Welcome to YA Author - Iyana Jenna

I'm delighted to welcome Iyana Jenna to my blog.

 

Hello Iyana – It’s lovely to have you on the blog and I’m sure your readers are looking forward to reading what you have to share. But before we discover more about, Santa’s Reindeer, here are a few questions that will hopefully give your readers an insight into some of the things that matter to you.

Arabella: How did you manage to get your first novel published and what did you learn from the experience?

Iyana:  It was actually a short story that became my first experience as a published author. I think I waited quite sometime until I heard back from the publisher so I actually kind of forgot that I sent something out there! Well, I don’t know. Perhaps I had so many things to do that I didn’t even remember. LOL.

My short story got a rather nice welcome. A reviewer even gave it a ‘Booyah!’ However, it turned to be a bitter experience, too, with the publisher since they ran away with the authors’ money. Well, I haven’t got too much money from my story, but imagine the other authors. They lost thousands of dollars!

I’m thankful that I had another publisher republish it. By the way the story is titled Just a Little Unwell and it is now with JMS Books.

Arabella: Roses, Lilies, or another flower of choice?

Iyana:  Umm, I’m not really a flower person. Heheheh.

 

Arabella: Who or what inspired you to write your latest release, Santa’s Reindeer ?

Iyana:  My latest release is Santa’s Reindeer, and like many of my other stories, it was also inspired by my favorite actor, Elijah Wood.

 

Arabella: If you could choose, which would it be?

1)      A walk in the woods

2)      A walk along a beachfront to dip your toes in the sea

3)      A day shopping for clothes

Iyana:  A walk along a beachfront to dip my toes in the sea

 

Arabella: Which authors or what books have influenced your writing?

Iyana:  J. R. R. Tolkien with his otherworldly trilogy The Lord of the Rings is the sole reason why I started writing. But I admire other authors, too, such as Paulo Coelho, Jeffrey Archer, and John Grisham.

Arabella: Some authors write at first light, others need a mug of coffee or a glass of wine before putting pen to paper. When writing, are there any “essentials” you need to help the words flow?

Iyana:  Unfortunately I can’t drink coffee anymore because of my GERD. *weeps* But I just need my song playlist when I write stories on my cellphone.

Arabella: You’re halfway through the work-in-progress and you’re stuck! If you had to contact an “author/publisher/editor friend” for guidance, who would it be?

Iyana:  I’m a kind of person who believes that I’m not supposed to talk to others when it comes to stories that are unfinished. So I just stop and read others’ stories when I get stuck.

 

Arabella: The T.V. is on and you’re in control of the remote. Which would it be?

1)      A quiz programme

2)      An afternoon of sport

3)      A family soap

4)      A romantic film you always wanted to see but missed when it was shown at the cinema?

Iyana:  Either 3 or 4

 

Arabella: Do you have any great writing, publishing, or marketing tips you’d like to share with “want-to-be” authors starting out on their writing journey?

Iyana:  I know I’m not really a best-seller author, yet, and I also haven’t dedicated all my time to writing or marketing, so I’m not too ambitious. But I still do whatever I can to share what I have published out there in terms of marketing. And yeah, marketing a book doesn’t stop only when it is released. It has to be done consistently and continuously.

One more thing, I’m always afraid to be a one-hit wonder. So I try to always have new releases every time. Building a blacklist is very important for an author.

 

Thank you so much, Arabella! Wow, I’d say you are very good at making questions. It was so much fun answering them. I’m sorry, though, if I talk too much. LOL.

 

Thank you for joining me on Arabella's Blog and Chit-Chat, Iyana. Your latest YA MM release - Santa’s Reindeer, sounds amazing. Congratulations...

Best wishes and lots more happy-ever-after writing.

Arabella Sheen

www.arabellasheen.co.uk

  

About  Iyana Jenna

Reading, watching movies, and being unable to find exactly the thing she wanted to read have led Iyana to write her own stories, mostly about man-on-man romance that has fascinated her since as early as the Starsky and Hutch era. Teaching and writing English course books during the day, Iyana spends her nights mostly dreaming about love stories between two men who are protective toward each other.

 

Author Links:

https://facebook.com/books.by.iyanajenna

http://instagram.com/iyanajenna

http://twitter.com/IyanaJenna

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/iyanajenna

https://www.amazon.com/Iyana-Jenna/e/B00C9C41IO/

http://iyanajennaauthor.wordpress.com

Book Blurb  Santa’s  Reindeer

Tyler gets left behind by the group. He makes a mistake of landing on earth when Santa is delivering a package. He is enticed by the sparkly stuff at a window. He has seen things like that when he was with Santa going places but never got a chance to watch closer. Now he does.

Excerpt:

The night was getting dark and the snow was falling harder and thicker. Tyler tightened the thin blanket he’d snatched from a clothesline earlier this afternoon around his body. It didn’t help much. The best it could do was keep his dignity.

He looked around the town. It wasn’t as lively as several hours before. Not many people were still on the streets—which was completely understandable judging from the weather and cold temperature—and not for the first time Tyler regretted his own stupidity. He wanted to blame those sparkling lights coming from the stores and the streets’ Christmas decorations, but that wouldn’t be fair. Those lights had always been there every time he stopped by the town, which was only his second time this year. Yeah, what did you expect? He was just thirteen. The youngest Santa allowed a boy to come along was twelve.

Buy Links:

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1100164

Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/520831934/Santa-s-Reindeer

Chapters Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/santas-reindeer/9781005070687-item.html

Genre: YA MM Christmas shifter short story

Length: 2,900 words

Release Date: October 7, 2021