Spotlight
J.S. Furlong "I never matured out of loving YA fiction and it's my favorite thing to read as well as write. The minute the herd was old enough to listen, we read YA. Tamora Pierce probably changed our lives, no joke. My kids are three boys, one girl and I attribute my sons' collective respect for women not only to the modeling in our home, but to the deep supply of rockin' female heroines in Pierce's books. "
Can You Tell Me a Bit About Your Writing?
“Make a plan. Stick to the plan. Be ready to change the plan. Keep your mind on the mate.” ~ Rabbi Berman, Stacy’s chess coach
About The Book
I am alive. I am safe. Nothing bad is happening.” ~ Stacy Goldman, chess champion & believer in absolutely zero vampires“―
About
Teacher and reader recommended YA series!! The Unimaginables is addictive urban fantasy at it’s best, mixing coming of age heart with supernatural action in an adventure led by a pluck-meets-grit heroine who keeps readers turning pages and asking for more.
Stacy Goldman is a garden-variety Jewish girl from New York. Except she’s a chess champion. And she doesn’t believe in anything she can’t prove. Especially monsters.
When Stacy moves from NYC to Richmond, Virginia in the wake of 9/11, she enrolls in the academically aggressive St. Ignatius Prep in order to graduate early and get home to New York. At St. Ig’s, she falls in with two other outsiders, Finder, the only Black girl and owner of the highest GPA in school and her white boyfriend, Tully, a vegetarian fencer and rugby star with a secret even Finder doesn’t know.
After Stacy interrupts a strange attack outside a diner, Finder & Tully reveal Richmond’s biggest secret – the city is home to a supernatural subculture run by a monster as old as the city itself. Ruled by logic and strategy, but having seen something she can’t explain, Stacy struggles with what is real and what is not, including her own faith.
When an alleged supernatural creature comes to Stacy needing help to defend himself and his children from the city’s cruel and manipulative vampire leader, she employs her undeniable chess prowess and must discover her own untapped belief in the unimaginable to save not only his life but those of herself and her friends.
About the Author
J.S. Furlong is an author, producer and actor. Raised in the Washington DC professional theatre, Jen spent her teenage years learning to inhabit other people’s lives on stage and make them real. It is no surprise that her first published book was a LARP guide to playing truly evil bad guys: Antagonists for Mind’s Eye Theatre, the Live Action incarnation of Vampire: The Masquerade from White Wolf Publishing. Written under her maiden name, Jennifer Albright, this book was a natural integration of both writing and acting.
The largest portion of her writing began when she took a hiatus from acting to have children. A college professor once read a story she wrote and wrote on her paper “Not bad. You should publish this.” Those words stuck with her. Hidden City was first drafted in 2004 just before the birth of her second son as an effort to write something her children could eventually read. Jen’s teenaged heroines struggle with truth, possibility and who they are. Now mother to four of them, Jen loves teenagers and writes books that she hopes teens, tweens and adult lovers of YA will enjoy. A few random facts about Jen: 1. While writing this book initially she was also writing for and producing modern theatrical circuses, one of which she co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. 2. Jen’s career in television and film includes a tiny but pivotal role on Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. 3. Jen is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and attended both Ithaca College and The University of Mary Washington.
One of her goals is to speak as many languages as she needs to run circuses and buy goats around the world. She lives in Virginia with her animals, her adorable husband and whomever else happens to be home. Follow Jen on IG at @iamjenfurlong. Hidden City is her debut novel.
