Jenn: I'm Chinese Malaysian, born in Malaysia. No, not married and no kids. I do have six furbabies, mutant Pomeranians trained to ruin everyone's clothing with fur and doggy paws. My Mutant Poms, as they are called, are thus called because they weigh OVER fourteen pounds each. Mama Mutant is Magic and she is a stupendous 28 pounds. She is so tough I don't even feed her. She just goes around hunting for whatever she can find AND still manage to grow to this size. The oldest is the King, Marlon Brando. He is thirteen and still thinks girls are his and his alone. Their four kids, one of whom went off to doggie heaven a few years ago, are: Batman, Miracle, Nasty Temper, and BoomBoom. BoomBoom was the one who left us. Recently, just before my book came out, I was gifted with a new Pom and she is smaller (since she isn't from Mutant Stock, as far as I can tell), but I don't think she is normal because her name is Lilah the Terrorist. Look at the following pictures and you will see why!

Maggie: Can you tell us about your time as a translator? How did you learn so many languages?

Jenn: It was for a think tank. I already spoke Chinese and Malay, so with English, that's three languages. German came easily and for some reason, I took up Russian (was it the cute instructor? I forget ... ). Anyway, it's been a few years since, so I'm out of practice. That's why, on my site, my REAL bio says that I am STUDYING German and Russian. VBG!

Translation is fun, if you're young and like to travel. I enjoyed seeing different countries and getting to know their cultures. However, the pay wasn't much and I was basically living out of a suitcase. Very little free time and there was paperwork. It got tiresome after a while.

Maggie: How did you come to start your own roofing business? When do you find time to write?

Jenn: Hunger will get one to do anything! I was hungry and teaching didn't pay my bills and school loans, so one day I picked up a hammer ... LOL ... I write at lunch time, in dirty diners, eating with sweaty stinky men. Lord knows how I managed the love scenes.

Maggie: When did you begin writing and when did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Jenn: Writing was second nature to me. I communicate best with the written word. I have been writing since I could hold a pencil. There were periods in my life where I abandoned it but it always found its way back. Muse is very stubborn!

Maggie: How did you choose romance as a genre, particularly the romantic suspense thriller genre, or did it choose you?? What, in particular, do you like about romance? ... suspense?

Jenn: I chose the romance genre by accident. Like everyone else, I was planning the Great American Novel in my head and sheets of promising white paper ... then one day, RWA held its conference in Orlando and I read about it in the paper (I'm fifty miles away from Disney City). I recognized some authors' names and thought, "Hey, THEY are still writing???! They need new blood!" LOL. I decided to learn more about RWA and the business of romance writing.

My first full manuscript was a medieval hisTErical about a Viking slave girl. It will never see the light of day again. But even then, my heroine had this kickass attitude that wasn't very medieval-ish. I was an avid romance reader, glomming on all my favorite authors every waking moment. I found out that I enjoyed romantic suspense the most, so one day, while sitting in front of an editor at my first RWA conference, I made up this story about a roofer girl and a missing covert agent needing work (my fantasy, don't you know). The editor LOVED the concept and asked for a complete. I-uh-didn't know I was supposed to have this story done already. Anyway, of course I said, "No Problem!" and went home from RWA to write BIG BAD WOLF, which was a finalist in the 1999 Golden Heart. See? I just go barging into everything. Story of my life.

Maggie: You say in your bio on your Website that you are an "RWA contest slut." Can you tell us about that?

Jenn: A contest slut is someone who keeps entering writing contests and finaling. *BEG* If your name is on at least four contest finals list in the Romance Writer (RWA magazine) every month, you're well on your way to slutdom. My writing partner is Patti O'Shea (RAVYN'S FLIGHT), another contest slutextraordinaire, and between the both of us, we've slutted most of the US chapters. *BEG* My main battle cry when I climbed on the roof in those prepubbed days was to yell out to my very unimpressed roofers: "I conquered California!" (Or D.C., or whichever state/city I finaled.) As you can see, I lead a very odd life.

Maggie: Now that you're published, is there hope that any of your previous work will finally get published, too? Does any of it tie in to INTO DANGER?

Jenn: Yes, almost every one of my manuscripts is tied together by the covert groups GEM and COS Commandoes. I proposed Alex's and T.'s story (which finaled in the Golden Heart) as Book Two to Avon, but they didn't want it. There is still hope one day I will sell their story. FACING FEAR, the next book, was originally titled HARD LESSONS, and I wrote it before selling too. I also have other manuscripts (including the infamous BIG BAD WOLF) that I can convert into single title, if need be.

Leiha: The response to INTO DANGER has been amazing. Every person who has read this book has raved and told others to buy it! (Thank you, Maria, for being the first to tell us about it.) That must be amazing for you considering this is your first book. How does it feel being you right now ... having this book have such a buzz about it?

Jenn: First, I have the bestest BSHes in the world. If you check out my acknowledgment page, their names are there for the world to see. BSHes are Book Store Hos ... BEG ... hey, they chose the name themselves! My BSHes really encouraged me as I wrote my scenes, and I'm forever grateful to their kindness and willingness to read for me.

I'm truly amazed at the response to my book. I love it! For years, I've been told in various different rejection letters how my 'voice' just doesn't work and that my heroine is 'too different.' So this is vindication, to know that there are readers who enjoy my kind of vision/stories. I hope to keep on surprising people with my stories. And hopefully, readers will enjoy Book Two, Three, Four ... LOL ...

Leiha: A problem I have with a lot of action/adventure type romances is there is more of an emphasis on the action and less on the romance. I thought INTO DANGER found a wonderful balance. How do you keep the action from taking over? (Maggie adds: It is an incredibly well-balanced story with the elements of eroticism, romance, mystery, humor. and suspense all perfectly meshed. How did you do that??? How did you manage to pack so many things into one book?)

Jenn: It all depends on what I'm writing. INTO DANGER just seemed to work out that way. The characters told the story in that particularly sexy, sassy, almost carefree style and I enjoyed being their conduit. I don't exactly know how to answer the question on how I keep the action from taking over ... I'm not a plotter, I write by the seat of my pants, so it is just as amazing to me when I write THE END after 120,000 words or whatever and find that everything sort of connected!

In my next book (can I BSH for myself a bit? *BEG*), the characters tell their stories a lot differently. They are darker and more muted, and they don't like to go too fast in their actions. Still, their journey is very erotic and the suspense is still a big part of the story. I threw in Cam and Patty to bring some humor to the story, too. The title is very apt. FACING FEAR is very internal, with certain Asian cultural elements in the story because the heroine is Asian.

Leiha: Your next heroine is going to be Asian and you yourself are an Asian-American writer. Do you plan on having more Asian heroines? Was this a conscious choice or did the story demand an Asian heroine?

Jenn: It wasn't a conscious choice at all. Nikki appeared out of nowhere and perfectly complemented the tortured, broody, absolutely prickly Rick Harden. My current WIP is sort of half-French, half-Asian. I have written several stories with Asian or mixed-Asian heroines, actually.

Leiha: In INTO DANGER, it's hard to keep track of the good guys and bad guys, and I found myself trying to guess and second guess who the bad guys were. Was there pressure from the publishers to sort of "dumb down" the intricate plot twists?

Jenn: Avon has been wonderful. They bought the story 'as is,' meaning no major revisions. I knew the plot can be distracting to some readers who aren't used to so many things happening, but I wanted to write something that would keep things not as they seem. Besides, I think most action-suspense readers are getting hooked on shows like ALIAS and 24 these days, and they have enough twists and turns to give me heartburn! But I watch those shows with THAT in mind, just as I pick up a certain author with certain expectations in mind. I want to be one of those authors that people pick up knowing that everything is one wild rollercoaster ride and to just enjoy that. Does that make sense?

Maggie: Speaking of pressure, your book is actually fairly long compared to many published romances these days. (Thank GOODNESS!) Did the publishers put pressure on you to shorten it? How about upcoming books?

Jenn: Avon made me add twenty pages!!! And then they realized how long that would be and made me cut twenty pages, but not what I added because they loved what I added! Does that sound complicated enough? They gave me a total of one week to add the twenty pages, and then after they found their mistake, gave me three days to knock off twenty ... sigh ... it gave new meaning to creative writing.

No one really told me that my book was too long. I just write the story and send it in. FACING FEAR came out about the same length as INTO DANGER, and my new editor is asking for ten pages additional changes. Here we go again ....

Maggie: Your characters are wonderful. Marlena is one tough lady! Somewhat unusual to me, though, was the fact that Stash is such a "guy" - he HATES shopping and prefers sitting around drinking beer and watching a game. Romance heroes are often rich, suave, worldly men who love opera, wear tuxedos, drink champagne, etc. Why do you think women find Stash so appealing? Why is an opera-hating, t-shirt wearing, beer-drinking man so attractive (besides the obvious attributes, of course!)?

Jenn: Why do women find Stash appealing? Hee hee ... well, sheesh girl, the pushups! How can you resist a man like Stash? ;-) He is very willing to let the lady take the lead until she gets into trouble (face it, he's Alpha male; he thinks he's right EVERY time), and then he goes all warrior-mode to protect her from harm. And he is willing to try opera to please her. Stash is a very uncomplicated man and I think most women can relate to his 'guyness.' That doesn't mean he's dumb ... he just doesn't go very deep. It's yes or no. It's shoot or be killed. It's stop or go on. That's why he is the point man in his team. A point man's focus is entirely different than the commander's, you know? And when a point man like Steve's ENTIRE focus is on YOU, face it, girl ... you're a goner!

My next book's title is FACING FEAR, out in February/March 2004. Now, in FACING FEAR, we have Rick Harden the Bureaucrat. Entirely different personality. Will the women like him? I don't know. But his focus goes beyond the black and white; in fact, his world is very gray. And he tends to think of motive instead of action. But he wasn't always like this; I suspect he was pretty much Stash-like until something burned his ass. What do you think?

Leiha: INTO DANGER is screaming sequels. Did you go into this book with that in mind? And when do we get Tess and Alex's story?

Jenn: I would love to do a sequel with Stash and Lena. I haven't suggested it to Avon but it would be fun. It's hard to let go of your characters; I never write with sequels in mind but I always seem to end with them promising me that there is more!

Tess and Alex. Tess and Alex. Tess and Alex. Boy, do I get e-mails on Tess and Alex. Avon doesn't want them - sob, sob.

(Maggie: In response to this statement about Avon not wanting Tess and Alex's story - after picking my jaw up off the floor, I wrote Jenn and asked if we could post something in this interview about what we can do to protest this {insert expletive!} decision!

Jenn: If you and any readers want to express your views and enthusiasm about Tess and Alex, that's fine with me. I'm not going to put words in your mouths, though. ;-) Everything must come from your heart so they can't blame poor Jenn.

Note: Look for the link at the bottom of the interview to write to Avon and give it a good RBL protest!!!)

Jenn: After FACING FEAR, it's a book untitled, with Hawk's and his best friend's team doing what they do best - covert ops - out some time at the end of 2004.

Maggie: Please tell us about your plans to expand your Website.

Jenn: This is a tough one. It has to do with time and how much of it I can afford! For now, I plan to add a page with synopses of my books that are out and coming out, and future plans. I would like character layouts but I'm afraid this will confuse readers even more ... like, "Who the hell is Jenn talking about and where are these books?" There will definitely be a page of FAQs from readers because I get repeated questions all the time. I'm going to do that - yes, yes, I AM! Any suggestions to improve the site are always welcome, btw.

Maggie: How can we sign up for your newsletter?

Jenn: To sign up, just write to Jenn@Gennita-Low.com with NEWSLETTER in the subject heading.

Maggie: Lastly, and most important, is there REALLY a Venus Butterflytrap Technique, and if so, HOW DO YOU DO IT????

Jenn: Well, there are two techniques here actually - heh heh. One is trademarked, so I didn't want to use it in my book for fear of being caught in legalities. One claims to make a man's penis bigger and longer. Bwahaha. The other prolongs the pleasure by using the art of Shiatsu and Reiki. I'm terribly fascinated by body parts and the control thereof. Doing a hundred push-ups. Running for miles. Intensified sexual awareness. LOL. Things like that.

If you REALLY want to try it, it's best to do the simplest technique first. You have a man lie down with one of his legs over your thighs and the other parted outwards. You have to be sitting down, btw, and obviously within easy reach of his HUGH. Make sure one of your feet is pushing against his free one (around the knee-bent), so if he struggles you have TOTAL MASTERY. You need some lubricant - okay, LOTS. You need to learn how to pull his balls ... LOL ... awww, do you REALLY want me to go into details?!!! Hee hee, you girls are too much.

(Maggie: And she STOPPED THERE!!! I know you can imagine my reaction. It involved screaming. Anyway, when I wrote to protest and assure her that we absolutely DO want to know the details, here was her response.

Jenn: Awwww, come on, what is the fun of all secrets in life revealed on a get go? ;-) I've given you the basic position(s) - now go forth, experiment, research (like moi, bwahaha), and report back. I'm a big fan of research. And I know you ladies are too ... I mean, I saw the Big Purply Thang you girls keep as a backup pet. Uh-huh. 'Nuff said.

Maggie: If anyone can pry the rest of this technique out of her, there's a pitcher of margaritas and a dance at OG just WAITING for you.)

Jenn: Thank you for the interview! I truly enjoyed answering these questions.