{"id":16864,"date":"2022-02-24T20:31:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T02:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=16864"},"modified":"2022-03-02T23:24:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T05:24:21","slug":"author-jennifer-moffett-visits-english-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2022\/02\/24\/author-jennifer-moffett-visits-english-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Jennifer Moffett visits English students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Photo by Julianne Baker<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Harding alumna, who is now a published author, spoke about her latest book on Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the Reynolds Recital Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jennifer Moffett is the author of \u201cThose Who Prey,\u201d a young adult thriller, and she discussed the book and read portions of it as part of the visiting writers series hosted by the English Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor of English Terry Engel is the leader of the visiting writers program, and he coordinated Moffett\u2019s visit. He also interviewed Moffett for the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEach semester we try to bring in a visiting published writer with a significant reputation,\u201d Engel said. \u201cThis is a really good book that we think will appeal to a lot of college students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThose Who Prey\u201d tells the story of a lonely college freshman named Emily who is recruited into a cult on her college campus in Boston. As she gets deeper into the cult, it gets more dangerous, and a mission trip to Italy results in death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s kind of cool about it is that, for students who have been to [Harding University Florence (HUF)], the place where she is living in Italy is essentially the HUF villa at Scandicci,\u201d Engel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Administrative assistant for the English Department Cassie Ahlrichs said the visiting writers program is one of her favorite parts about the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHearing writers talk about the things they are passionate about is something I\u2019ve really come to enjoy more and more since I started working with the English Department,\u201d Ahlrichs said. \u201cI think this gives readers more of an appreciation for the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moffett talked about her writing process and how she is at heart a \u201cpantser,\u201d someone who writes without a plan or outline and lets the characters and the story write itself, but she has begun to work from an outline and deviate from her plans when she finds it necessary. Moffett talked about the deadline process and how she uses word count goals to write the first draft as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated by cults, so I\u2019ve been reading about them for years,\u201d Moffett said. \u201cIn the \u201890s, many cults targeted college students who were far away from home because things like email, cell phones, social media and even the Internet were not yet widely accessible or utilized back then. This made students who were isolated from hometown friends and families vulnerable prey for high-pressure groups pretending to be their instant friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moffett offered advice to those interested in more creative careers.\u201cIf you\u2019re pursuing any creative career, absorb everything you possibly can for inspiration \u2014 museums, concerts, books, films, nature,\u201d Moffett said. \u201cAlso, take rejection with a grain of salt; constructive criticism can be a gift. In the publishing industry, obstacles are simply part of the path \u2014 not a sign to give up. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Harding alumna, who is now a published author, spoke about her latest book on Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the Reynolds Recital Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15201,"featured_media":16848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16865,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16864\/revisions\/16865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}