New York Times Bestselling Author Jenna Blum Advises Writers to Never Give In

The Stormchasers
(Plume Books, May 2011;
978-0-452-29713-5)

Jenna Blum, New York Times Bestselling author of
Those Who Save Us, talks
about her latest novel, The Stormchasers

Jenna Blum

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Jenna Blum accumulated 47 rejections from literary agents before ultimately becoming published and making it to the New York Times Bestseller list. Here, she talks to Authorlink about her newest book, THE STORMCHASERS, provides an intimate glimpse into her life as a successful novelist, and offers sound advise for writers still struggling to become published.

Jenna proved herself a master storyteller with her debut novel Those Who Save Us, which spent nearly two years on the New York Times bestseller list and was hailed by critics across the country.  The Boston Globe called it “both vast and intimate in its reach” and “utterly believable” while The San Francisco Chronicle claimed “Those Who Save Us bursts with provocative questions about the ambiguous possibilities of culpability.”  Blum was selected by O Magazine readers as one of their “Favorite Women Writers” in 2010.  In THE STORMCHASERS (Plume Books/May 2011), now available in paperback from Plume Books, Blum once again examines how guilt and secrecy twists relationships when people’s lives are devastated by huge forces beyond their control—this time set amidst the thrilling world of extreme weather. 

Drawing on her personal experience with storm chasing to reveal the fascinating world of tornado chasing and storm chasers, Blum also pulls back the curtain on a unique and mysterious human relationship:  the bond between twins. In THE STORMCHASERS, reporter Karena Jorge has not seen her bipolar twin brother Charles in two decades–not since a tragic accident caused by Charles’s instability forced them into years of estrangement. The story is set in the majestic far reaches of Tornado Alley.

JENNA BLUM researched her second novel, THE STORMCHASERS, by chasing tornadoes for five years with stormchasing company Tempest Tours.   She has attended Kenyon College and Boston University, where she taught creative and communications writing for five years, and has been an interviewer for Stephen Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.  Currently, Jenna runs master novel workshops for Grub Street Writers in Boston.  When not on the road speaking about her novels, Jenna divides her time between Boston, where she teaches, and Minnesota, where she writes in the town where her mother and grandmother were born. www.jennablum.com

–Doris Booth