About Jenny B. Jones:
I write Christian fiction with a few giggles, quite a bit of sass, and lots of crazy. My novels include the Katie Parker Production series and the upcoming book So Not Happening. I would also like to take credit for Twilight, but somewhere I think I read you’re not supposed to lie.

What is So Not Happening, your latest novel, about and when is it set to be released?

So Not Happening, the first book in my A Charmed Life series will release the first week of May. I’m really excited about it…..

Here’s the scoop! Bella Kirkwood had it all: A-list friends at her prestigious private school, Broadway in her backyard, and Daddy’s MasterCard in her wallet. Then her father, a plastic surgeon to the stars, decided to trade her mother in for a newer model.

When Bella’s mom falls in love with a man she met on the Internet-a factory worker with two bratty sons-Bella has to pack up and move in with her new family in Truman, Oklahoma. On a farm no less!

Forced to trade her uber-trendy NYC lifestyle for the down-home charm of this small town, Bella feels like a pair of Rock & Republic jeans in a sea of Wranglers . Everything she loves is more than a thousand miles away-including her best friend, her boyfriend, and Fifth Avenue.

And she’s supposed to find faith in this situation how? At least some of the people in her new high school are pretty cool. Especially the hunky football player who invites her to lunch. And maybe even the annoying-but kinda hot-editor of the school newspaper.

But before long, Bella smells something rotten in the town of Truman, and it’s not just the cow pasture. With her savvy reporter’s instincts, she is determined to find the story behind all these secrets.

Can Bella survive her crazy new family in this middle-of-nowhere town? Will the school survive Bella? How can a girl go on when her charmed life is gone and God appears to be giving her the total smackdown?

What do you love about writing a book series? What are some of the challenges?

I love writing series because you get to know the characters and really build on their lives. As a reader, I love series as well. But sometime during book two or three, I’ll be writing and wishing I could hang out with some new characters for a while. It’s like spending too much time with your family. Sometimes you just need some space. Ha.

But after that time apart, I miss them! I’m finishing up the final pages on this series and missing my Katie Parker and Maxine a little bit.

How is The Charmed Life series different from A Katie Parker Production series?

They are so different, but I love that about them. In theme, the Katie Parker Production series was about Katie coming to Christ through her crazy life, and then living out that new faith in the final book.

In A Charmed Life series, Bella is a believer, and it’s about her growing in her faith and just living the daily challenges of a teen and how Christ filters into that. Katie was very down to earth, pretty unpolished. Bella is a Gossip Girl-type who gets taken down a few (hundred) pegs. But in both series, both girls find their true passion and talent, and I love that.

All of us girls have talents and gifts from God. And Bella and Katie both use theirs and lean into their strengths.

Hopefully both series are funny and cheeky. Both are light in tone while dealing with some issues and showing how imperfect life is.

Is your grandmother as crazy as Maxine? If not, who did you base that character on?

Oh, I love Maxine. I love writing crazy characters, period. My grandma was not crazy as Maxine, but they had some similarities. Both funny. Both sarcastic. Both fashionable. Both pretty blunt, but always with a fun and wicked gleam in the eye.

I had the honor of sharing care of my grandmother the last few years of her life, and that put us in the presence of a LOT of senior citizens. That really influenced me as I began to see how every person was such a story, such a character. In A Charmed Life, my new series, Maxine shows up in the form of a new character, who makes her debut in the second book.

When did you start writing?

First grade. I wrote plays and created puppets and forced my class to be my audience. I have no idea why my teacher, Mrs. Hansen, let me get away with it. Or why those kids would let me eat goulash with them at lunch any more.