Recently, The WRITE Prompt had the pleasure to chat with Jemma Ryken, author of the Entangled Fates series. She is a traditionally published author who went the non-traditional route–querying publishing houses directly rather than obtaining an agent first.

A little about Jemma Ryken

Jemma Ryken began her voyage into writing at a young age. She is often found with her nose in a book or her head in the clouds. Having discovered that she is more in love with the idea of love, she dove headfirst into the romance genre. After taking courses in journalism she came to the realization that writing about soul mates and unbridled desire is her purpose.

In her spare time, Jemma can be found on the ice with a hockey stick in her hand, binge-watching the next series from her thoroughly cultivated list, or singing along to an expansive array of music. She leads a simple and wonderful life as a mother to a very curious little boy and has lived in Ontario, Canada her whole life.

Together Evermore is the first of her stand-alone Entangled Fates series. It’s a second chance small-town romance featuring a single mom. She’s currently working on Raj’s story for book two which is at this point still untitled. She’s hoping to make it at least a five-book series.

Together Evermore

Everyone has secrets.

Claramae Howards is no exception. Her secret is seven years old and starting to ask about his dad—the love she could never get over. Pursuing her love of art brings her a world of surprise and heartache…otherwise known as Julian’s father.

Reid Nyte gave up his heart for a chance at the Majors, but a shattered knee sends his future down the drain. Now he’s taken over the family business, putting him on a path back to Claramae.

Not everyone is happy that the old flames have found their way to each other again, and dormant threats turn deadly. Claramae and Reid struggle to work through their past while protecting their present and building a future.

Fate brought the couple back together, but will the threats looming over them tear them apart forever?

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TWP: You were writing for a long time before you published your first book. Did you have the goal of being published from the beginning, or were you writing just for fun early on?

JEMMA RYKEN: I always dreamt of being a published author, walking into my local bookstore and finding my pseudonym on the shelf.

Writing early on was more of a way for me to work through my emotions and finding a way to cope with difficult situations but the more I wrote the more I wanted to get it out there.

I kept thinking, if writing this helps me, maybe reading it can help someone else, that maybe there are people out there going through the same things.

TWP: Tell us a little about your early road to getting published. Did you do a lot of querying?

JEMMA RYKEN: I found every romance publisher I could (that accepted unsolicited manuscripts) and tailored my query to their standards.

I think I queried about 25 publishers and had two that wanted to accept my manuscript.  As being traditionally published was my dream I wanted to try my luck there before looking into self-publishing, but I was keeping all of my options open.

TWP: Do you have an agent?

JEMMA RYKEN: I did a lot of research about querying an agent but being a Canadian writer it was suggested to query publishers directly as we don’t have enough agents to all the writers around and we’d most likely be put on a waitlist.

I’m not the most patient person so I went right to the publishing houses.

TWP: What was the process of getting your first book accepted by a publishing house like?

JEMMA RYKEN: I almost did a spit take. I had gotten numerous rejection letters and couldn’t believe I was reading the letter properly when they said they wanted to offer me a contract.

Part of me thought I was dreaming, the other was sure it was a hoax, I’d almost given up hope.

They gave me a rough version of the contract to look over if I had any questions and while I had MANY none pertained to the contract itself. They laid out their process from when the contract gets signed to when the book is released and that process has more steps than I would’ve expected.

TWP: Where do you get most of your ideas for your books? What is the most interesting thing that has inspired one of your stories?

JEMMA RYKEN: Together Evermore was inspired by that ex who hits you up out of the blue years later saying how they’ve changed and that we should try again, and while I wasn’t foolish enough to believe him, I started imagining what life would be like if he had actually changed and one thing led to another.

I kept thinking, if writing this helps me, maybe reading it can help someone else.

Sometimes I’ll look through romance prompts, others I’ll hear or read something and my mind starts thinking up how to plot it into a story, a few times in high school I wondered what it may be like if a teen heroine were put in a situation adults may find themselves in.

For example, I have a story I’m working on where the female main is an orphaned high schooler seeking revenge for her parents murder and is brought into an assassin society while balancing school work and prom.

TWP: Do you have any favorite writing exercises or prompts to get the creativity flowing?

JEMMA RYKEN: I love going through story prompts and sentence starters. If I’m stuck on what I’m working on at the time, I turn to them to at least write something.

While I may not stick to the original idea, you never know what you can come up with to suit your style of writing or preferred genre.

Not only do you get into the flow that you thought was blocked, you’ve managed to turn something that many others have probably also viewed into something new and unattempted.

TWP: What do you do when you experience writer’s block or when you are struggling to create good material?

JEMMA RYKEN: I step away from what I’m working on, depending how far along I am, I’ll ask for some fresh eyes to see if there may be anything I should change that can get me past the block. Or someone may point out a plot hole that once figured out gets me back into the groove.

Other times I move to one of my many WIPs, that way I’m still writing something and there may be a part of that story that gives me an idea for the one I’m stuck on.

TWP: Lastly, do you have any parting advice for aspiring authors who someday hope to be where you are now?

JEMMA RYKEN: I lost hope for about five years and stopped writing altogether until the idea for what’s now known as Together Evermore came to me and it just wouldn’t go away. It was begging for me to tell it because I was the only one that could, it was a unique situation after all.

There’s a story out there that only you can tell, it may take you a while to find it, but find it you will.

I had many unfinished stories and started believing that’s all I’d ever have.

So I guess my advice would be to never stop. There’s a story out there that only you can tell, it may take you a while to find it, but find it you will.

Writing is not a race, we all get there in our own time. We can’t compare someone else’s success to where we are in the writing process.

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