Jess Michaels is a woman with multiple personae. She writes historical romance as Jenna Petersen, snarky urban fantasy as Jesse Petersen and, as Jess Michaels, is an award-winning author of erotic historical romance. I first met this talented author -and really fun lady - as Jenna Petersen but today we're welcoming her as Jess Michaels, writing geek. When Jess isn't busy writing, she can be found hiking the desert surrounding her Arizona home, spending time with family and designing jewelry (which she sells). Find more information about her at her website.
Welcome, Jess!
Confessions of a
Romance Writing Geek
Jess Michaels
Hi everyone and thanks so much to PJ and Andrea for having
me here on Romance Dish. I think we’ve known each other since the dawn of time.
Okay, so maybe more like 7-8 years. Sometimes that feels like the dawn of time
to me. But some of you lovely readers
may not know me quite so well, so here is what you need to know about me: I
write erotic historical romance as Jess Michaels set in the Regency period. I
write dark, emotional erotic stories and it’s pretty darn fun. I have also
written historical romance as Jenna Petersen and I write snarky urban fantasy
as Jesse Petersen. I wear a lot of hats.
But the big thing I’m here to talk about today is I am also
a self-proclaimed, loud and proud geek. It didn’t used to be cool to say that.
As a kid, my geekish tendencies had me ignored on the playground, but now is a
great time to be a geek. So how am I a geek? Well, my home is decorated with
art from comic books, Star Wars and Venture Brothers for one. I am a huge fan
of anime. I wear t-shirts with Star Wars on them and lines from Portal (a video
game). Oh, and I play video games. A lot. And Munchkin.
So basically, your happy geek. But lately I’ve been thinking
about the fact that my geekishness is what helps me write. As a kid, I was
always entangled in pretending. My brother and I had friends (The Davlin Kids)
who used to come to stay with their Dad in the summers. As soon as they got to
town, they’d practically live at our house, playing Star Wars, writing our own
movies and generally wreaking havoc on the order of my Mom and Dad’s house.
Pretending got me through a lot of days. Telling and acting
out stories was a fun escape we all indulged in. Now I do it for a living.
Though instead of acting out the stories I’m telling, I write them down on the
page and eventually they become available for mass consumption. I don’t think
I’d be doing that if I hadn’t played Princess Leia in a dozen new adventures in
my back yard as a kid.
So what makes you geek out? Or did you ever do anything as a
kid that led you to the path you’re on now?
