One of our favorite authors, Jen Blood, has an excellent promotion
going on in honor of her heroine, Erin Solomon’s “birthday!” Tomorrow and
Thursday, the first novel in the series, All the Blue Eyed Angels, will be
free, and the newly-released second novel Sins of the Father will be on sale
for $2.99. You can pick up both books for $3.00!
I’ve asked Jen to share six fun facts about her new novel (which
has already garnered rave reviews!) as a teaser for tomorrow’s feature, where
she will share an exclusive audio excerpt. Enjoy!
1. Sins of the Father takes place in northern Maine, where a large contingent of the
population still speaks a combination of Acadian French and English. For me, one of the most challenging aspects of
the novel was ensuring that the dialect
and the Acadian were accurate.
2. In the
novel, the case of Hank Gendreau – in prison for allegedly murdering his
daughter at the beginning of the book – is based on the widely-publicized
Dennis Dechaine case. Dechaine was convicted of raping and murdering a
twelve-year-old girl in Maine in 1988, when the girl’s body was found in the
same stretch of woods where Dechaine had been doing drugs the day before. Books have been written and documentaries
filmed on the case, with many maintaining Dechaine’s innocence over the past
twenty-five years. Though there are obvious differences between Dechaine
and Gendreau’s alleged crimes, many of the details surrounding the two cases
are similar.
3. It took ten years to write the first novel in
the Erin Solomon series, All the
Blue-Eyed Angels. It took four
months to write the second.
4. One of my favorite discoveries in researching and
writing Sins of the Father was in
learning of an elaborate network of
caves in northern Maine. Those caves are a focal point in part of the
novel, providing the perfect, creepy hiding space for Diggs and Erin during
their race to escape the mysterious serial killer known only as ‘J.’
5. Originally,
Erin’s devoted mutt Einstein was with Diggs and Erin during their fight for
survival in the Maine woods, but I
quickly realized that the dog would be the first victim J. would target in
terrorizing Erin. Thus, for his own safety, Einstein had to stay home.
6. While many of the towns and businesses in the
Erin Solomon series are real, Littlehope and Black Falls – the central
locations in Sins of the Father – are
fictional, in order to tailor the layout and tone of the towns to my needs in
the novel.
About the
Author: Jen
Blood was born and raised in midcoast Maine. She has worked as a dog trainer,
an actress, a hideously inept waitress, and - in between - a freelance writer
and editor. Her work has been published in Down East, Bark, Pif, and a number
of newspapers and periodicals around the country. She holds an MFA in Creative
Writing, and leads seminars and workshops on writing, indie publishing, and
social media for authors. Check out her website or find
her on Facebook.
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