Author Panel Biographies
Jacki Bentley
By Jacki Bentley
Sep 24, 2007, 14:41

Space ships … flying horses … and classic romance. 

Jacki Bentley has often wondered why she writes.  And for heaven’s sake why write romance with a future setting -- the most nichey of the romance niches.  Well, Jacki writes because she loves to and because she has far too much trouble finding sci-fi romance to read.  As a reader, she requires a specific book.  One with a world of a hopeful, upbeat, hyperspeed space travel future.  None of the-earth-has-been-destroyed-must-start-over kind of story for her.  A Happy Ever After ending is a huge must.

Jacki has a passion for trying to portray character emotions and their lives in a way that makes them real.  She also enjoys seeking the perfect sentences, while not allowing the writing to get in the way of the story.

She believes a good book tells a story the reader can step right into and make her very own, maybe even miss the world and the characters a little bit when the story ends.  Jacki really wants that for her readers -- sort of payback for all the writers who’ve succeeded in entertaining her in that way over the years.

Jacki sees sci-fi as a broad subgenre even encompassing the paranormal books she has written.  The most recent release is her second published book, Blood Bond, a sexy vampire romance.  In brainstorming this novella, she asked the question, “Why can’t vampires be, not the undead demons of mythology, but another human species that evolved convergent to Homo sapiens and happens to be blessed with many paranormal gifts, while plagued with prejudice from the outside world.” 

One reader commented to Jacki Bentley that Angel ‘took her on a great ride’.  That was the goal and sums it up nicely.  Of her second book, Blood Bond, a reviewer said, “Simply the best book I’ve read lately.” 

Horses star in her work often, as they do in her life.  Her first home is Kentucky.  From the powerful, rolling Kentucky River to the tall, jagged cliffs to cane bottoms and piney forests, her imagination was shaped there.  Before becoming published she worked in floral shops, arboretums and botanical herbaria, which is often handy in world building.  Jacki’s second home is Central Ohio, where she now lives with her husband and two children.