Author Interview: Jennifer Alsever (Trinity Forest Series)

Hi everyone! Today I’m excited to share with you an awesome interview with Jennifer Alsever, author of the Trinity Forest series! I really love this trilogy so much (currently reading book 3, Venus Shining!) and you can check out my reviews of Ember Burning and Oshun Rising by clicking on the links!

But before you read the interview, here’s a bit about the first book:

Ember Burning (Trinity Forest, #1) by Jennifer Alsever
Series: Trinity Forest #1
Published by Sawatch Press ISBN: 099894730X
on May 6, 2017
Genres: YA, Paranormal
Pages: 320
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

Senior year was supposed to be great--that's what Ember's friend Maddie promised at the beginning of the year. Instead, Ember TrouvE spends the year drifting in and out of life like a ghost, haunted by her parents' recent, tragic death.
At home, she pores over her secret obsession: pictures of missing kids-- from newspaper articles, from grocery store flyers-- that she's glued inside a spiral notebook. Like her, the people are lost. Like her, she discovers, they had been looking for a way to numb their pain when they disappeared.
When Ember finds herself in Trinity Forest one day, a place locals stay away from at all costs, she befriends a group of teenagers who are out camping. Hanging out with them in the forest tainted with urban legends of witchcraft and strange disappearances, she has more fun than she can remember having. But something isn't right.
The candy-covered wickedness she finds in Trinity proves to be a great escape, until she discovers she can never go home. Will Ember confront the truth behind her parents' death, or stay blissfully numb and lose herself to the forest forever?

…Interview with Jennifer Alsever…

What are your favorite quotes from The Trinity Forest series?

What a fun question. There are lines I like, but some don’t make sense without context. I do like this one though because I had to get into this really weird brain space to write Ember’s story in Book 2, Oshun Rising:

“Reality is like a dream that turns into vapor the moment you try to remember.
Here one minute, gone the next.
I fight for consciousness as though drowning and gulping for air…
I’m like a passenger on a ship that was once mine, but now someone else is steering and all I can do is watch.
Scream silently in my head.”

What scene from your series proved to be the most difficult but rewarding to write?

As I said above, I struggled to effectively write scenes of Oshun Rising, Book 2. Without giving away spoilers, Ember and Oshun had these unique, dream-like “internal” struggles. That was tricky to write effectively and took a really crummy first draft to start out, but ultimately, they were most satisfying parts of the trilogy that I wrote.

If you were suddenly drawn into your books and got to tag along with any of your characters on their journeys, whose path would you most likely take?

Ooooh, I like this question. Though I related to Ember’s mother’s story because of the time period in which she grew up, I would probably choose Ember’s story because I got to know her so well. She’s so real to me, and I do love her and I can relate to her in so many ways. But if I tagged along, I’d get really frustrated with her and probably end up lecturing her, maybe dragging her in a different direction. And… I’d probably tick her off. Ultimately, if I were there, it wouldn’t be as good of a story.

Can you tell us more about the place that inspired you to write The Trinity Forest series?

I was inspired to write the series after having a really vivid dream, in which I was someone else (Ember?) and went to Trinity Forest and found the real world was spinning on on the outside without me. It was so vivid, so real, that it shook me, and when I told my teenaged son about it, he said I should turn it into a book.
As far as setting, I ultimately choose Leadville because I wanted a small Colorado town. I’d been there multiple times, and it’s a little funky, a little weird and kind of remote from urban areas like Denver. While I was writing, I went there with my kids, walked around. I took notes and got ideas. I also talked to a couple friends who used to live there about what it was like. Leadville also has great history, ghost stories and is great visually too.

The actual forest came to life for me after hiking in the Colorado woods so much, and after camping in a place called Lime Park, which is near Aspen and Eagle, Colorado. It’s absolutely beautiful with these steep cliffs and lovely open meadows. Somehow, when I wrote the story, it made its way into my book series.

What song strongly reminds you of Ember Burning?

I have a whole playlist of Ember songs on Spotify with songs that remind me of her. https://open.spotify.com/user/1230512412/playlist/7bizYkjH4AgBVUZEgsoa2v

The Eagle’s song, Hotel California, gives me chills because it feels like Trinity’s power. Sia’s song, Breathe Me, makes me feel Ember’s desperation in Book 1, and the dark tone of the song, Do I Wanna Know? by the Arctic Monkeys makes me feel her destructive mood. I have more music that tracks with her journey and her transformation as a character. I listened to these soundtracks a lot while writing:

Oshun Rising:

Venus Shining:

Which characters’ development are you most proud of?

I love Tre, who started out as a nice but vanilla sort of character. He became more complex to me the more I worked on the story. A friend of mine helped me with his character, suggesting I learn more about the punk scene at the fall of the Berlin Wall. I loved it, and he became a favorite character of the series.

I’m also very proud of Ember and Oshun, because of their journey, their transformations, their separate fights and personalities… In particular, I saw Ember go from this really dark place, this lost person, to finding herself and really embodying the strength we as readers saw in her from the beginning. It’s always interesting to hear people’s opinions on Ember. Even if someome says they hate her or get mad at her, I actually am even more proud, because it means that she was that much more real to them. That she was complex and evoked a feeling— just like real people do.

If you could write a spin-off series featuring any of the side characters, who would it be?

I have considered writing another book about the back story of Tre, his mother, Xintra and her father. I have a lot more to say, but felt I needed to take a break from the series. Tre has so much more to say in particular, and I may come back to him.

My son also mentioned that there’s an entirely additional story to tell about what happens after book 3— and what the fall out of Ember’s story is… Not just to Ember but to the entire world. I’ve toyed with that one too.

What’s your favorite time to write?

My brain really turns on after 3 p.m., and I can write until the wee hours of the morning. But unfortunately my family and real life make that schedule tricky. So I write whenever I get those breaks and sometimes after the house is quiet at night. I think about my characters, stories and books often—on hikes, in the car, in the shower.

Coffee or tea?

I’d like to say tea because it’s healthier but I’m addicted to coffee.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a book tentatively titled Psychic Monkeys. It takes place in 1973, and involves teenagers, the Cold War, the CIA, Stanford University, spies and psychics. And much of it is based on true events. It hope to publish in early 2019.

 

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog, Jennifer! We cannot wait to read your future books. 😀

Happy reading!
– The Chef

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