Author Interview-Jenna Bennett

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve always been a writer. My first grade teacher told my parents – and all the other parents in the room – that “this one will probably grow up to be an author,” just before she read my story out loud at one of the parent-teacher meetings. Growing up, writing stories was a way to live vicariously through the characters, who were all prettier, more popular, and much more exciting than me.

I never considered writing as a possible career, though, so I did a lot of other things. Tour guide, bank teller, actress, waitress, proof reader, bed and breakfast reservationist, real estate agent, stay-at-home mom... until 2005, when I met historical suspense author Tasha Alexander. Her first book was being released that year, and she told me, “if I can do it, you can do it.” So I did it. And the rest is history, pretty much.

Who are your favorite romance characters (besides your own?)

I’m partial to Eve Dallas and Roarke, in JD Robb’s (Nora Roberts’) In Death series. They have full lives, difficult pasts, often difficult presents, and they don’t always get along, but their relationship is always real, and I like how, when they disagree, it’s over real stuff, and not some silly misunderstanding that could be figured out with a two minute conversation. As mostly a mystery writer, I appreciate the mystery and suspense plots of the books, too.

Tell me what inspired this story.

I started writing the Savannah Martin romantic mystery series when I was in real estate school in 2005. They were talking a lot about personal safety, and about the dangers that might lurk in an empty house. Things like axe murderers, rapists, and really big cockroaches. And I started imagining what might happen if a newly-minted real estate agent walked into an empty house and found a dead body. And not just that, but the dead body of a competitor, the barracuda of the real estate office, with her throat cut from ear to ear. And the suspect in the crime, the guy practically standing over the body, was the boy her mother always warned her about...  

That’s how A Cutthroat Business was born. I was reading a lot of Janet Evanovich around that time, so that’s the general feel of it. With a romantic relationship that actually goes somewhere, and doesn’t carry on in perpetuity with no resolution.

What is one of your favorite romantic locales?

I’m not sure there is such a thing. I mean, it all depends on who you’re with, right? Anywhere can be romantic with the right person, or unromantic with the wrong one.

That said, the isle of Capri is lovely. So is Venice. So, for that matter, is Bruges. And a whole lot of other places in the world, depending on your taste.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

A Cutthroat Business, the first Savannah Martin mystery, is a free ebook download.  You can find the links on my website, www.jennabennett.com/a-cutthroat-business/ or simply by checking your ebook vendor of choice for it. It’s available on Amazon, BN, iBooks, Kobo and Google Play.

Here’s the blurb, if you think it’s something you might be interested in. It’s pretty funny, and with a really hot love interest, if I do say so myself.

Savannah Martin has always been a good girl, doing what was expected and fully expecting life to fall into place in its turn. But when her perfect husband turns out to be a lying, cheating slimeball—and bad in bed to boot—Savannah kicks the jerk to the curb and embarks on life on her own terms. With a new apartment, a new career, and a brand new outlook on life, she’s all set to take the world by storm.

If only the world would stop throwing her curveballs...

A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS

Everyone has warned new-minted realtor Savannah Martin that real estate is a cutthroat business. But Savannah doesn’t think she’s supposed to take the warning literally ... until an early morning phone call sends her to an empty house on the ‘bad’ side of town, where she finds herself standing over the butchered body of a competitor, face to face with the boy her mother always warned her about.

Rafe Collier is six feet three inches of testosterone and trouble; tall, dark, and dangerous, with a murky past and no future—not the kind of guy a perfect Southern Belle should want to tangle with. In any way. But wherever Savannah turns, there he is, and making no bones about what he wants from her.

Now Savannah must figure out who killed real estate queen Brenda Puckett, make a success of her new career, and avoid getting killed—or kissed—by Rafe, all before the money in her savings account runs out and she has to go back to selling make-up at the mall.