A Look at Jodi Jensen to Celebrate Her New Release Sophie's Key

   

Champagne Books Group is excited to release Jodi Jensen's book Sophie's Key Monday, July 6th. It's available to buy at the CBG Bookstore and Amazon. To celebrate, we asked Jodi some questions to share with readers. Here's what she had to say.

When and why did you begin writing? 

I wrote my first story at 9 years old. It was a “Boxcar Children” story, based on that series of books. Writing that little story in my spiral notebook with a pencil sparked something in me, a joy and love of writing that I still have to this day. In high school I focused on writing poems and short stories. Somewhere I have a story with a red second place ribbon attached to it. I transitioned to writing novels in my early twenties and haven’t looked back.

 

Tell us your latest news. 

I’m currently writing book two in my time travel series. This one is set in Dawson City during the Klondike Gold
Rush in 1897. I’ve also had 33 short stories published in the last year and have joined the editing team at our very own Champagne Book Group as a
developmental/content editor.

When did you first consider yourself a writer? 

When I was writing poems and short stories, I always thought of that as “for fun”. It wasn’t until I was writing my first novel that I really thought, “hey, I’m a writer”, and I want to add, what a great feeling that was. I felt like I finally knew what I wanted to do with myself.

 

Do you have a specific writing style? 

I sure do, my style tends to be centered around the characters and their emotions. Most everything I’ve written has been set in the past. I love the way people interacted in times where the modern technology was absent and they had to rely more heavily on each other. I love history in general, and part of my writing style is to incorporate as many accurate historical tidbits as I can.

 

How did you come up with the title? 

I called my story Sophie’s Key because her key plays such a huge role in the story. There’s actually a double meaning there, the first part is literal, how the key keeps her safely anchored to a time that’s not her own. The second meaning is figurative, how it’s the key to her happiness, her destiny.

 

Is there a message in your novel you want readers to grasp? 

There’s a line in the story about destiny, how Sophie’s destiny brings her to the right place, while another woman’s destiny brings her to the right time. The time travel aspect plays a big role in Sophie finding her destiny, which is home and family. Once destiny has played its part, it’s about opening your heart, trusting fully and loving without fear.

 

This door was a huge source of inspiration for Jodi in writing Sophie's Key

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? 

I’ve always found fight scenes a challenge to write, I think because I don’t write them often. I’m getting better at it though, as the book I’m working on now has several.

What was the hardest part of writing your book? 

For me, the actual writing goes pretty quickly and is quite enjoyable. I’d have to say things like finding the perfect title, writing the blurb, things like that, are much more difficult. I was nearly finished before I had the title on this one and that was always nagging in the back of my mind.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? 

Back to The Boxcar Children, I loved those books as a kid, read them over and over. One night I pulled out my tattered spiral notebook and a pencil and started writing my own adventure for The Boxcar Children. Something magical happened when I did that. It was like my mind lit up and the ideas were coming faster than I could write. By the time I filled that notebook and another, I was hooked on writing.

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it? 

I learned all sorts of historical things, which I always love. I learned about the history of Texas Rangers, including when and why they were dispatched around the U.S., I learned about Robber’s Roost, the hideout of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (a location in the story) and I learned a lot about Utah history, particularly in rural Utah. The main setting, Mt. Pleasant, Utah, is a real place and I learned about when it was settled, that it was the hub of Central Utah and is larger today by only about a thousand people than it was in 1901.

Do you have any advice for other writers? 

I learned by writing, reading, talking to other writers, going to conferences, joining writers groups and having critique partners. I recommend all of these things, especially the first two: writing and reading. Do them both, at every available opportunity.

Do you have anything specific you want to say to your readers? 

Thank you for joining Sophie on her journey. I hope, like her, your heart and soul will be touched by life on the farm. And I hope you’ll join me for another journey into the past.

What inspired you to write your first book? 

My first novel was inspired by the premature birth of my oldest daughter. That book was both a learning experience and healing for me. It gave me the confidence to continue writing.

Can you share a little of your current work with us? 

Certainly! Here’s the opening scene for my current work in progress, also a time travel romance:

 

Ethan negotiated the steps of the historic Yukon Hotel with a severed head tucked under one arm while his other arm held a huge metal bowl full of blood and entrails tight against his chest. He kicked the front door with his combat-booted foot. “Open up.”

“Hold your horses,” a muffled voice called from inside.

A car door slammed behind him, and Ethan glanced over his shoulder in time to see his partner in crime, Daniel, lower the tailgate on his old black Ford. “About time you got here.”

“Dude—don’t go busting my balls, this was your bright idea.” Daniel dragged the lower half of a body from the back of his truck. “God, this thing weighs a ton.”

“Don’t forget the axe.” Ethan turned and thumped on the front door again with the toe of his boot. “C’mon man, hurry up.”

 

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life? 

Well, since time travel isn’t a thing, yet *wink*, Sophie’s Key isn’t really based on an event from my life. However, the story was inspired when I found an old, wood-framed screen door in the rafters of my garage. I leaned it against the wall in front of where I parked and looked at it every day for months as the story idea took root and grew. The door from the book is very similar to the one I’d found. Sophie has a few experiences that are based from my own, such as losing her mother. And the little girl in the story is based entirely off of my granddaughter.

 

Jodi Jensen grew up moving from California, to Massachusetts, and a few other places in between, before finally settling in Utah at the ripe old age of nine. The nomadic life fed her sense of adventure as a child and the wanderlust continues to this day. With a passion for old cemeteries, historical buildings and sweeping sagas of days gone by, it was only natural she’d dream of time traveling to all the places that sparked her imagination. 

 

Sophie’s Key comes out July 6^th.  You can buy it here and here.