We are so excited to be able to talk to the author of Omnific’s newest release (avail 3/27/12), Streamline, Jennifer Lane. You may love Jen Lane’s wonderful ex-con lovers Grant and Sophie, but this new release is something new and different! Take a look…
Seems like Leo Scott has it all: looks, brains, and athletic talent. He’s captain of his high school swim team with a bright future in college and beyond. But Leo has secrets. His mother’s crippling car accident has devastated his family and left Leo to deal with his father’s abuse, battered and alone.
Leo’s girlfriend Audrey Rose is poised for her own share of success. As one of Florida’s top high school swimmers, Audrey dreams of college swimming stardom. But there’s an obstacle to her glorious rise to the top. Her number-one supporter—her father—is in prison for murder.
Part murder mystery, part tale of young love in a military family, this gripping story takes readers on a journey from Pensacola to Annapolis. Leo and Audrey must band together to rise above the adversity they encounter and find their true selves in the process. When everything’s on the line . . . streamline.
Jennifer answered a few of our questions to give a little insight into her process and her new book. AND as an extra little bonus, she has included a couple of great excerpts from Streamline!
Omnific: Streamline is Young Adult fiction, while The Conduct Series is adult contemporary, what made you switch focus?
Jennifer Lane: Streamline is actually the first novel I wrote, inspired by my wonderful experience in high school and college swimming. I’m fascinated by the Young Adult/New Adult age range—so much change going on during those years. When I looked into publishing Streamline in 2008, I didn’t even know about the wild popularity of YA and thought an adult novel would be more mainstream. (Can you say clueless?) So it’s more like I switched focus from YA to adult fiction when I began writing The Conduct Series.
Omnific: As I mentioned, you have two books already in The Conduct Series, so was writing and editing Streamline a different experience for you? Was it a little easier knowing what to expect from the process?
Jennifer Lane: Writing Streamline was a labor of love for me, and I cranked out 213,000 words in only nine months. Editing this time around has been a mixed bag. Knowing what to expect really reduced the anxiety. However, when my awesome editor Jessica Royer Ocken and I decided to make some major changes to point-of-view in the story, we created many rewrites and tightening. Now the novel is less than 130,000 words.
Omnific: The story in Streamline involves competitive swimming. That’s something new in a story line. Where did you get the inspiration from?
Jennifer Lane: I began swimming competitively at age eight, and I still swim once or twice a week over thirty years later. Swimming has given me perseverance, leadership, deep friendships, intense competition, a fantastic college experience, and inspiration for my career as a psychologist. And now swimming has given me a second career as an author! A swimming story is part of an exciting new genre called sports romance.
Here the hero of Streamline, Leo Scott, attempts to explain the beauty of swimming to his psychologist:
She chuckled. "So, back to you, sounds like you‘re on the swim team here. What do you like about swimming?
Fastening a band-aid to his toe, Leo pictured the high school pool. "So much. It‘s an individual sport. It‘s all on me—the victories, the defeats. I love how hard it is… Not everyone‘s willing to wake up before zero-five-hundred, and only the strongest can make it. It‘s also cool how soothing and refreshing the water is. It‘s like another world where you can‘t hear a thing; you’re just alone in your thoughts. And to swim fast, you can‘t fight the water. You have to flow with it, feel it, surrender to it."
Omnific: Since Omnific is all about the romance...what is your favorite romance scene in a book?
Jennifer Lane: Playful romantic scenes are fun to write, like the time when Naval Academy plebe Leo mistakenly calls his girlfriend Audrey “ma’am”. Of course she runs with that.
“Stop being so hard on yourself, Leo.”
Without thinking he said, “Yes, ma’am.”
Audrey giggled.
“Oooh, I like that.” She snickered. “Call me ma’am again.”
A mischievous smile surfaced. “I misbehaved, ma’am. I should be punished, ma’am.”
“We can arrange that,” Audrey countered. “On your feet, Midshipman Scott!”
Leo scrambled back to standing. Audrey prowled around him,sliding one finger across his chest. “You’re so hot in that uniform, Mr. Scott. You’re even fitter than the last time I saw you, which is hard to believe.” Her finger slid up and caressed his face with the lightest touch. She gave a dramatic sigh. “My boy is becoming a man.” She tossed her hair.
She leaned in close, her mouth inches from his ear, and he could smell the hint of sweetness in her perfume. “You’re the hottest plebe I’ve ever seen. Caliente. Sizzling hot. You’re forcing me to break all rules against fraternizing.”
“I won’t report you, ma’am.”
“You better not report this, either,” she added, and shoved him down.
He smiled, surprised by her aggression.
“Remove your camisa, Mr. Scott.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He yanked off his tunic.
“Now lay back.”
She climbed on to straddle him. The places where their skin touched grew warm.
“Eyes forward, mister.” She crawled up to hover over his face. Holding her lips tantalizingly close to his, she whispered, “Now kiss me.”
Leo lifted his head and once their lips locked, the force of Audrey’s longing pressed his head back. Their legs tangled as he drew her body to his, making it hard to breathe. But he didn’t care.
She was his breath, his life.
Audrey lingered in their kiss as he kneaded the fine muscles of her back.
“Keep…doing…that,” she ordered, between kisses.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Omnific: Now, if they made that into a movie who would you want cast? Or if they have made a movie, would you recast it?
Jennifer Lane: I’m obsessed with the actor Wentworth Miller, and he’s the inspiration for Leo—a Biracial high school swimmer with gorgeous crystal blue eyes.
This is an image created by a fan, and Leo looks something like this:
Omnific: And, finally, (you had to know it was coming…) Is there going to be a third book in your CONduct series?
Jennifer Lane: You bet. I’m about one-third done with On Best Behavior and I’m excited to share the new torture methods I’ve drummed up for the romantic leads Grant Madsen and Sophie Taylor!
Thanks so much Jennifer, I am really looking forward to this one as I’m sure your readers are too.
If you want to find Jennifer Lane, I’m sure she would love to hear from you and you can find here here:
Twitter: @JenLanebooks
