The Authors Are Rockstars Tour is a yearly event where bloggers like myself get to honor one of their favorite authors. There is more then 160 authors & bloggers participating this year which to me is totally epic.
You may be asking yourself what author do I think is a
None other then the amazing, brilliant, bold and all around EPIC:
Jennifer Banash is the author of the book WHITE LINES. Maybe you've her of it? Her other works include
The Elite series, Hollywoodland, and upcoming release; Silent Alarm.
Earlier in the year I wrote a review for White Lines basically gushing about how much I loved the book - found here. After contacting Jennifer to show her my review she told me how much she adored my review and was super sweet to offer me a copy of the book for a giveaway. Jennifer totally is a ROCKSTAR to me not only for her kind words, taking the time to chat with me, and generosity but just writing such a EPIC novel. For those of you who haven't read White Lines, go...now...and...DO IT! White Lines deals with many sensitive subjects and topics that rarely appear in YA fiction. The major ones being drugs and partying set in the dark and gritty world in the nightlife of NY City during the 80's. Jennifer is definitely is a risk taker holding nothing back while writing. White Lines was one of my very favorite reads in 2013. I hope one day I can get to meet Jennifer Banash in person so I can give her a hug and tell her how much I admire her not only as a writer but for her beautiful soul.
Jennifer Banash! YOU ROCK!
Jennifer has written a beautiful guest post for my blog talking about her book and herself.
If I’m being truthful, no one really inspired me to write. Growing up, I didn’t have an important teacher up who took me under her wing or anything like that, and my parents certainly didn’t encourage it as a career—or even a hobby. I was always a huge reader, though—it wasn’t unusual for me to tear through a stack of books in a few short days, and my love for reading certainly influenced me as a writer. I adored books like Little Women and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when I was little, and devoured the Sweet Valley High series. Deenie, by Judy Blume, was also an important book for me, as I, much like the main character, had pretty bad scoliosis, and had to wear a brace for a time. But generally, I didn’t read many YA books per se—I started reading adult fiction pretty early, and generally preferred it, especially writers like Bret Easton Ellis (Less Than Zero had a huge impact on me) Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, and JD Salinger. But basically, my love of reading long predated my love for writing, but the two really go hand-in-hand. As I tell my students now, you cannot be a good writer if you aren’t a good reader. When I did start writing, early on in college, I was a poet. I didn’t start writing fiction till much later—when I realized that my poems were narratives in their own right, stories that needed to be told in a different, longer, and more involved format.
White Lines was partially based on my own experience growing up in Manhattan during the late 80’s. Like Cat, I was a club kid, throwing parties at night, stumbling through high school in the daylight hours. It was a story that I put off writing for a very long time—fifteen years, to be exact—because it represented a painful time in my life. Many people who were the inspirations behind characters in the book, like Julian and Giovanni, are now dead from drugs, suicide, or AIDS. But even though the process of returning to that time period wasn’t initially pleasant, I knew it was a story I had to tell. The books took me two years to write in fits and starts, and almost another year of editing. When I was done, it felt like something in me could finally go to sleep. In fact, the night the book sold, instead of celebrating, I passed out at 9 PM! The whole experience was cathartic, but it was also extremely emotionally draining. Cat’s story is not my story—she’s a fictional character and very much her own person—but I like to think that some of my misspent youth lives on in her, that I’ve managed to, against all odds, make something beautiful out of it. As a writer, I always trust my characters, and let them take me where they want to go. In fact, it’s one of my favorite moments in the writing process—that instant where the characters begin to take over and assert their needs, their desires—even if the trajectory, more often than not, doesn’t match up with what I have planned.
About The Author:
Jennifer Banash was born and raised in New York City. She now lives in Southern California with her beagle, Sigmund, and her vast collection of designer shoes.
Find Jennifer Banash @
Thank you for stopping by and reading this post. I hope each of you enjoyed learning more about author Jennifer Banash and what makes her so awesome! Be sure to leave Jennifer a comment below letting her know SHE ROCKS! What author(s) do you think are rockstars?
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