Jessica Andersen was born and raised in eastern
Mass (go, Sox!), and has lived her whole life in New England. She did the public school thing, surviving the 80s with no lasting scars aside from a few photos of herself with spiked hair and a rat tail. During the 90s, she did a double stint at Tufts University for an undergraduate biology degree and a PhD in genetics, with a year-long break in between that can best be described as: 
"I don't know what I want to be when I grow up; I think I'll do some landscaping"... followed by "um, okay; I think I'll go back to school now."
During grad school and for a year after, she worked at the New England Eye Center,
helping search for the genetic changes responsible for certain types of glaucoma. It was very cool work, but the writing aspect of science suited her far better than the lab work. It wasn't until the committee head complimented her doctoral thesis by saying it "read like a mystery novel" that
she admitted she was... um... writing a romantic suspense novel in her free time. A year later, she left the lab and spent the next year freelancing as a scientific editor and riding instructor while she worked on getting her writing career off the ground.
Released in October of '03, her first
Harlequin Intrigue, Dr. Bodyguard, was an RT Top Pick and kicked off a long string of largely science-themed romantic intrigues that have hit the category bestseller lists and been nominated for Reviewers' Choice and RITA awards. While writing the Intrigues, she kept honing her craft and submitting new ideas, hoping to make the jump from category to single title success.
She loves learning about new things and rediscovering old interests. So one day while she was working on a story idea, she came across a reference to pre-Columbian serpent worship, had an 'ooh, shiny!' moment, and followed where the information flow led her... straight to a mention of the Mayan Long Count calendar, and how it's slated to end on December 21, 2012... close to a thousand years after the fall of the Mayan Empire.
The Maya have always been a particular
interest of hers, and she'd been to most of the major Yucatan sites as a kid... let's just say the pyramid at Chichen Itza made a huge impression. How could it not? And the more she looked into the 2012 doomsday prophecy, the more the Nightkeepers' story started clicking in her brain- less like she was crafting it, and more like it had been there all along, waiting for her to discover the Nightkeepers
and how important they're going to become over the next few years as the Long Count draws to a close and the Mayan calendar reaches the zero date... at which point there will be no more time to count. Game Over.
Or is it??
http://www.jessicaandersen.com
WHEN?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Eastern USA Time.....7 PM
Not sure what time that is wherever in the world you are? http://www.worldtimeserver.com
WHERE?
The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm
Scroll down to the Java box. It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click Login. No password needed.
Please note: The chatroom is only open for regularly scheduled chats.
Don't forget the open chat on Wednesday nights, 8-11 pm EST!
