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About Jennifer Brooks
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Blog postI've known about wild chive since I was a kid, but I didn't know what it was called or that it was edible. It always grew taller than the rest of the grass, and it always smelled like onions when I picked it.
Once I got into foraging, though, I learned that the plants I picked as a kid were wild chive, an edible plant very similar to the commercial variety. Wild chive is a bit thinner, but the flavor is amazing. The entire plant is edible, so you can chop up the tops and cook the bu -
Blog postBoy have things gotten weird.
My uncle told me a few weeks ago that the live action version of my book isn't nearly as fun, and I had to chuckle. Someone once gave me a negative review for Braving the Storm because they said people wouldn't panic as quickly as I depicted. I will gladly accept their apology.
ANYWHO...
I hadn't planned on gardening this year. I didn't have the opportunity to garden last year, so nature has completely taken over my garden spac -
Blog postDid you ever wonder how Tori and Chloe got together? In Facing the Storm, Chloe says at one point, “Tori and I have been together for 17 years, 10 of them legally married. Why is this [prejudice] still happening in this day and age?”
Fun fact: Tori and Chloe are actually characters borrowed from a different story I wrote a decade ago, specifically about them and what they went through in high school. It's always kind of been a fun little Easter egg for myself and the 3 other people -
Blog postSo back in high school, there was a writing assignment to create your own government and tell a story to go with it. It was only supposed to be a couple pages, but mine ended up being 21 pages. I ended up getting it down to 13 pages, but I told my teacher that that was the absolute limit for cutting it down. Reading it now, there was a ton I could've cut out and reformatted, but tell that to a cocky 17 year old!
Anywho, I freaking loved the story concept, and I've kept the assignme -
Blog postI'm a little late getting this out, but that's okay because I was able to get more plants into one post since I'm on the cusp of spring and summer plants.
POP QUIZ! Name all of the edible and medicinal plants in this picture:
Hint: I'm going to go over 4 of them.I was so excited to get this photo since there are so many of them grouped together! If you can't name them all, that's perfectly fine; I'm going to go over a few of them more in-depth.
Before I do so, however, -
Blog postI'm currently on vacation and have some time to breathe, so I FINALLY get to post this from the fall when I took all the pictures! *minor spoilers for Book 3 to follow*
If you've read the other two books in The Storm Series, you'll notice that every couple chapters I include interludes into the goings-on in other parts of the country, whether it be simple updates via the American Radio Relay League (which is a real thing you can learn about here) or short stories that show how the r -
Blog postIf you've always thought that leaving a review on Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Google Books, Kobo, etc., wasn't important, here's proof that it absolutely matters!
My dad and stepmom were at an event an hour away from their home in Chatsworth, IL this past weekend when someone approached them and asked how they knew Jennifer Brooks. After explaining that I am their daughter, they were told that the local library had heard about my books. They checked the in -
Blog postBack in October, I remember a bunch of people on Twitter starting to talk about their NaNoWriMo projects and how excited they were.
For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. According to Wikipedia, “NaNoWriMo is an annual, Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. Participants attempt to write a 50,000 word manuscript between November 1 and November 30. Well-known authors write ‘pep-talks’ to keep them motiva -
Blog postI love this time of year! While I didn't have a great garden year (bad weather, animals breaking in and eating stuff, zukes getting a fungus), I totally cheat when it comes to applesauce season:
I do love a good sale!In Braving the Storm, those living at the cabin (I really want to start calling them the scooby gang for the purposes of this blog...haha) discover an apple orchard nearby where they're able to collect apples both to can and to use as a bartering item when at the tradin -
Blog postToday was a fun day: I was a finalist in a local awards Ceremony!
I brought a copy of my book, just in case.
As we all know by now, I get nervous around people, but I enjoy this event. This was my second year as a finalist (Braving the Storm was a finalist last year), and I love the crowd. They're really nice, and some of them are delightfully quirky (as writers are want to do). There's an author, Dede Rittman, who brings a stuffed rabbit everywhere she goes. She's so animated -
Blog postOne of my favorite things about writing is the research that goes into it.
In Book 3, two characters who are still living in Pittsburgh 7 months into the Blackout finally need to flee. They do this by escaping via walking a nature trail which connects to railroad tracks, then they make their way to the Panhandle Trail.
While I don't think I'd be able to walk the entire distance they'd have to (especially since it'll take them a few days), I ventured out today to t -
Blog postI'm still on my writing binge, and another topic that has come up is how foreign exchange students would handle a scenario such as one in The Storm Series.
Imagine being thousands of miles away from home with no way to tell your family that you're safe and no way to get back. Not only that, but you barely speak the language of the country you're in. If the power would go out right now, like it did in the book, there would be thousands of students across the country in this predicame -
Blog postAs I said yesterday, I've been writing like crazy thanks to my not-so-lazy couch day, and something interesting came up in my story today.
The way I write is organic, I guess you can say: I know the basic skeleton of the plot, but I don't know the details until they're already on the page. This form of writing takes me and my characters to places I never expected. I think I said it before, but this book was originally supposed to be a one-off about a couple who escaped a bad storm. -
Blog postIt's been a while since I updated as my life has been hectic. I've barely had any time to sit down as of late. One good thing that came out of it, though: I attended a book fair last Saturday and promoted my books.
Me pimping out my books :)It was my first book fair with both books. It was a great experience; I got my name out there, I scared a few people with the premise of my book, and I made a few connections.
When I say that I'm an introvert to some people, they get -
Blog postAbout 10 minutes from my home is the Montour Trail which has flat, paved paths for bikes and those who enjoy an easy jog or somewhere to walk their pets in nature. It spans 45 miles and connects to the Great Allegheny Passage which can take you all the way to Washington, D.C. I usually take Kaylee to the trail on the weekend since we're not pressed for time, but she NEVER wants to stay on the paved trail. As soon as she sees a trail going off into the woods, she looks back at me with this
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Blog postFor the past few years, I have been trying to make my property more self-sufficient, transplanting edible and medicinal plants when I can. In Braving the Storm, those at the cabin do the same thing by transplanting thorny brush around the tree line as a nearly invisible barrier against intruders...and good thing they did...
**As always, be 100% sure you have identified a plant correctly before consuming it in any way and consult a physician before introducing any new medicines, herbal or o -
Blog post*Warning: this will contain a few spoilers because sometimes I fangirl about my characters like they're real people...*
For some authors, their idea for stories aren't always as clear-cut as "I like stories about x, so I'm going to write a story about x." I am, indeed, a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, but this isn't what got me writing The Storm Series.
My divorce is actually what got me started down the path.
My novels rely heavily o -
Blog postAs I mentioned yesterday, I've been away from home on a day-job-related business trip. I'm currently in El Paso, TX for one more night. This desert town is a far cry from the lush, green, humid city I call home: Pittsburgh, PA. Not only is the landscape entirely different, so is the culture. Most of the local residents are latin as El Paso is only minutes away from the Mexican border, so my not being able to speak Spanish is a hindrance here. Plus everything has green chillies in it, and I'm a t
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Blog postEvery couple days I Google myself (giggity?) just to see if anyone is talking about the books and to share what I find. Usually it's the same links to online bookstores: Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Scribd, and a few other overseas stores, all of which are really amazing to see selling something I created. Sometimes I'll find one of my books on a list of recommended books, and I'll humbly thank whomever made the list if I can find a way to contact them.
Today I found something crazy: my b -
Blog postI will say this over and over again: writing a book is the easiest part to being an author, especially an indie author. At least with traditional publishers (or so I'm told), you have a team to do most of the leg work for you and handle the business side of things. For an indie author, though, it's all up to me. I have to do my marketing, my promoting, my deadlines, my research, my networking, and every other business-related activity one can think of. I've come a long way since last July when I
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Blog postYesterday, I touched a bit on one of my favorite hobbies, plant identification. I also mentioned how many of the plant photos I take are while walking my pup. Many of my hobbies overlap like this, especially when it comes to the books. Any experience I have that I feel might pertain to my stories goes either into a mental note or into an actual note on my phone.
I figured I'd introduce you to my fur family as many of my shenanigans revolve around them :) I have two and a half pets: -
Blog postOne of my hobbies is wild plant identification, which you'll see throughout my books. I started doing research on growing, canning, and foraging my own food about five years ago. When you see my characters doing something with plants, whether eating or using medicinally, there's a lot of my own personal research behind it.
This past weekend, I attended a Late Summer Wildflower Walk in a nearby wildflower reserve. The ranger took us through while identifying plants and letting us know their -
Blog postHello to anyone reading this! I usually don't talk much about myself, especially online, but I think it might be interesting for other new and upcoming indie authors to see the inner workings of an author in the beginning of her career as such.
A little background: I'm an indie author who published her first book last July. I've been writing my entire life, since I was a little girl. I've written poems, short stories, and novel-length stories for as long as I was able to form senten
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