Jenna Welch

Jenna Evans Welch is the author of “Love and Gelato,” “Love and Olives,” “Love and Luck,” and “Love and Other Detours.”

Sometimes you may find yourself strolling through rows of bookshelves, or maybe just looking through one bookshelf, unable to find the right book. This happens to almost everyone sometime in their lives, and only a few people decide to do something about it. One such person is Jenna Evans Welch, author of “Love and Gelato,” “Love and Olives,” “Love and Luck,” and “Love and Other Detours.”

Welch decided to become a YA author when she was only eleven years old. “I was already well into my reading life (I read absolutely everything!), and one day I went to my local library and started looking for the books for teens. The YA world was nothing like it is today and I was so disappointed by the tiny shelf of books and what their subjects were. I told my mom that one day I was going to write the books that I wish were waiting for me on that shelf and then headed for the adult fiction,” she said.

Of course, her journey wasn’t always perfect and smooth, and her books are a product of her overcoming many challenges.

“There have been many challenges in my writing career!” Welch said. “It took me seven years of work before I started writing anything I actually liked, and at one point I tried to give up. Luckily I had people around me who didn’t let me.”

Welch’s books have developed to become the favorite of not just many readers, but also aspiring authors.

“The best advice I have to share is something I learned from an interview by Ari Shapiro. It’s basically this: when you are first starting out your taste level will be much higher than your skill level, and the only way to close that gap is through a lot of work. My first attempts at writing books were very rough and I found that very discouraging. What I eventually learned is that if you want to be a successful writer you will have to be okay with writing poorly for many years with the hope/belief that one day you will write something good.” Welch said.

Currently, Welch is writing another contemporary fiction novel, told from the perspective of two characters. 

“I’m not sharing specifics at the moment,” she said, “but I can tell you it has a travel component and a lot of self-discovery (my favorites!).”