve gone completely off the rails and need to get back on track. Because of that, I do a lot more editing as I write, so it takes me about four months to finish a first draft. But then, after my editing team goes through it, I get content editing suggestions from them, and then it takes me about another four to six weeks to polish everything up, address any problems they may have found, and then turn it in to them again.

That still seems fast to me. πŸ˜‰ Love hearing about your writing process. It inspires me!

Which heroine from a book would you like to be? Why?

I think all my heroines, to a certain extent, have a bit of me in them somewhere. But the one I really relate to is Miss Millie Longfellow. She’s very quirky, outspoken, and she carries a big bag filled with what I always consider the necessities of life – like extra shoes, hairpins, and books. She’s also rather fearless, far more fearless than I could ever be, and I admire that about her.

What was the last book you read and what will you remember most about it?

Since I’ve begun writing a new series, most of my reading has been non-fiction because I’m using different settings for this series, taking my heroines out of New York. I just finished reading β€œPittsburgh, The Story of an American City” by Stefan Lorant, and now I’m on to β€œThe Big Spenders” by Lucius Beebe. The Pittsburgh book is fascinating because I grew up about an hour away from that city, but β€œThe Big Spenders” book is somewhat off-putting, not because of the writing, but because of the extent of the extravagances the gentlemen written about in the story indulged themselves with on a daily basis. The Gilded Age really was a time of conspicuous consumption, what with the many millionaires made during that time, but the average family was living on a few thousand dollars a year. I find it disturbing how these millionaires and their wives spent their money so frivolously while men were working seven days a week in the mills, their hard work being the reason the owners of those mills could live such excessive lifestyles.

Yes, I bet that’s fascinating to study. Thanks for visiting with us today, Jen. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I just recently turned in the content edits for β€œCaught by Surprise,” the third and final book of this latest series. That means all the hard work on that book has been done, and all I have left to do are two galleys – one to make sure I didn’t miss anything or messed up a timeline, things like that, and the last galley is to double-check for typos, missing words, etc.

Since I’ve put that series almost to bed, I’m now concentrating on a new adventure – a series centered on three American heiresses. The idea for this series came about when I wondered what would have happened if Miss Consuela Vanderbilt had balked when her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, demanded she marry the Duke of Marlborough. That led to all sorts of possibilities, which is why my American Heiress series might have my heroines going a little…rogue.

Thank you so much for having me. Hope everyone has a great week, and good luck with the giveaway!

That new series sounds like so much fun. πŸ™‚ Thanks, Jen. Hope you have a great week too!

GIVEAWAY!!

Jen has graciously offered to give away a copy of Out of the Ordinary. Enter below and it could be YOU! ;)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for entering! Contest is open only in the U.S. and ends November 7, 2017. Winner will be notified by email.