Joanna Penn is one of Tuscan Traveler’s favorite authors, both as a blogger on all aspects of writing and publishing, and as J.F. Penn, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the ARKANE thriller series and the London Mysteries, starting with Desecration. Joanna runs TheCreativePenn.com, one of the Top 10 Blogs for writers and was voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013.
Your fast-paced ARKANE thrillers weave together historical artifacts, secret societies, psychological and religious references, global locations, a fearless female protagonist and hints of the supernatural. You’ve used Venice and Rome as settings. Your three short stories in A Thousand Fiendish Angels riff on Dante’s Inferno. Do you plan to return to Italy in a future book? How do Italy and/or the Italians inspire your writing?
I do love Italy, and how can one fail to be inspired by the architecture and cultural history of Europe in general! I especially like the use of the ossuaries and the Palermo Capuchin crypt in Prophecy, with the mummified bodies of monks and children. Creepy indeed! I do have an idea for a story set within the walls of the Vatican itself, catnip for a student of Theology like myself, so definitely more to come.
I also have Pentecost and Desecration coming in Italian language in the latter half of 2014, so I hope to expand my readership that way.
Desecration, your latest novel, is not part of the ARKANE series. Are you starting another series? Will you go back to the ARKANE characters in a future book? Is it possible that there will be a tie-in where Jamie and Blake from Desecration visit ARKANE?
You read my mind! In my next fast-paced novella, Day of the Vikings, out in May 2014, Dr Morgan Sierra is researching a Viking staff at the British Museum. When Neo-Viking terrorists take hostages and demand the staff of power, Morgan is aided by Blake Daniel, the reluctant psychic from Desecration, and together, they must work out how to stop Ragnarok, the Viking apocalypse.
The next full-length ARKANE book has a working title of Inquisition, and will delve into Morgan Sierra’s Spanish Jewish heritage. Desecration is the first in The London Mysteries, and the next one, Delirium, will be out in July 2014, opening with the murder of a psychiatrist in Bedlam, the London hospital for the mad.
Your books take the reader to many countries (Israel, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, India). You know the saying some people eat to live and others live to eat. Do you travel to write or write to travel? Do you see a travel memoir in your future?
I think you know me very well, Ann!
I am a travel junkie and the books have been fuelled by my own experiences, but part of the reason I now do this full time is to be able to travel more, and make every trip research for another story. I am heading to Barcelona in June for research into Inquisition, and a visit to the Morbid Anatomy museum in New York in July will definitely give me some story ideas. I also plan to visit Mexico for Day of the Dead sometime, as well as heading back to India for a book around Kali. By combining the two, I can reinvest the book income into more travel, fuelling more books – a happy life!
I do intend to write a travel memoir at some point, as I would like to share the diary side of my trips and especially the spiritual places I have been. That is a way off though!
You are exceedingly generous in providing information to writers, especially those who wish to indie-publish, through your website and your podcasts. You also work as a public speaker on all aspects of indie-publishing and book marketing. You are either exceptionally organized or don’t require a lot of sleep. Does your work as an entrepreneur and your writing on TheCreativePenn.com help to promote your J.F. Penn novels? Do you want to keep up this pace or do you want to settle into a fiction writer’s life at some point in time?
I always wanted to be a self-help writer, and so TheCreativePenn.com and my non-fiction books, as well as my speaking, are ways in which I can help others on the journey of being a writer in this ever-changing market. I also find that I need the public speaking side to balance out my natural tendency to be an introverted hermit in my writing cave! It does me good to get out and have a conversation with real people.
I also started TheCreativePenn.com before I started writing fiction, and it was only the freeing aspect of blogging that enabled me to write stories in the first place. So I could never give it up entirely! That said, I am slowing down the pace of content on that side of things to focus more on the fiction as my readership grows.
A last question about your first book, Career Change: Many of the readers of TuscanTraveler.com dream of leaving their jobs, selling their home, buying a plane ticket and moving to Italy to create a new life and perhaps write their version of Under the Tuscan Sun. What are three ideas from your book that may help them fulfill their dream or, at least, assist them in making the correct decision?
The most important thing to think about is what really makes you happy. So for me, I had to reach the point of understanding that freedom of place (a rented 1 bedroom flat and no car) and a lower income made me happier than a higher income and a four-bedroom house and a car. By giving up my secure day job to become a writer, I sacrificed what most people consider to be “success,” for a risky entrepreneurial career with no guarantees. Lots of people thought I was crazy, as the definition of success for most people is a high status job, a big house and a nice car with lots of ‘stuff.’ If you can escape that mentality, you can downsize and suddenly have a lot more choice in your life.
So my 3 ideas are:
a) Decide what REALLY makes you happy
b) Make time to investigate options e.g. get rid of your TV, freeing up several hours a night; go to four days a week at work and focus on testing your ideas out part time
c) Eliminate debt and save a financial buffer – any new move takes a while to get going financially
Joanna Penn’s books are available at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, as well as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ITunes, and Audible. Soon to be available in Italian on Amazon.it.