Author Interview: Holly Jennings

Today I am interviewing Holly Jennings author of the new science-fiction novel, Gauntlet, second book of the Arena series.

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DJ: Hey Holly! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Holly Jennings: I’m Holly Jennings: author, gamer, and nerd – not always in that order but at least one of the three at any given time. I write kick-ass futuristic science fiction and my heart swoons over a good action scene. When I’m not writing, I’m usually playing video games.

DJ: What is Gauntlet and then the Arena series about?

Holly: Set in the near-future, the Arena series combines competitive gaming with full immersion virtual reality. Imagine plugging into the Matrix to play a game, and then competing for millions of dollars to win.

Gauntlet is the sequel to the debut novel, Arena, where our heroes Team Defiance are thrown into an all-star tournament against the greatest players in the world and a game that learns the players’ weaknesses and gets harder with every round.

DJ: What were some of your influences for the Arena series?

Holly: Being a futuristic novel about virtual reality competitive gaming, Arena is what happened when Neuromancer and an eSports documentary had a baby in my imagination. The gladiatorial-style game inside the VR world came from watching one too many episodes of Spartacus.