Interview With An Author – Jenzy Montague
Tell us about where are you from?
Everywhere, LOL I was born in Missouri. I call Colorado my spiritual home. I loved it there and would move back in an instant. I’ve lived in California, Montclair, New Jersey, and now Virginia. I love mountains and college towns. Virginia gives me both. Even though I live an hour from Charlottesville, Virginia, I consider that home too. I’m a history nut so much history to glean from this area!
What do you do when you’re not writing?
Tag team with my daughter and hubby in homeschooling my three precious grandbabies! If not a nose in a textbook, I’m sewing and working with my crafts. I love to get outside and dig in the soil with my gardening. My youngest grandchild loves mother earthing with me.
When did you start writing stories?
I wrote stories when I was a child. I got serious as an adult but put it on hold so I could enjoy my biggest achievement, mothering my daughter. I would always jot down notes about stories that were in my head for years. I was a single mom. I had to be the breadwinner. I worked in a corporate world until I met my hubby.
Since the pandemic, I found myself having time to re-visit my thoughts of getting serious in my writing. It was my daughter Nikki that kept me on track making it happen.
It also was the pandemic that made me realize I needed to write a children’s story about Covid-19 from a child’s point of view. Watching the concerned looks on my grandbabies’ faces, I just had to do something. Noah just popped in my head. Even his name conveys our surviving the pandemic. It is the new norm. Perhaps even a new beginning. With all the stories that were already in my head, it took a pandemic to shake me loose.
What or who inspired you to write stories?
Children. Even when I was one myself, I was compassionate about little people’s feelings, their thought patterns. I wanted to be heard and it would come out on paper.
What is your favourite genre to write and why?
Children’s literature at present. However, I have some notes that I plan to dabble in someday.
What is your favourite genre to read?
If I do not have my nose in a children’s book reading to my littles, I am reading the school curriculum for lesson planning. However, during my downtime, I love historical, paranormal, and fantasy stories.
Who is your favorite Author and why?
Nicole Strycharz. She is a multi-genre writer and I just get lost in her books!
There are other amazing authors I love too. There is Daisy St. James and Lisa K Miller. They both write paranormal romance. Reading these talented women’s works is like a vacation away from the real world for me!
What was the first story you ever wrote?
LOL As a child there was Humpless, the Humpless Camel. I dare say I was very little. In reality, it was Cynthia’s Thankful Halloween.
What happened to it? Did you save it or trash it, and why?
My amazing illustrator, Mara Reitsma, has joined forces with me to publish Cynthia’s Thankful Halloween. Mara turns my world of characters into the exact picture I have in my head. It is like we are of one mind.
My little character Cynthia has been a part of me for years. All I did was tell Mara, and she got me. Then there is you, Claire. You have the talent to frame it to perfection. I am happy to say Cynthia will be a reality hopefully in time for 2021 Halloween. As for Humpless, well, he is still in the file. LOL.
Are there any sub-genres that you would consider pairing together?
Not sure just yet. Possibilities way back in my mind at this time.
Do you have more fun writing the scenes, or creating the characters?
Creating the characters because for me they create the scenes.
You’re an Indie Author, so tell us, why go Indie? Why choose to self publish?
Why not? There is a world of amazingly talented authors out there but cannot reach the goal or luxury of being published. Hats off to the authors who have been traditionally published. After all, they are and have been our inspiration. I choose to support my pen and paper with the Indie world because the drive is for our work to get out there and be read. Without both traditional published and self-published, we would not have such a world of choices to choose from. Makes the reading world so rich!
Tell us how you work. From pen and paper, to your fingers dancing across the keys, do you find yourself cozy and warm with a cup of tea and a blazing fire? Or do you hide in your dungeon, slaving away on your latest masterpiece; the words of wisdom flowing from your fingers as the story is born? Tell us how you write?
LOL, I am usually working side by side with my daughter, Nicole. Our desks are next to each other, with a bookshelf in the middle. Both computers are ticking away with yes, a cup of tea or, most likely, coffee in the early morning. If it is further on in the day, most likely there are children running back and forth screaming at each other or calling Mom, Grandma…Not sure to this day how we do it, but we do. Chaos keeps you on your toes or, for us, our minds working our fingers on the keyboard.
Social Media Links
Noah’s Book Link: http://mybook.to/iamasuperherobyjenzym
Website: https://gaiasgirl101.wixsite.com/jenzy-myworldbooks
FB Page: https://m.facebook.com/MyWorldBooksbyJenzy/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/JenzyMontague/e/B095J8CZ53/
Author Bio
Jenzy, a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature, has lived in many parts of the United States throughout her life but settled in Virginia with her family.
She homeschooled her daughter and aided many moms with their journey in homeschooling. She assisted with and tutored children of special needs in phonics, reading, and math.
Now, grandma to three precocious grandbabies. She joins her daughter in homeschooling them.
Jenzy’s been telling stories from childhood to grandmotherhood.
She prefers being in a cubby with pen and paper, capturing the thoughts of children. She shares that hearth of imagination with her daughter, who is also a writer. The only other place to be, she says, is enjoying her brood of three in their little classroom where she teaches!
EXCERPT FROM NOAH
I Am a Superhero A Kid’s Thoughts on Covid-19:
Available Now
Now, Mommy is my schoolteacher and school is at home. We have to stay home ‘cause there’s a sickness that hurts people. I keep forgetting the name of the sickness, so Mommy has to remind me it’s called Covid-19. I don’t like that name, so I just forget it! We have so many rules now.
We have to social distance from people. We have to stay six feet apart. That’s like as long as my dad lying down on the floor. The sickness can jump that far! Everyone wears masks. I don’t like not seeing faces, only eyes. Are they smiling or are they sad? I sing happy birthday every time I wash my hands, and it takes forever!
NEW RELEASE
Cynthia’s Thankful Halloween:
Releasing Soon
A windy start for October, just perfect for Halloween, thought Cynthia. She was the new member of the haunted house on the hill, at the edge of town. Even in the ghost world, a little ghost needs a family, and this house came with one. It wasn’t easy being a ten-year-old little ghost who just moved in and getting a new family too.
Just a few weeks ‘till Halloween. She must practice being scary. The moon would be full this year on Halloween, and her name meant moon. She had to be the best fright ever!
