About Me
Born and raised in Bethesda, TN, I grew up surrounded by woods and hillsides. I have little doubt that my natural surroundings had a strong impact on my creative and personal development. My friends and I had adventures in the woods and let our imaginations run rampant. We loved to take a camera with us and knit stories together from our wild ideas. I began sprouting novels in middle school.
(my childhood home)
My hobbies also included drawing and composing music, which I always combined with my writing and led me to pursue an education in film. As much as I loved the hills of Bethesda, I needed to get away and explore a different side of the world. I moved away from the countryside to Los Angeles where I earned a BFA in Screenwriting at the University of Southern California.
Internships abounded, and I even landed a full-time job on a prime-time TV show (as the assistant who fetched everyone coffee, that is). After a short while I became dis-illusioned by the Hollywood system. I decided to leave Los Angeles, at least for a time, and focus on writing novels. As a result I landed in St Louis, where I spent a grueling year and a half of unemployment or part-time jobs. During this dark time, I got hit by some of the most intense inspiration I've ever experienced and churned out "Eadric the Grasper" in a period of three months. I took a short break between each book, but wrote the following sequels just as quickly.
(my dog, Mira, in some St Louis snow)
Since then I have eagerly pursued the publication and promotion of the Sons of Mercia series, though I continue to churn out other stories as well. I am addicted to writing and see it as an important form of communication between my deepest self and the outside world, as well as a method of personal therapy and growth.
To see a few of my posts about writing, follow the links below:
My Writing Process – The How
Jayden Woods is a pen name.
jaydenwoods1017[at]gmail[dot]com
(in no particular order)
"Royal Assassin" by Robin Hobb "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card "The Last Kingdom" by Bernard Cornwell
"Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke "The Eye of the World" by Robert Jordan
"Gentlemen and Players" by Joanna Harris "The Obsidian Butterfly" by Laurell K. Hamilton
"Neverending Story" by Michael Ende
I appreciate all genres, especially experimental ones, but I am also very picky! I look for music that will take me to a new emotional level. I listen to music either to get into the zone while writing or to jam to in the car. As you will find, I can tolerate quite a large amount of cheesiness and bad lyrics, because I listen to music for the music, not the words. I tried to break the bands into some semblance of categorization and limited myself to five per category.
Mainstream favorites: Modern Composers: Techno/Electronica: Epic/Progressive Rock
Bjork Nobuo Uematsu Die Form Ayreon
Patrick Wolf Philip Glass Qntal Rhapsody
Rufus Wainwright Bear McCreary Crystal Castles Fairyland
Depeche Mode Yoko Kanno Goldfrapp Nightwish
Brazilian Girls John Murphy Mechanical Moth Epica
EPIC ROCK tends to be my favorite!!
Supporting and Recommended Websites:
Medievalists.net
Englistory Forum: http://englistory.darkbb.com
Historical Novel Society :http://www.historicalnovelsociety.org/
The Gutenburg Project : www.gutenberg.org
Read the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/657/657.txt:
Philobiblon blog: http://philobiblon.co.uk/ Green politics, history (particularly women’s history) science and books. Always feminist
VIKING SHIELD! http://www.viking-shield.com/ An awesome place to buy Viking and Anglo-Saxon weapons, paraphernalia, and more!
Lair of the Green Knight @ http://writer.fitzhome.com/ - A blog of movie and book reviews, science fiction and fantasy commentary, and other gems
VIKING JEWELLRY: http://www.vikingjewellry.com/home.php A site for your Viking garb and other supplies for those in the UK
