Jennifer Anne Gordon
Jennifer Anne Gordon is a gothic horror novelist. Her work includes Beautiful, Frightening and Silent (2020) which is a finalist in the Kindle Book Review Awards, and From Daylight to Madness (The Hotel book 1), and coming out in November 2020, When the Sleeping Dead Still Talk (The Hotel book 2).
She had a collection of her mixed media artwork published during spring of 2020, entitled Victoriana: mixed media art of Jennifer Gordon.
Jennifer is one of the hosts as well as the creator of Vox Vomitus, a video podcast on the Global Authors on the Air Network, as well as the Co-Host of the You Tube Channel “Talk Horror to Me”. She had been a contributor to Ladies of Horror Fiction, as well as Horror Tree.
Jennifer is a pale curly haired ginger, obsessed with horror, ghosts, abandoned buildings, and her dog "Lord Tubby".
She graduated from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, where she studied Acting. She also studied at the University of New Hampshire with a concentration in Art History and English.
She has made her living as an actress, a magician's assistant, a "gallerina", a comic book dealer, a painter, and burlesque performer and for the past 10 years as an award-winning professional ballroom dancer, performer, instructor, and choreographer.
When not scribbling away (ok, typing frantically) she enjoys traveling with her fiancé and dance partner, teaching her dog ridiculous tricks (like 'give me a kiss' and 'what hand is the treat in?' ok these are not great tricks.) as well as taking photos of abandoned buildings and haunted locations.
She is a leo, so at the end of the day she just thinks about her hair.
Marina Raydun: You studied acting. How does this background help you in developing your characters?
Jennifer Anne Gordon: I love this question!! Honestly, I do the same “character homework” I would do if I were performing. There is a lot of character development that goes on in my head that never makes it to the page, but I think it’s so important that you know as much as possible about the people you are writing. It is the only thing that makes them real, you need to know their thoughts, the ones that are not in the book. I feel like you could ask me anything about any of my characters and I would know the answer. Also, when developing characters for Acting, you also pay attention to what other characters say to them, about them, their behavior. This usually comes into play when I am on my second and third drafts, this is when character shading comes into play, and they start to have real depth. I tend to write my first draft more on the sparse side, dialogue is more like a play. I’m just telling the story to myself, but the later drafts that is when I know my characters and then it’s them that tell me the story.
MR: Your bio, your novels, your art—it all has this hypnotizing and haunting quality to it. Where do you think this comes from?
JAG: Thank you! I know it sounds cliché but I have always felt more drawn to the past than I am the present. This is probably why I write Gothic literature; with characters whose past is more alive than they are in their current life. I have always found memories to be so fascinating. Because a memory is not real, it’s only one part of the story, your part. So, I have always found myself collecting strange things, like old letters, old postcards, old photos. Old letters especially are fascinating, as it’s truly just one side of a conversation. But it is also something that for some reason someone held onto for years.
MR: What is the first book that made you cry?
JAG: I had to look this up…I know I cried while reading Where the Red Fern Grows, and Charlottes Web. But there was a book I read when I was 8 called “A Summer to Die” by Lois Lowry, which was about two sisters, and one of them had Leukemia. That is the first time I remember really grieving for characters, feeling their pain like it was mine.
MR: What’s your favorite childhood book?
JAG: Anne of Green Gables.
MR: Is there one topic you would never write about as an author? Why?
JAG: I think I would never want to write erotica, or really any type of graphic love scene. I am definitely NOT opposed to any of that, I’m not offended, but I think for me I would end up being really awkward with it, and in the end it would probably sound embarrassing or medical. I blame being raised in New Hampshire.
MR: What are your literary pet peeves?
JAG: I really don’t like short sentences. I want them to be long a labyrinthine, I want to get lost in them.
MR: Who is your literary hero?
JAG: It’s a tie between Shirley Jackson, she wrote my favorite novel, The Haunting of Hill House. She was also an incredible woman; she struggled so much in her life with mental illness and used that to create work that is terrifying as well as emotionally devastating. My other literary hero is Anne Sexton, and I love her for all the same reasons as Jackson.
MR: Is there a book that changed your life?
JAG: Pet Sematary. It was the first Stephen King novel I read and the first horror novel. I picked it up because I thought it was about a cat. This was the first experience I had with a book that scared me and made me weep. Grief terror….
MR: Is there a book that people might be surprised to learn you love?
JAG: I absolutely loved the book Valley of the Dolls.
MR: Talk to us a little about your podcast. I, for one, love the title—Vox Vomitus (Word Vomit).
JAG: Thank you!! Yes, it’s a great name. It sprung from one time when I was writing a first draft and I was chatting with one of my now co-hosts for the show and she asked how my writing was going, and I said “I don’t know if I’m a genius or if its word vomit.” And well, the rest is history…we started using the phrase all the time. When I am being more eloquent, I call my first draft “me telling the story to myself” but really, it’s word vomit. I wanted to create a show where we could chat with best selling authors and ask them not necessarily what went right to get them where they are, but what went really wrong. So we talk about having to throw out whole chapters, early work, all the mistakes. We pitched the show to the Global Authors on the Air Radio network and the rest is history. We’ve been lucky enough to talk to some of the best authors out there right now including James Rollins, Mary Burton, Paul Tremblay, Wendy Webb, Carol Goodman and many others. It’s a dream come true.
For more information and benevolent stalking, please visit Anne’s website at www.JenniferAnneGordon.com
Amazon Author Page - www.amazon.com/author/jenniferannegordon
Facebook Author Page - https://www.facebook.com/JenniferAnneGordonAuthor/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jennifergenevievegordon/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/JenniferAnneGo5
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20063036.Jennifer_Gordon