Goddess Fish Party Pavilion

Good morning everyone! Hope it's sunny and warm wherever you are.  It's actually rather dreary here in Ontario, Canada with grey clouds overhead and drizzle.  At least it's washing away the last remnants of the snow, there is still quite a bit piled up around here. Living in a rural community means that the snow will stick around longer than in the city.  Some of my neighbours have noticed some flowers like the snowdrop starting to appear, lucky them! The crocuses, a sure sign of spring, have yet to bloom in my backyard.

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Jennifer Gibson and I am a Canadian author.  What's different about me? I was born with a severe to profound hearing loss and decided to write a trilogy series for teens that's based on my life.

Growing up, I had been bullied, teased mercilessly, and ostracized.  There were times when I had questioned the reason why I was born like this, why I had to wear hearing aids that made me a target for never-ending torment. There had to be a logical explanation for it, I just didn't know what it was at that time.  Now I do, it's as clear as a bell.  If I hadn't gone through those difficult times in my life, I never would've written the trilogy series. I needed to have those intense emotions and reactions from a variety of situations in order to incorporate them into my stories.  Despite the extreme hardship and challenges that I went through, I had to learn to embrace it and share it with the world. 

It took a lot of courage to make that decision and write about my life.  It's not an autobiography, it's a fictional story about a young teen girl trying her hardest to fit in at school despite her disability. She wants to be like everyone else, she wants to play sports, have friends that she can rely on, and enjoy life.  It turns out that it's not as easy as she thought it would be. 

I've had fans ask me why? Why would I write a series about a hearing impaired teen?  I wanted a unique story and it made sense to use my experiences so that it felt real and essentially allow the readers to resonate with the character, Jessie.  At least this way, more people can literally walk a mile in the Jessie's shoes to get a better sense of my world.  And you know what? It worked.  I've had many readers who thought that they really knew me, exclaim "I had no idea how hard it was for you have a hearing loss." or  "Oh my! I didn't know you went through this as a child." 

That's simply amazing for them to step forward and tell me that.  They would often open up about their childhood and say that they were bullied too or had a difficult time growing up. My books gave them courage to speak up about their experiences too.  

Originally the series was aimed at the young adult market, however, as it grew more popular, it gained a much wider audience from age 10 and up.  Even the parents and grandparents are reading them! 

If you want to learn more about the trilogy series, you can visit my website and book page at: http://www.jennifergibson.ca/jennifers-books.php



There are lots of choices where you can buy Sway, the debut novel and the sequel Compass.  Enjoy!

Jenn