Author Interview: Jennifer Archer (Through Her Eyes)

Today we have Jennifer Archer. She's the author of several books and her most recent book, Through Her Eyes, which comes out on April 5th! Jennifer is also hosting a huge giveaway for pre-ordering her book between March 1, 2011 and April 4, 2011! For more information just click here!

Having lived in different places, did you ever have a favorite place were you stayed? Why?

The majority of my moving occurred between the time I was one year of age until I was eleven. I did move once more the summer after my sophomore year of high school. I liked different places my family and I lived for different reasons, but Emporia, Kansas is the town that holds my best memories. The school I attended, Maynard Elementary, was mostly responsible for that. The teachers and the curriculum were wonderful, with lots of fun and interesting field trips, extracurricular school events, and programs. I grew more self-conscious as I became older, but back then, I loved being on stage in front of a microphone. I tried out for all the programs offered, and as a result of that, I was in a few plays and even sang a couple of solos. Believe me, no program director would choose me to sing a solo now! I lost my decent singing voice when I grew up, along with my love of performing!

How do you think your writing has changed from when you first started to how you write now?

I hope it’s gotten better! I do know that it’s become a bit darker in tone. Most of my earlier published works were more lighthearted and humorous than what I’m currently writing. Those books all had somewhat emotional undertones, or dealt with underlying serious issues in a lighthearted way. THROUGH HER EYES and my second YA novel, THE SHADOW GIRL, that will be released next winter, take the opposite approach. These stories are primarily darker or more serious, with moments of humor.

What made you decide to write a book for teens after writing books for adults?

I’ve always enjoyed reading teen fiction, but stopped reading as much of it during the early years of my career, when I was mainly focused on adult fiction because I was writing it. I was substitute teaching one day during this time, and the teacher had a copy of the classic novel A WRINKLE IN TIME on her desk. I recalled reading it and enjoying it when I was in school, and I picked it up and started reading it while the students were working on a paper. I was instantly drawn in – and blown away – by the story, the characters, and the writing. A few days later, I was talking to my agent and mentioned it, as well as my interest in trying to write a novel for young people. She encouraged me, and the next morning, I literally woke up with Tansy’s character and the bare bones of the plotline for what would become THROUGH HER EYES in my mind.

Do you think that if you hadn't lived in all those places you would still have had the idea of becoming a writer?

That’s hard to say. I have noticed that there seem to be a lot of writers who grew up moving a lot. That makes me wonder if constantly being transplanted to places where you don’t know many people, or anyone at all, during the formative years, encourages a child to turn to books for companionship and comfort, thereby developing an unusually healthy imagination and active fantasy life. Books certainly became my cherished friends and a great escape during lonely times. Whatever the case, even though moving so much was difficult in many ways, I don’t regret my upbringing. I was exposed to many different types of landscapes and weather conditions, cultures, customs and mindsets because of my family’s migratory lifestyle, and that certainly hasn’t hurt my writing, because I can draw from those many different experiences.

What kind of research did you have to do to write Through Her Eyes?

My personal photography experience equates to ‘point and snap.’ I don’t have a fancy camera with a lot of different lenses, and I’ve never developed photographs in a darkroom. So I read up quite a bit on photography, and also turned to my sister-in-law, who is a wonderful photographer, to clarify a few things for me. It’s also been quite awhile since I was a high school student, so I spent a day sitting in on classes in a high school located in a small Texas town similar to Cedar Canyon, the fictional town in THROUGH HER EYES. I spent time browsing the businesses and neighborhoods in that town and another small Texas town nearby where I live. A seventeen year old girl I was mentoring through a program at her school was also a great help to me with current teen language and trends. I remember one fun and funny afternoon when Summer explained the difference between nerds and geeks, and Emos and Goths! It was a very educational meeting!

Thanks for having me on your wonderful blog, Diana! I would love to hear from readers on Facebook, Twitter, my blog, and/or my website. Links to all of the above are on my site: http://www.jenniferarcher.net/

The book trailer:


Through Her Eyes - Book Trailer from Emily Greaser on Vimeo.

Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer

Title: Through Her Eyes
Author: Jennifer Archer
Published: April 5 2011
Pages: 240
Rating: 4/5
Summary: The last place Tansy Piper wants to be is stuck in Cedar Canyon, Texas, in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of small-town kids. But when her mother decides to move to the desolate West Texas town, Tansy has no choice but to go along. Once there, Tansy is immediately drawn to the turret of their rickety old house, a place she soon learns has a disturbing history. But its the strange artifacts she finds in the cellar--a pocket watch, a journal of poetry, and a tiny crystal--that have the most chilling impact on her.

Tansy soon finds that through the lens of her camera, she can become part of a surreal black-and-white world where her life is intertwined with that of mysterious, troubled Henry, who lived in the same house and died decades earlier. It seems their lives are linked by fate and the artifacts she found, but as Tansy begins spending more and more time in the past, her present world starts to fade away. Tansy must untangle herself from Henry's dangerous reality-- before she loses touch with her own life forever.

Review: The story starts off with Tansy meeting the place that will be her new home. All her life she's had to move from town to town because of her mother's work. From the start she feels that this time around it won't be like any of the places she has stayed at before.

Tansy was a character that had to change her ways every time she moved and therefore never really had a place to call home. At the beginning she resents her mother for having moved her from the town that she felt gave her the chance to settle down in. When she arrives at her new house she finds a journey with poems, a pocket watch and a small crystal.

Through the book Tansy realizes that her camera allows her to see to the past and through these images she sees she starts putting a puzzle together that has been there for decades. She gets sucked into these images and soon she must figure out what's real and what are the visions.

The visions she got were made me want to know more about the things that had happened in the past. Every time she had a vision everything felt seemed more real and things starting to make more sense. It followed the last days of Henry and little by little some interesting things from the past are revealed.

This was an amazing book that kept me reading at night and even in class. Jennifer Archer knows how to make the reader feel what Tansy when she's up at night, inside a house that holds many secrets. Even though the ending had it's sad side I also think that it was the best ending that it could have had. It's a book about ghosts that I think everyone would enjoy!

I received this book through a book tour.