"Music is the most provocative of all the arts, for it can color a stormy disposition to one of mirth and vice versa. It can turn even the most civil to ravenous and soothe the most savage of beasts. Music should evoke the passions, whether buried deep or simmering just below the surface..." -Me, myself, and I.

Meet the Author

Ari Jenelle grew up as a military brat who has lived in over 5 states and one foreign country. Because of this experience, she has met some of the most amazing people; people who were so extraordinary, that she had to capture them on paper. She is currently, working on three different novels that she hopes to have published in the near future. Those novels include two YA series The Escape trilogy (Sanctuary, Fighting for You, and Remember Me) and The Watcher series (tentatively titled Chosen, Darker Than Light, Wicked, and The Hooding). In May of 2010, Ari Jenelle graduated from a four-year university with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Vocal Music Performance with a minor in the Spanish Language. Before she got into writing, she taught voice and piano lessons. You can visit her on her site: www.arijenelle.come

Q&A with Ari Jenelle

Q: Which one of your novels is most like your life?

A: Strangely enough, The Watcher series is the most like my life. Even with all of the talk of witches and angels, it's still got most of my experiences.

Q: Which character/couple from your novels was the most fun to write?

A: I had fun with all of them, as they are so vastly different, that it is almost hard to pick. But if forced to, then I would have to say Portia and Javier (The Escape trilogy) because they were my first couple. They will always be my fave.

Q: Will your supernatural series (The Watcher) feature a vampire storyline?

A: I love vampires! Especially the ones in Moonlight, and The Vampire Diaries, but I think that it's becoming a subject that every aspiring author writes about just to get published. Besides, it has to stick with witchcraft and witches, because it is VERY pivotal to the plot. Adding a vamp would just be random. But there may be a few vampire-themed issues.

Q: So, how do you come up with the ideas for your novels?

A: Well, as I stated before, TWS (The Watcher Series) was based off of a childhood experience. But The Escape trilogy came to me one Saturday night when I was supposed to be doing my AP English homework. It had always been in the back of my mind to write a story about a girl who lived in a boarding school and needd to escape since I wrote a similar story during a blackout when I was 12, but on this very night I was daydreaming, and I could see a girl and boy kissing on a green, tattered couch in a dingy living room/kitchen. I remember thinking about this story even without writing it down. That's when I knew that I wouldn't get any peace until Portia's story was told.

Q: Wow! That is an amazing story! So I hear that you have a facination with old hollywood. Does that show up in your novels and music?

A: Actually, I have a love for the 1920s-50s. I love the old femme fatales like Mae West, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Danderidge...you know, women who really broke the mold in what was looked at as a man's world. And yes, this does influence both my books and my music. It's more evident in my music, but Royal Flush is set back in the 1940s.

Q: So you say that you write songs. What are some of the topics in your music?

A: My music tends to lean toward female empowerment, unrequited love, and revenge. They are bluesy, rocker glam, jazzy/burlesque tunes that tell a story.

Q: Are they inspired by true stories as well?

A: Of course! Everything that I write has to come from somewhere.

Q: What is your favorite original song?

A: It changes everyday, but right now, I think that I am focusing on "Those Pretty Things" (about a prostitute who falls in love with her married john) and "Coming Undone" (about a sexually frustrated woman who finds a man's dedication to moral virtue arousing). Because they are super fun to sing, and they hold deeper messages. In "Those Pretty Things," it laments on the double standard of men and women, and "Coming Undone" has less of a moral, but if pressed to find one I suppose that it reverses the roles of the sexes (being that she is the lusty one, and he retains his innocence) and celebrates female sexuality.

Q: Well, I know that you are a busy lady and need to get back to writing, so I'll leave you with this one last writing question: which character from your novels do you think that your readers will identify with the most?

A: (laughs) All of them! That is the great thing about my characters. They are all different races, creeds, and colors, and their stories are for anyone who has ever been in love, needed to escape his or her life for a bit, believed in magic, believed that magic was just an illusion, looked for fame or popularity, and wanted to fit in. It's for the loners, the in-croud, the loners within the in-crouds, the artists, the beautiful, the lonely, the loved, and the lost. And just like the music that I write, it spills from the heart because it is impossible to hold in.

Q: Very profound. Best wishes Ms. Jenelle.

A: Same to you, dollface.