Daily Inspiration: Meet Jen Black

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jen Black.

Hi Jen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My story begins in Arvada, Colorado 1972, as the youngest of 7 kids. I had a lot of competition, so I had to be creative and loud to get attention. This also helped me build a wild imagination, as my Mother would always say.
We lived in Old Town Arvada on Grandview in an amazingly haunted big old house. The view from my window was highlighted by Crown Hill Cemetery’s tower, which I lovingly referred to as The Tower of the Dead. A place that would become a favorite place of mine to hang out. As I grew older, stories of Haunted Colorado intrigued me. By Middle school ( Arvada Jr ), I had become a regular at the library researching old spooky places. By high School ( Arvada Sr ), I had become a regular at not only the library but the cemetery as well. I would walk the halls of the Crown Hill Tower with my camera, hoping to catch a ghost or two. I would sit in the Wishing Chair and read aloud the Rhyme of Annie Laurie. I would work the stories in my mind and tell friends elaborate tales of the lives I had imagined the people of the past living.
I moved to Germany just weeks after graduation ( Arvada Sr High 1991). I had married my 1st husband during my Sr year, he had joined the Army. Being in Germany fed my obsession with old haunted places. I visited every Castle, monastery, and historic place within reach. My favorite is Prague. Not knowing it at the time, this ancestral home would inspire a great story within my mind that is almost ready to be published. I loved visiting Prague and went many times in the 4 years stationed at Bamberg, Germany. I now know through extensive research that my ancestors lived at Prague Castle for generations.
Once we came back to the States, we were stationed at Ft Riley, Kansas, with our 3 children. I started exploring the haunted places and ghost stories in and around Manhattan, KS. This is when I really started to bloom as a storyteller. I had years of experience in the art of ghost hunting at this point. Friends started asking for tours, so we would all go to a cemetery and I would tell them about the lives, deaths, and ghosts of those buried. We would explore old abandoned buildings, building my library of ghost stories.
In about 2004, I bought an old burned-out shell of a historic building in St George, Kansas. It had a long history as a Café, I rebuilt it and opened the HideAway Café & Black Jack Saloon. This doubled as a meeting place for the St George Historical Society. My story library grew even bigger. The Watchmen of Dalton Manor is inspired by the Dalton House, in which I lived during my time in St George.
In 2007, my children were in middle school we moved to Colorado. We had come back for my brother-in-law’s funeral, and while in town, I wanted to take my kids up to this old ghost town that my dad used to take me to. This was a life-changing drive into the foothills.
When I was a kid, my Dad would take us to this old ghost town with dirt streets, that place was Central City! I was shocked at first. Central City and Black Hawk had changed drastically since the 1970’s I did not know that casinos were a thing at all. We spent a few hours on that mountain and fell in love with the place. I felt like it was home. I went back to Kansas and packed up my house, my bar, and my café, and moved to Gilpin County, Colorado. I was home!
Central City helped blossom my creative storytelling in a way that cannot be put into adequate words. I quickly became part of the Historical Society, Creepy Crawl, Cemetery Crawl, Sporting House Girls ( Lou Bunch Day), as well as working as a cocktail server, bartender, and food server in a handful of casinos. All in historical buildings! I can say in all honesty that I LOVE CENTRAL CITY! And all of her ghosts. I have published Ghosts of Central City Vols’s 1&2 with Vol 3 in the works. In which I retell personal experiences I have had in and around Central City. All of the years living in Central City, EVERYONE kept saying, “ You should write a book”. But life kept me too busy.
In 2017, I was diagnosed with cancer; my world came to a crashing end. My kids were grown, and I was a Grandma by then. It broke my heart to leave Central City, but my heart could not handle the altitude as my body fought the cancer. In 2018, I moved off the mountain and into the Northern Colorado area, with the support of my Uncle and Mom. I fought and won the battle with cancer and regained my strength. I had a lot of downtime; everyone told me I should write, so that is what I did. I took that downtime, my recovery time, and I wrote. I wrote a variety of stories, some for my Grandkids ( Seamus the Famous Series), some I wrote for my Mom ( Jens Family History), and some I wrote for me ( Watchmen & Ghosts of Central).
I had my 1st book release during Lou Bunch Day in Central City ( Lou Bunch Day, the most fun festival day celebrating the great Lou Bunch and her sporting house girls). This was a big hit. I had been a well-known tour guide & server for years, the locals had become a family to me, they had been there for my kids and me through family tragedy, Deaths, Births, graduations, grandbabies, divorce, and all. Gilpin County is a really tight community, and they all came out to support me and to celebrate my monumental win against cancer. I release all of my new books in Central City because of this. I am back every year for Lou Bunch Day and usually Halloween and the Tommy Knockers Bazaar in December. I still guide tours and tell ghost stories each time I am in town.
I launched Jens Stories in 2024 and created my website www.JensStories.com as a way for my fans to check in with me and keep up on my works, and to link in to Amazon to buy my books. As the website grew, people (MY Grandkids) asked for merchandise, so I added Drop shipping and gift items. I will be scaling back in jan 2026 and removing drop ship. I find my custom-made items and books are what really sell.
I have grown here in Northern Colorado as well. My Seamus the Famous series is all about my Irish Setter Seamus and his silly antics, has been a great hit with the kids. I have been a Guest story reader at Ft Collins Nursery for Children’s Story Time & Holiday Blues Market, Wellington Market, as well as regular events in Central City.
In 2026, I have exciting new releases coming: Ghosts of Central City Vol 3, Seamus the Famous Vol 3, and a new exciting collaboration with an amazing new artist, Aaron Holliday, called The Labrynth of Natas.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
At times, I look back and think, Wow, my entire life has been full of struggles.
I think life became a bit trickier when my 1st husband and I divorced. His alcoholism had become violent; he broke a few of my bones and so I had to make a tough choice to separate. We had been Jr High sweethearts, grown up together, had our babies, and now I was sending him to prison for domestic abuse. It was while he was in prison that I moved myself and the kids back to Colorado. It was not easy to be a single mom with 3 kids. My kids were great! They worked right beside me at the Century Casino in Central City. I also worked for G F Gaming and the Museum, all of us working together as a team.
Then, as Life was settling out and the kids were grown, the cancer came. I had to fight for my life. I lost my father to cancer in 1997, so this was a super hard one for me. At first, I was sure I would also die. But I didn’t. This fight changed my life in many ways. Moving away from my kids and grandkids and moving to Northern Colorado was hard, but it helped me a lot! My Family, Kids, Grandkids, mom, uncle, they all helped me, I could not have done ot without them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My specialty is creative storytelling. I am a creative, flamboyant, slightly witchy, eccentric storyteller. I love to dress up in a wild, flamboyant witchy outfit and tell ghost stories. I turn real-life ghost experiences, sometimes add a little imagination, and sometimes my imagination takes real life and turns it into a fun story. I take these stories and turn them into books, videos, clips, and re-enactments, sharing them with the world.
I would like to be known for being an Eccentric Storyteller.
I am most proud of myself for self-publishing my books. I submitted my 1st book Watchmen of Dalton Manor to a traditional publisher and was shocked at the pricing, so I learned how to edit and format, I have made mistake and learned how to correct them. this was not easy; I am proud that I was able to do it.
My flamboyant and eccentric personality defiantly set me apart from others, I am unique.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The storytelling industry is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up with it. Social media, AI, it all changes so fast that to keep up, Story Teller must constantly create new material.
It is hard to know what the next 5 to 10 years will see; however, I think it will grow in a positive way. I see technology giving creators an open door to creating videos and movies, letting us bring our stories to fans in a cinematic way that would have been out of reach for so many before.

Pricing:

• Pricing may vary depending on location. My Books are in a handful of shops, and I do not regulate pricing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jensstories.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrblack.author/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jen.black.author
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JensStories
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/author/j.r.black

Image Credits
Ken Pauly Photography
Photograph by Dannah