Author Profile: Jeri Westerson
Jeri Westerson is a born and bred California author who likes to write in her home office, in her back yard, when camping, or in a hotel by the pool. “As long as I can plug in my laptop occasionally, that's where I work.”
She has worked as a freelance reporter and written award-winning short stories. Jeri has also been nominated for 13 national awards (Agatha and Shamus included) and has been warmly applauded by The Historical Novel Society, The Library Journal, and Suspense Magazine (plus others) for her work in the historical, suspense, and crime fiction arenas.
The author of eleven ‘Crispin Guest Medieval Noir’ novels, featuring a disgraced knight turned detective in fourteenth century London, Westerson has recently created another series – ‘The Booke of the Hidden Series.’ The six new books star Kylie Strange (the human heroine and owner of the new tea shop in town), Erasmus Dark (a handsome demon), a motley troop of Wiccans, and a dastardly biker gang. Title #1, “Booke of the Hidden,” is a funny, edgy, paranormal romance – set in the fictional small town Moody Bog, Maine.
Read my review here in the "Try Something New This Summer" post. (audiobook now out as well).
The setup? Kylie has just moved into her house, begins renovation, and accidentally releases a demon, Erasmus Dark, centuries old Guardian of the Booke of the Hidden. Kylie must make sure that no other demons are released, while getting the escaped ones back into the Booke. Of course, if that happened in the first entertaining novel, the series would be over. Westerson promises that although the series may get a bit darker as it progresses, the humor will remain, as will the electric/forbidden romance between the lead characters.
Jeri is writing the series keeping this credo in mind: “In a paranormal romance, it’s imperative that one of the protagonists is the paranormal part of the relationship, though sometimes one or both leads discover some sort of paranormal talent they never knew they had.”
It takes about nine months for Jeri to complete a novel. This gives her time to research and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, let it stew, and rewrite it yet again. As a rule, she pens two books a year. She once did four, but doesn’t recommend trying to complete all four in a year if you like to sleep. When working with multiple books in the same series, she likes to get at least 30 pages on paper for each during the developmental stage. This method helps her establish and maintain the tone and the direction of the series, “rather than relying on a paragraph of a synopsis.”
Challenges that faced her while working on the ‘Booke of the Hidden’ series: “It was certainly different getting used to writing in a new genre, a genre that I've enjoyed reading and watching for years. Trying to think like a 26-year-old woman, and not sounding like a 58-year-old one, was terribly fun.”
Most of the authors in the NBR Profiles like to cook, and Jeri is no exception. She makes her own breads and pasta, and also does comfort food like chili. But her favorite recipe is her Oven Fried Chicken.
Jeri Westerson’s Oven Fried Chicken
1) Take any chicken parts (with skin and bones or without) and marinate in soy sauce for several hours.
2) Place the marinated chicken into a bag and shake in a mix of almond meal (or ground up Corn Flakes) with herbs and spices (garlic powder, lemon pepper, Old Bay, onion powder, oregano, pepper, rosemary, dried sage, salt, thyme)
3) Place on baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour and fifteen minutes until done.
Jeri promises that “they are juicy and flavorful and even better cold for a picnic the next day.”
Jeri has appeared on NPR, has served as president of the SoCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, as VP for the LA Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and president of the OC Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She revealed that she lives in southern California “with her home-brewing husband, a complacent (licensed) desert tortoise named Harley, and 40,000 bees.”
About those bees… she and her husband built a hive for them after the bees destroyed a birdhouse. The bees hang around and provide the occasional jar of honey. Yum!
Book #2 in the series, DEADLY RISING, released October 23, 2018. Check it out here.
Readers can sign up for Jeri’s quarterly ‘Booke of the Hidden’ newsletter at her website BOOKEoftheHIDDEN.com. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the Mail Chimp logo.
Happy paranormal reading, everyone!
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