#NewSeries! Meet the Author: Jamie Krakover #meettheauthor #indie #interview @Rockets2Writing

Hello, everyone!

Today I continue with the new series of posts on the blog, which I’m calling Meet the Author. Did you like the first instalment? If you like what you read, please leave comments so the authors interviewed can feel the love. Ask questions, tell them what you think about their books, ramble about books… Participate!

And now, without further ado, I present to you… JAMIE KRAKOVER!

Growing up with a fascination for space and things that fly, Jamie turned that love into a career as an Aerospace Engineer. Combining her natural enthusiasm for Science Fiction and her love of reading, she now spends a lot of her time writing Middle Grade and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Jamie lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband, Andrew, their son, and their dog Rogue (after the X-Men, not Star Wars, although she loves both). When she isn’t being a Rocket Scientist by day and a writer by night, she can be found catching up on the latest sci fi TV, books, and movies as well as spending time on Twitter (maybe a little too much time :-P). And no, the rocket science jokes never get old!

Through Snowy Wings Publishing, Jamie is the author of Tracker220 (October 2020). She also has two female in STEM short stories published in the Brave New Girls anthologies and two engineering-centered nonfiction pieces that published in Writer’s Digest’s Putting the Science in Fiction.

I told Jamie to tell me 5 random numbers from 1 to 30, and those were the questions she had to answer. I hope you all had as much fun reading this as we had putting them together.

1. What is your favorite fruit flavor?

I love strawberry, strawberry ice cream, strawberry jelly, strawberry cheesecake, and straight strawberries. If it’s strawberry in some way I will gladly eat it.

2. What is your favorite color and why?

I love teal. In general, I love blues because it’s a calming color palette. I really enjoy teal because it is calming but also has a pop of sass.

3. Which is your favorite genre of films?

My favorite film genres are sci fi and fantasy as well as action movies. I love to see all those genres in the theater because it gives you the full effect and the rattling booms of space battles and explosions. That said, I also enjoy a good rom com from time to time.

4. If you knew this was your last day on Earth, how would you spend it?

Oh gosh, how would I even begin to choose? I’d probably grab all my friends and family and go spend the day at Disney World. Really any place I could be with family and friends and have a good time.

5. What is your definition of an incredible weekend?

Sleeping in and reading in bed for a while. Then brunch because breakfast food is my favorite. After that taking my toddler to the park or the zoo. I’d probably spend some time writing and end the evenings with some time catching up on my favorite TV shows. Or if i could go somewhere and sit on a beach or by the pool and enjoy the weather and read a book that’d be awesome too.

6. Congratulations! Now you can freely rant about your book(s) and/or project(s).

My first published novel, a YA sci fi called TRACKER220 debuted in October 2020. It’s about a society where everyone has tracking chips in their brains and while it’s cool that everyone has infinite access to knowledge and can talk to anyone in the blink of an eye, it also comes with a price, the authorities know everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, and everything you look up online. The story centers around sixteen-year-old Kaya Weiss whose chip glitches and what happens after the authorities try to fix it. Her privacy is instantly violated and as she explores what life might be like without a tracker and how the technology has affected her Jewish identity. Ultimately she has to decide if she wants to continue in her life as a possible lab rat or go on the run and abandon the only tech she’s ever known.

You can find out more about Tracker220 on my blog, including a sneak peek at the first chapter http://jamiekrakover.blogspot.com/p/tracker220.html.

I’ve also published two short stories in the BRAVE NEW GIRLS Anthologies which is a series of short stories that feature girls with a knack for STEM. As an aerospace engineer and a writer this is a project that’s near and dear to my heart and I love that all the proceeds go to the Society of Women Engineers Scholarship Fund. My stories are about a female inventor seeking revenge against her arch nemesis who has set up a secret lab in the St. Louis Arch to study humans and the sequel that takes place in the Great Pyramid. These books contain so many awesome stories with girls in STEM so go check them out.

And if you’re a writer interested in learning more about the science behind themes in science fiction, check out PUTTING THE SCIENCE IN FICTION. This book contains a series of nonfiction articles aimed at teaching people the basics around a variety of science topics everything from space, to microbiology to cybersecurity and how to accurately represent them in fiction. This is a great anthology written by some amazing STEM professionals.