A. L. Kaplan

Tag: Jennifer Della’Zanna

  • My Balticon Schedule

    Balticon is a four-day celebration of Science Fiction and Fantasy!

    May 24-27, 2024 (Memorial Day Weekend)

    Renaissance Harborplace Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland

    When I’m not volunteering or hanging out at the Maryland Writers’ Association table, here is where you can find me:

    Saturday: 11:30 AM — Location: St. George

    Author Reading: A.L. Kaplan and Ruthanna Emrys

    Saturday: 1:00 PM — Location: Room 8029

    The Power of Writing Retreats: John Appel, Adeena Mignogna, Martin Wilsey, Alex Jenning, A. L. Kaplan

    Saturday: 4:00 PM — Location: Pride of Baltimore II

    When Research Becomes a Rabbit Hole: Martin Wilsey, Sarah Pinsker, Melissa Scott, A. L. Kaplan, Elektra Hammond

    Sunday: 10:00 AM — Location: Mount Washington

    Weavers, Coopers, Chandlers, and More!: Jennifer Della’Zanna, Ann Chatham, Rosemary Clair Smith, Melissa Scott, A. L. Kaplan

    Sunday: 2:30 PM — Location: Pride of Baltimore II

    When to Tell Instead of Show: Alan Smale, Melissa Scott, A. L. Kaplan, Zack Be, Sheila Williams

    Sunday 4:00 PM — Location: 5th Floor Lobby

    Autographs: A. L. Kaplan and D. H. Timpko

    Monday 10:00 AM — Location: Gibson

    How to Incorporate Critique: A. L. Kaplan, Ryan O’Nan, Scott Edelman, Jen Brinn, Wayland Smith

    Monday: 11:30 AM — Location: Guilford

    Just How Many People Live in Your Fantasy City, Anyway? Chris Oakley, Roberta Rogow, A. . Kaplan, Lee Hawkridge

    Hope to see you there!

    MARK OF THE GODDESS

    Sometimes a blessing can be a curse.

    Young Maya bears the mark of the moon goddess, a sign that would doom her to be sacrificed in her village where the death god is revered. Forced to dye her golden eyes dark, Maya lives in constant fear of discovery. To save her family and the village’s future, she must find the courage to stand up to the high priest before he can bring the death god into this world.

    WOLF DAWN

    A Hidden Past – A Deadly Secret

    Gifted with the ability to wolf-talk, Kara has lived with the wolves since she lost her memories eight years ago. Now at sixteen, snippets of her past send her searching for answers.

    But the warm welcome she receives in the human village hides more danger than life with the pack.

    STAR TOUCHED

    Sometimes it’s hard to be who you are meant to be.

    Especially when your powers can get you killed.

    Eighteen-year-old Tatiana is running from her past and her star-touched powers eight years after a meteor devastates earth’s population.

    Her power to heal may be overshadowed by more destructive abilities. Fleeing the persecution of those like her, Tatiana seeks refuge in a small town she once visited. But this civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble.

    Only by harnessing the very forces that haunt her can Tatiana save her friends…and herself.

    HUMMINGBIRD

    Plagued by memories not her own, a young hummingbird struggles to decipher the visions and powers that set her apart from her fellow birds. But the road to awareness is fraught with danger that could doom her to repeat history.

    One step toward understanding.

    One stride toward survival.

    One leap toward flying free from the past.

  • WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Jennifer Della’Zanna

    081Welcome to WOLF NOTES, where interview questions stray from the rest of the pack. It’s nice to know the usual stuff like where an author gets their inspiration and why they write, but sometimes we need a little fun in our lives.

    Give a big wolf welcome to Jennifer Della’Zanna

    Jen Crop Length Purple 3 Oct 10 2013Jennifer Della’Zanna is a freelance writer in Woodbine, MD. She has published more than 40 feature articles for magazines and websites on topics as diverse as firearms, movies, and healthcare. She wrote and teaches several online courses in the allied healthcare fields and is the associate editor for Plexus, a trade magazine for the medical transcription industry. She contributed six articles to the Encyclopedia of Sex, Love and Courtship in the Medieval World (Greenwood Publishing Group, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007). Jennifer completed a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Her agent is currently shopping around her first novel, and she has had her short fiction published at www.dailysciencefiction.com and in the book Chasing Magic: A CWPH Fantasy Anthology (CWPH, 2017).

    Wolf: Welcome to wolf notes, Jennifer. If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

    Jennifer: I’m really going to have to steal my mom’s answer to this. I would be a bear. I could eat whatever I want without worrying about gaining weight, sleep all winter, and have a fur coat nobody would have an issue with me wearing.

    Wolf: And no one would bother you. What is the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

    Jennifer: So, I grew up in the country, on a homestead, and everybody in our family hunted (including me). My grandmother pickled the deer hearts. I love pickled deer heart. I know, it sounds awful, but we all thought it was awesome!

    Wolf: It sounds pretty darn good to me too. My grandma used to make tongue for the holidays. I loved it. You’ve just been turned into a plant. Describe yourself.

    Jennifer: Close to the ground, easily overlooked. Very useful. I would have to have multiple purposes. So, even though I’m often not noticed by most, people in the know would be on the lookout for me.

    Wolf: I’d definitely keep an eye out. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

    Jennifer: I like cats, but I’m definitely a dog person, and I prefer big dogs. I tend to step on little dogs. Our first two dogs were a German Shepherd/Akita mix and a yellow lab. Now we have a Shiloh Shepherd. All of them were gorgeous because my husband has exceptionally fine taste in dogs, but our current dog, Bandit, just won the BJ’s pet contest and had his photo shoot recently. Of course, now he has a celebrity complex!

    Wolf: I remember seeing Bandit’s picture. Cute dog. Which of your characters is your favorite?

    Jennifer: My book is set in ancient Egypt, and it’s historical, in that it is set in a real world with real events, but I bring the gods back. I love to play with mythology. One of my characters is the Egyptian god Set, who started as their trickster god but really became an evil character in later mythology. Our devil is based a lot on Set. In my book, though he is looked on as evil at that point (which is something I’ve taken a bit of liberty with), I wrote him in such a way that he may not be as bad as everybody thinks he is. But he is most certainly a rake and likes to bolster his bad-boy reputation any way he can. And he stole my heart.

    Wolf: The world is about to end. (I don’t think Set had anything to do with it.) What is the first thing you do?

    Jennifer: Go to sleep.

    Wolf: What story are you working on now?

    Jennifer: I’m working on a short story to submit to the anthology Razor’s Edge (http://www.zombiesneedbrains.com/), which I think has the coolest premise I’ve read in a long time. It’s going to be historical military fantasy. How’s that for a genre?

    Wolf: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

    Jennifer: Well, I do a lot of reading, of course. I take my daughter back and forth to dance and voice and acting lessons. My biggest hobby right now, though, is working out. I have a trainer who is absolutely insane (http://btxrmaster.com/) and has me doing things I never thought I could do and lifting weights I never thought I could lift. He calls me The Mighty Midget (I’m 4’11”). It’s very empowering and a good opposite habit for the very sedentary life of a writer.

    www.facebook.com/jendellazanna
    Twitter: @jendellazanna
    www.Jennifer.dellazanna.com
    www.medium.com/@jennifer.dellazanna.