I’m interviewing Jennifer Ott, author of literary fiction “A Soul to Shine”. Welcome, Jennifer, and thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions.
Q: Please tell us about yourself.
“Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night looking for the fight of her life.” LOL. That’s from the song, “Maniac” from the movie “Flashdance.” It just seems the best way to describe my life right now. I am very busy with writing, publishing, promoting, etc, etc…I’m an author, owner of SuperJenius Publications and I host two radio shows, The SuperJenius Show and Poets First Show on the Artist First Radio Network.
Q: Tell us about your book.
“A Soul to Shine” is the story of a young starlet, Olivia Hammond who lost herself in her fame and clings to the goal of achieving an Oscar. The director of the film shakes her world when he casts a Russian porn star as her romantic lead. Olivia, well, freaks out fearing her reputation as a serious actress will be tainted. The story takes place in Berlin, Germany (modern day and postwar II). Filming in Berlin changes her life completely. She has an existential funk and comes out shining.
Q: What inspired you to write A Soul to Shine?
I was in the process of writing another book. I often use celebrity muses (actors & actresses) for my characters. The oddest thing happened. These muses revolted and wanted me to write “A Soul to Shine”. Perhaps my real life celebrity muse is in the middle of an existential funk. LOL I joke to people, I didn’t actually write this book; the characters did. The characters chattered constantly (while I was driving, sleeping, eating. I couldn’t get any peace). I just rushed to type it all down. I feel as though this book was channeled from my characters. It was crazy. Even I have a hard time believing it.
Q: How much time per week do you spend writing/editing your work?
A couple hours a day.
Q: If you could meet three authors, which authors would you choose?
The ones I would want to meet are no longer with us – John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
I will be releasing a new book, “Searching Civilization” in the upcoming months. It is part of a series surrounding my book, “Edge of Civilization.” The series tells the stories of characters that are all connected in some way or another. I am working on another part of the series, “Rays of Civilization.”
About The Book
Title: A Soul to Shine
Author: Jennifer Ott
Genre: Literary Fiction
Quote:
“You and I are now time itself, not just the city,
The whole world is taking part in our decision.
We are more than just the two of us now.
We embody something.
We are sitting in the People’s Square
And it’s full of people with the same dream as ours.
We define the game for all.
I’m ready.”
Wings of Desire
Wim Wenders
Peter Handke
Blurb:
From the outside, starlet Olivia Hammond has it all—fame, fortune and a Hollywood hunk boyfriend. No one suspects her rising self-doubts and anxieties. In order to escape the realities of her chaotic world, she dives into an Oscar quality role of a young woman trapped in the horrors of postwar Berlin. It is here that Olivia feels most comfortable.
Her real and fictional lives collide when the director casts Dimitri Malakhov, a Russian porn star, as her costar. She immediately fears her image and reputation will be tainted. Personally and professionally, she must face what frightens her most—exposing herself, her fears, her imperfections and her desires to the world.
The experience of filming the movie with Dimitri and being on location in Berlin destroys her prejudices and judgments. It shatters all her illusions and perceptions. When liberated from her own confines, her life and love truly shine.
Manchmal das Herz muss zerstört werden, um zu heilen.
Sometimes the heart needs to be broken in order to heal.
Poem
So many pictures, so many scenes
Still can’t understand what it means
I look at my face everyday I arise
And proceed to adorn my daily disguise
The soul that once shined
No longer appears
It’s lost somewhere
In a world full of tears.
I’ve wandered around place to place
Trapped inside my invisible space
How do we connect with another
When it’s our own heart we smother
The soul that once shined
Desires to be seen
Wanting to wade through
The clutter in between.
It only takes a moment for all to shatter
Picking up the pieces doesn’t really matter
The worst has come to fate
No one else can ever relate
Our wounds exposed like an open sore
For all others’ salt to pour
Author Bio
Inspiration comes from watching way too much Monty Python. The abstract and the absurd way of looking at normal life, not only offers humor, but questions many problems in society in a light-hearted manner. If we can laugh at ourselves, if we can laugh at life, problems do not seem quite so difficult to tackle. In fact, problems are not as complicated as they seem; everything is very simple. If you can laugh at it, write about it and read about it, most likely one would think about it.
Author Jennifer Ott has written several satire fiction, Wild Horses, The Tourist and two non-fiction books Love and Handicapping and Ooh Baby Compound Me! She recently published, Serenidipidus and Edge of Civilization. She also is the host of the SuperJenius Internet Radio show on Artist First radio Network.
Jennifer Ott lives in Long Beach, California, enjoys the sun, the sand, the surf and lots of Mexican food.
Links
http://www.artistfirst.com/jenniferott.htm
You can listen to a radio interview for a book here:
https://soundcloud.com/superjenius/a-soul-to-shine-interview
Book Trailer:
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