JENNY SMEDLEY INTERVIEW

*Part of this interview appears on the Struggling Authors website > here

TERESA:  How did you come across the Struggling Authors web site Jenny, and are you still an active member on the forum?

JENNY: Sometimes working from home and only meeting people at talks/workshops/book signings etc, one starts to feel a bit cut off. So, I was surfing for some forums that might have like-minded people on it – ie writers, and I found yours, which I thought was a brilliant idea. I don’t get there as often as I’d like, but I have just completed a book deadline, so I might have a bit more time! I love my work, but doing six columns, two of them weekly, can put a bit of pressure on sometimes.

TERESA: We would welcome you anytime Jenny and I would personally value any input on the site. I write under the name “Mad Tee”, but I bet you already “sussed” that.

TERESA: Jenny, your book entitled PETS HAVE SOULS TOO. I’m a firm believer that many dogs and cats have physic ability. How do they know when we are due home for instance?

Are you visited by any pets in spirit?

If so, do they play any role in your day to day activities?

JENNY: I think all animals have souls, and I think some pets, those ‘special ones’ have a strong link to their owners soul, and sometimes might even be part of the same soul, so they have an obvious link, enough to know what their owner is thinking and when they’re coming home etc.
My current dog is a reincarnation of my previous dog. However, because all souls, pet or human keep a part of themselves in spirit as well as the part on earth, I do occasionally have a visit from the spirit of my previous dog. I know it sounds a bit complicated, but that’s the way it is for me. She sometimes jumps on the bed at night, and both myself and my husband, Tony, have felt it.

Day to day activities can be tough because I am intuitively in tune with animals, it’s very tough for me if I come across one in trouble or suffering, especially if there’s little I can do about it.

TERESA: One of my gifts is animal healing so I can very much empathise with your comments.

TERESA:  Looking back over everything that you have achieved to date including TV shows etc, do you still pinch yourself in the mornings?

JENNY: If someone, even an angel, had told me 15 years ago that I’d have done all that I’ve done, and that by now I’d have achieved my lifetime dream of earning a living by writing, I would have laughed and said they were crazy, yet here I am. So, yes, sometimes I smile in incredulity at what’s going on. This is one reason I wanted to join your forum, to try and help others with the same dream.

TERESA: I know that we would all value your expertise Jenny. So when you have the time, just drop into SA and I’ll put the kettle on!!

We do have a lot of banter going on at times and we rib one another mercilessly but without Richard, Sammi and Colwyn I would have fallen by the wayside long ago.

TERESA: You have written several books Jenny do you have a favourite, and can you remember how you felt when your first book was published?

JENNY: Oh, good question Teresa! No-one ever asked me that before….I have to think. Weirdly, closest to my heart in some ways are my series of children’s spiritual books, yet to find a publisher. I’m very connected to them and to the characters in them, so an ongoing dream yet to be realised. Of my published books I only have one fiction, The Tree That Talked (so far) and it was one of those way out there ideas that only certain publishers would ‘get’. So, I’m very fond of that as fiction is my greatest love – I love the freedom. Of non-fiction, so far I think Pets Have Souls Too if my top one, but Angel Whispers is a close second. But I think when I look back my next one Soul Angels, make well turn out to be my favourite non-fiction. Sorry, not a straightforward answer – all books are the author’s babies, and it would be hard to pick a favourite child.

TERESA: I have to admit when I wrote my trilogy for young adults I was hard pushed to choose one for publication. Eventually the Eye of Erasmus decided for me. (Only another psychic would understand that I guess)

TERESA: Jenny, I have only read one of your books - THE TREE THAT TALKED. I found this a very hypnotic read.

As a successful novelist, how are you able to achieve that sort of inspirational hold over the reader?

JENNY: Thank you very much J My answer is you have to make the reader feel that they are there, that they can see and hear and feel what the characters are, and so as the writer, YOU have to be there first. When I’m in full flow Tony can come and speak to me and I answer him, but later I have no idea what he said or what I said. I also learned a marvellous tip from writers I admire such as Dean Koontz. If the atmosphere and the mood of the characters is dark, then make the surroundings dark – stormy, cloudy, dark, menacing. And if their mood is light, then do the reverse, sunshine, flowers, blue skies. It helps a lot.

TERESA: Interesting thought from Dean Koontz Jenny I will bear that in mind when I write. Many times I have been told my readers have entered into the storyline with me.

TERESA: Jenny you state that you have been through past life regression. Can you remember your earliest memory of a past life?

JENNY: It was in a nightmare, when I dreamed that someone was trying to rape me. It was very scary and so real that I thought for years it was a premonition. I didn’t realise it was a past life memory until after I recognised my rescuer (from the dream) on TV (in his new life in the current day), went to meet him in the USA and was regressed and recalled the entire life.

TERESA: I have been regressed many times and it can be very scary stuff. I also found in my experiences that it can also be very cleansing and karmic.

TERESA: Is there one question that crops up time and again that you get fed up with answering but put a smile on your face and answer it anyway?

JENNY: Did I have a past life? If anyone is aware enough to ask the question, then yes, they have. I don’t really get fed up of answering it, because I see that as my real reason for being here in this lifetime, but it does get asked a lot.

Many thanks for taking time out for our interview Jenny. Struggling Authors has regular competitions, on the site and is not backward in coming forward in asking for freebies. Would it be presumptuous of me to ask for a signed book that we could offer as a prize please?

JENNY: I’d be honoured. You choose……

TERESA: Oh lor that will be a hard one as my personal favourite is THE TREE THAT TALKED.  However thinking out of the box for the winner I would choose...........SOULS DON’T LIE involving the American singer Garth Brooks.

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