Jennifer Jensen is an Indiana writer just returned from a few gorgeous years in County Cork, Ireland. She has been the Feature Writer for the Writing Fiction and Genealogy topics at Suite101.com, but has stepped down to Contributing Writer due to time constraints. A whirlwind international move and the resulting reverse culture shock have been daunting!
As a writer, Jennifer has nearly 250 non-fiction articles in print publications, primarily in Indianapolis Monthly and the Indianapolis Star, plus more than 200 online articles. She has received two Indiana Arts Commission grants for her middle-grade works in progress, and has a few adult short stories and a dozen children’s short stories published, some internationally. Her children’s novel is going through its last (hopefully!) revision, she is working on a “women’s fiction” novel, and she plans to take part in National Novel Writing Month again in November.
She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a co-founder of the Northwest Indy Children’s Writers Group, and a past member of the Society of Professional Journalists. She is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature and has taught creative writing workshops for high school and middle school students.
In addition to writing, Jennifer enjoys genealogy, music, gardening (planting, not weeding!), needlecrafts, and volunteering at her church. She reads voraciously and loves to learn just about anything.
To get to know her better, visit her main blog page at JenniferJensen.com.
Hello, Jen.
A few other people have also requested a run down of what I did to self-market, so I wrote a blog post about it. You can find it here: http://jmfrey.net/blog/
Thanks again for your comments!
–JM
Hi Sis. Jensen:
I stumbled across your blog and saw pictures of my MTC companion (your son Tim). I’ve had a hard time trying to find him on facebook– can you tell him hi and to email me– I’d love to hear how he’s doing.
Thanks!
I was just googling Jenny Jenson and found this. I used to live in Indy and as a child I had a friend by that name. I went to St Monica Catholic Church and I believe that is where I met her. She had the most awesome parents. Won’t be you would it???
Hi, Jo Ellen. No, it wasn’t me. I grew up in California and Oregon, and moved to the Indy area about 20 years ago with hubby and 3 kids. Hope you reconnect with your Jenny someday!
Hello Jennifer,
I’m working on an essay about phonetically accurate dialogue and I keep seeing writers say things like you mentioned here (http://suite101.com/article/using-dialect-in-fiction-a65843), that “… the modern rule is to not use dialect in writing …” but I can’t seem to find a source for this rule. Could you cite your source or point me in the right direction? Thank you for your time!
~Issac
Hi, Isaac. I suppose I hear it mostly from editors and agents at writer’s conferences, but I finally looked through my books for a quotable answer. In “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,” Renni Browne and Dave King talk about it in Chapter 5, noting not only how difficult dialect is to read, but how it perpetuates up a class division. Dwight V. Swain, in “Creating Characters,” says that readers and editors hate it, and that “it tends to confuse and slow the pace.”
I hope that helps you. It was good for me to look up, and I may do a full blog post with it!
Hi Jennifer,
How have you and your family been? Pretty sure your daughter Kimberly was one of my good friends when we were young kids in Cali. My family and I visited once you all moved to Indiana too. I would like to tell her “hello” if you could please pass along my email address to her. Thank you!