Featured Interview With Lyneal Jenkins
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised in England with my two brothers and sister. When I was
sixteen, I joined the Army as a paramedic. It gave me the opportunity to see the world, and even though I left after three years to start a family, I continued to travel for a few years and even lived in Spain for a while with my two eldest children.
I now live in the north of England with my fiance and our seven children – no, that is no a typo, we really do have seven children, and at this time, we all live in a tiny three bedroom house with our crazy Springer Spaniel who has an obsession with chinks of light – real or imagined. I write where I can, be it on my bed or in the lounge, and if I’m not writing, I am plotting or editing in my head.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My first memory of reading was the Famous Five by Enid Blyton. I loved the adventure in the series and couldn’t get enough. Pretty soon after, I drifted into horror fiction, reading every James Herbert and Stephen King book I could get my hands on. Throughout my life, I have read many different types of book, but I never took an interest in writing until 2011.
I love the vampire books, but after reading so many, I wanted something new, which left me wondering what the next ‘fad’ would be. As my imagination runs riot, I soon came up with a concept for a new race of beings, and with one sentence that refused to leave my mind, I sat down to write – not because I was writing a book, but because I couldn’t get the sentence out of my head. I had no idea that I was embarking on the greatest project of my life, or that I had hit on the one thing I had been searching for all my life.
Since then, I have had no option but to continue writing. The characters hound me and the plot lines invade my dreams. I love it!
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Stephen King is still my favourite author, though, I have just finished reading the Gone Series by Michael Grant, and I will definitely read more from him. I seemed to be heavily into the fantasy genre at the moment, but any book that has a decent plot and strong characterisation interests me, which is probably why my characters inspire me to write. In fact, they demand that I write and tend to bug me if I don’t get to work.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The fourth book in the Ana Martin Series – The Last Prophecy – was released this year, and I have to say, out of all four books in the series, this was the most fun to write. It only took a couple of months for the first draft to spill onto the laptop, even with seven kids and our Springer Spaniel to keep me occupied.
The direction the story has taken astounds me. What started out in book one – Night of the Fae – as a bit of a young adult fantasy novel, has become epic fantasy – far outside what I expected. In The Last Prophecy, so many new characters and races came into the storyline, and they had such an impact on the main plot, I was left reeling. Thankfully, I have an amazing partner who lets me talk for hours when I need to work out the variables about where the story is going.
I started the book a little concerned about Ana. She had already been through so much (being tortured by the British Government and her ex-husband turning up), and I could see that more grief was coming her way. I was pleasantly surprised when, instead of having a full out breakdown, she found humour as a way to cope with the horrors in her life. She has developed so much over the series, changing from an almost weak girl, with more issues than I can count, to someone who is fast becoming the leader of a rebellion against the Siis and even the human governments. I loved finding out more about the Fae culture, and enjoyed meeting their better side – the Damiq. I was pleasantly surprised when Bill came back into the storyline, introducing Ana to the Damiq, who Ana finds hard to trust as they are so much like the Fae. Even though I loved most of the plot, there were times I felt so sorry for Ana, especially when she was forced to put her family into hiding, leaving her very much alone.
The Last Prophecy left me desperate to find out what happened next, and I immediately started the next book in the series (due for release in 2016). As with The Last Prophecy, I find Ana’s story going in a completely different direction to where I thought it would, constantly leaving me with the question: what will happen next?
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles