About Jeaniene

Jeaniene Frost is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Night Huntress series and the Night Huntress World novels. To date, foreign rights for her novels have sold to fourteen different countries. Jeaniene lives in Florida with her husband Matthew, who long ago accepted that she swears like a sailor, rarely cooks, and always sleeps in on the weekends. Aside from writing, Jeaniene enjoys reading, poetry, watching movies with her husband, exploring old cemeteries, spelunking and traveling – by car. Airplanes, children, and cookbooks frighten her.

Bibliography:

Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress Series, Book 1)
One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress Series, Book 2)
At Grave’s End (Night Huntress, Book 3)
Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress, Book 4)
This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 5) coming February 22, 2010

First Drop of Crimson (Night Huntress World, Book 1)
Eternal Kiss of Darkness (Night Huntress World, Book 2)

Other works:

“Happily Never After” in the anthology titled, Weddings from Hell
“Pack” in the anthology titled, Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance
“Devil to Pay” in the anthology titled, Four Dukes and a Devil
“Reckoning” in the anthology titled, Unbound
“One for the Money” in the anthology, Death’s Excellent Vacation
“Night’s Darkest Embrace” in the anthology, Haunted by Your Touch

Want to read them in order? See the Night Huntress Universe Timeline

When we asked Jeaniene what she would like to share about herself, this is what she had to say:

First, Jeaniene Frost is my real name (I keep getting asked if Frost is a pseudonym). I’ve loved all things creepy as far back as I can remember. This is probably from watching too many horror movies as a kid. Vampires are my favorite creature, however. Call me a sucker for fangs

I’ve always had vivid dreams, and when I turned twelve, I started to write down the more detailed ones and make little stories about them. Before long, I knew I wanted to be a writer, because I loved expanding on those short, weird stories and turning them into something more. I still get ideas from dreams. HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE was inspired by a dream, in fact. So were two other works I currently have in progress. But this is not to say writing is as easy as falling asleep. My dreams are excellent for getting main characters, what they are (vampire, demon, werewolf, etc), and a sliver of a plot. The rest of the plot: side characters, setting, and pacing are all done the old-fashioned way, however – time at the keyboard, write, revise, repeat.

My books tend to be written in first person point of view. I like the immediacy of first person. To me, it makes the action more intense…as well as the passionate scenes. Also, in first person, the heroine/hero – and the reader – doesn’t know the motivations of the other characters. They have to guess and make their best assumption based only on the information they’re presented with. Like in real life. We don’t get a convenient window into the minds of people around us, do we? So, most of the time, neither do my protagonists.

So, you never have specific people in mind when you describe your characters?

No. Francesca from Halfway to the Grave was flat-out inspired by Salma Hayek, in particular how Salma looked in “From Dusk Til Dawn”. She’s probably the only character in my books where I can say, “Here, this was the inspiration,” when it comes to a character’s face, body, voice, nationality, accent, etc.I get asked quite frequently about what advice I have for new writers. In addition to the Q&A for writers I already have on my site, here’s what else I recommend for new writers:

Write. The more you write, the better you’ll get at it. Read a lot. Be prepared to revise your novel(s), because writers seldom get anything right the first time, and revising is part of the process. Then, once you’ve polished a novel, gotten a second (or third) constructive critical opinion on it, revised, and polished again, you would start agent hunting. But until you’ve finished a novel and really gone over it several times, don’t look for an agent. Write first. Make sure you love it. Then jump into the publishing world.

So, I already have a list of favorite authors on my website, but I like movies, too. Here’s a list of some of my favorites:

Fight Club
The Mothman Prophecies
Signs
Clay Pigeons
Finding Neverland
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Gladiator
Army Of Darkness
Underworld
Death To Smoochy
What About Bob
Grosse Point Blank
Snatch
Kill Bill (1 and 2)
Hellboy
Jeepers Creepers 2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The other question I get asked a lot is this – am I only going to write about vampires? The answer is no. First, there are more than just vampires in the Night Huntress series. Halfway to the Grave also has ghosts and ghouls, though they only get a little screen time. My third book has a few other creatures popping up aside from vamps and ghouls. There’s such a broad range of varied creatures in the paranormal realm, and I’d love to write books about several of them. Yes, vamps are my first love, but I don’t intend to remain exclusively faithful to them.