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Q: Any big news for us?
A: Yes! The biggest news is that MY LADY JANE, the book I wrote with my friends Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton, is going to be out soon as a TV series on Amazon Prime. I am, of course, THRILLED by this. Almost all of my books have been in development for film or TV at one time or another, but this is the first time one has made it. I don't have any official word on when it will be available to stream, but I'm guessing late 2023 or early 2024. 
Q: What is your next book?
A: The next book from me should be My Salty Mary, the last book of the Janie series, which should be out in Summer 2024. We are hard at work on that right now. It is about Mary Read, the not-so-famous female pirate, in the year 1719. It also has a splash of The Little Mermaid thrown in. It's great fun. My next solo book is called Timeless, and it takes place in the same world as my Unearthly series, with some of the same characters, but the main character is someone you've never met before. I'm not exactly sure when it be out, although I know it will be not long after My Salty Mary. It's been so wonderful to be back in the Unearthly world, thinking about those themes. It's also been strange, because I've changed a lot as a person and a writer since I wrote that first book almost 14 years ago. |
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Q: What is the newest of your books that I can read now?
A: My latest book, which came out last August and will be out in paperback very soon, was MY IMAGINARY MARY. I love this book so much! It's about Mary Shelley (the teen girl who wrote Frankenstein) and Ada Lovelace (the world's first computer programmer), and even though in real life these two never met, in our book they become best friends, build a robot boy together (which Mary accidentally brings to life) and go on a wild adventure to find Ada's famous father, Lord Byron. Seriously, I think it's one of the best books I've written. Please read it. My latest solo book is WITH YOU ALL THE WAY, which came out about two years ago now. (And in paperback last year.) It's about a sixteen year old who is contemplating having sex for the first time with her boyfriend, which doesn't happen, and then she finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. She hardly has time to process this when she has to go to Hawaii on a vacation/work trip with her mom and two sisters. Once there, she decides that she'll have sex after all . . . with a boy she sees at this same conference every year. But that, too, doesn't go to plan. When I started writing this book I intended it to be like a modern version of Judy Bloom's Forever, but it turned out to be a sweeter, funnier, story about sisterhood and families. |
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Q: Are there going to be more books starring Edward, Jane, and Gifford?
A: Yes and no. As in yes, there are more Jane books. Two more, in fact. The second one is called MY PLAIN JANE, and the third is MY CALAMITY JANE, but neither of these books includes Edward, Jane, and G. All of our books are written to stand alone, and even though we might tip our hats by making a quick reference to another book here and there (there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo of Jane and G in one particular scene in My Plain Jane) none of these books take place in the same world, really. With one exception: MY CONTRARY MARY. This is a book about Mary, Queen of Scots, and it, like the others, stands alone. But it also takes place in the same world of Tudor-Era E∂ians and Verities that we built for My Lady Jane, and Jane, Edward, and G just might make a more significant appearance here. And the Amazon Prime is sure to bring some new revelations to the lives of Jane, G, and Edward, too! |
Q: So you're writing with two other authors now? How did that happen?
A: Well, funny story. . . I'd been kicking around for ideas of ways to get to hang out more often with my two writing besties: Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows. We always have so much fun together, and I thought there must be a project we could all work on together. Also, after I wrote The Last Time We Say Goodbye, I really felt like I needed to write a comedy. TLTWSG was so sad, and so difficult to write, that I wanted to work on something lighter. So I decided to write about the Lady Jane Grey, a girl who'd been screwed over by history and beheaded. Hilarious, right? Um, no. That's what Brodi Ashton told me the first time I pitched her the idea. Beheadings, she said, aren't funny. But I won her over in the end. And then, a few months later, I won over Jodi. (It wasn't hard. I didn't actually even tell her about this funny beheading book I had. I just asked if she wanted to write a book with us, and she said yes.) You can find out more about what we do and how we do it at our website, www.ladyjanies.com. 
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Q: How did you become a writer?
A: In some ways, I've always been a writer. It's just part of who I am. But I didn't officially consider myself a writer until I was accepted as a student in the Boise State University Master of Fine Arts program, and actually started to learn what it meant to be a writer. That's when I made the commitment. Q: Just how much school do you have under your belt, anyway? A: A lot. Writers can grow and thrive in many different ways. I took the school route, and I've always been glad I did. I have an M.F.A. in fiction writing and a Ph.D. in English with a Creative Writing emphasis. But please don't call me Dr. Hand. Q: Did all that school really help you improve your writing? Do you think you have to go to school in order to become a "real" writer? A: I think there is really only one way to get better at writing: WRITE. And then WRITE some more. And then WRITE SOME MORE. I don't think writers need to go to lots of school in order to get published or kick butt as writers. But, in my case, the university provided me with a lot of amazing resources that shaped me into the writer I am now: 1) time and financial support to write. 2) a group of smart, capable peers who challenged me to write my best and inspired me with their own hard work 3) amazing, established writers as mentors and instructors who taught me so much more than what I would have ever gleaned on my own, and 4) a sense of seriousness about myself as a writer, a real commitment to doing the work of writing. In short, I loved the process of getting my education, and I would recommend real, formal study to anybody who is seriously considering giving this writing thing a try. Q: Who is your agent and how did you get connected with your agent? A: My agent is Katherine Fausset at Curtis Brown. This is an unusual story, I think, as I never queried agents. Several years ago I published a short story in The Iowa Review (a literary journal), and my agent read the story and liked it, and contacted me to see what I was working on. Lucky, lucky me! She's one of my favorite people on the planet. |
Q: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to become a writer? A: I have tons of advice (I've taught fiction writing for twenty years!), but if I had to boil it down into a few sentences, I would say: Write what you love. That's it. Don't write what you think will sell, don't write what other people tell you to write, don't write because you want to be an Author with a capital A, but write out of love, out of the heart's field. Write about the things that matter to you. Write passionately. Write for yourself first. So often I get asked for advice in this way, but what the person is really asking me is: How do I get published? Which to me is a discouraging question, because if you're focusing on getting published, it's all about the outcome, and writing should be about the process. The journey. If you write what you love, and you keep at it, story after story, book after book, improving as you go, I think there's a pretty good chance that publishing will work itself out. So that's my two bits on the subject. |
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Q: Was Unearthly your first book?
A: It's my first book to be published. Before this I'd published a few literary short stories, a few poems, and written about half of a literary novel. Q: In what order should I read the Unearthly series? A: UNEARTHLY, HALLOWED, RADIANT (which is a short novella), and then BOUNDLESS. Q: Will there be any more books that take place in the Unearthly universe? A: Yes! As I said above, I'm working on a book called Timeless, which takes place in the Unearthly universe. Q: Is Radiant ever coming to paperback? Nope. Radiant is an ebook only. Except in Turkey, where the publisher has decided to print a hard copy. So only if you live in Turkey. Q: Will there ever be an Unearthly movie? A: The rights have reverted back to me, which means that Unearthly as a movie or TV series is stalled, at the moment. Such is Hollywood. But I am working with movie people to adapt THE AFTERLIFE OF HOLLY CHASE, and MY LADY JANE is coming soon as an Amazon Prime series. |
Q: What's your favorite food, candy, drink, edible thing?
A: Honestly, I get asked this all the time, mostly I think because sweet people want to bring things to my signings for me. I love pasta, in general, and my favorite foods are almost all Italian. I love anything that mixes chocolate and salt--Godiva makes a dark chocolate bar with sea salt in it that I can't resist.
Q: What's your favorite color / animal / season?
A: I am such a pain about these questions, because I change my mind so often. I seriously don't have a favorite color--I love most colors. I have two cats, Stella and Frank, and a Golden Irish named Poesy, and they are awesome, but I also love fish and birds and I even once had a pet salamander named Sonic. I also heart horses in a way I've never gotten over since I was a little girl. I don't have a favorite season so much as I love the transitions between seasons--summer giving way to fall, the week of the first snow in winter, the first warm day of spring. My favorite holiday is the Fourth of July.
Q: Do you collect anything?
A: I collect writing-related tee shirts and necklaces, and I am starting to get more serious about my collection of pretty coffee mugs. One day I was just looking at the line of identical white coffee mugs in my cupboard, and I thought, that is so boring. I need to get me some pretty and cool mugs. I have one with a mermaid on it that I adore.
Q: What are some things most people don't know about you?
A: I am a video game junky. I have to be careful not to play too much or my books would never get written. Elder Scrolls Online in particular is very dangerous--my handle is LadyJanie1, if you're ever in there with me and want to say hello. I am also a knitter, a skier, I play mediocre piano, ukulele, and banjo, and I collect movie scores--my favorite movie composer is Thomas Newman.
Q: What music do you write to?
A: I don't write to music. I need quiet for writing. But I often listen to music before and after I write something. I've found nothing more effective at getting me in the mind frame of my current novel than a song or two that embodies what the characters are feeling. I always keep a playlist.
A: Honestly, I get asked this all the time, mostly I think because sweet people want to bring things to my signings for me. I love pasta, in general, and my favorite foods are almost all Italian. I love anything that mixes chocolate and salt--Godiva makes a dark chocolate bar with sea salt in it that I can't resist.
Q: What's your favorite color / animal / season?
A: I am such a pain about these questions, because I change my mind so often. I seriously don't have a favorite color--I love most colors. I have two cats, Stella and Frank, and a Golden Irish named Poesy, and they are awesome, but I also love fish and birds and I even once had a pet salamander named Sonic. I also heart horses in a way I've never gotten over since I was a little girl. I don't have a favorite season so much as I love the transitions between seasons--summer giving way to fall, the week of the first snow in winter, the first warm day of spring. My favorite holiday is the Fourth of July.
Q: Do you collect anything?
A: I collect writing-related tee shirts and necklaces, and I am starting to get more serious about my collection of pretty coffee mugs. One day I was just looking at the line of identical white coffee mugs in my cupboard, and I thought, that is so boring. I need to get me some pretty and cool mugs. I have one with a mermaid on it that I adore.
Q: What are some things most people don't know about you?
A: I am a video game junky. I have to be careful not to play too much or my books would never get written. Elder Scrolls Online in particular is very dangerous--my handle is LadyJanie1, if you're ever in there with me and want to say hello. I am also a knitter, a skier, I play mediocre piano, ukulele, and banjo, and I collect movie scores--my favorite movie composer is Thomas Newman.
Q: What music do you write to?
A: I don't write to music. I need quiet for writing. But I often listen to music before and after I write something. I've found nothing more effective at getting me in the mind frame of my current novel than a song or two that embodies what the characters are feeling. I always keep a playlist.