About the author
With 28 books published and world-wide sales, Jane Jackson (who writes medical and contemp romance as Dana James) is passionate about historical romance spiced with adventure and intrigue.
She taught the Craft of Novel Writing at summer schools and as a module of the MA course in Professional Writing at the University College Falmouth. Ten of her former students are now traditionally published novelists.
Married with an expanding family she lives in Cornwall.
Website: http://www.janejackson.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JJacksonAuthor
About the book- A place of birds
Nineteen-year-old Susanna Elliot rebels against her strict Quaker upbringing, which alienates her from her family and community. Rejected by the doctor she admires, and refused permission to take her dead brother's place in the family business, she flees to join her two cousins on their mission to China. All three leave Falmouth for Shanghai aboard a schooner owned by Lowell Hawke. Hawke's daring exploits have made him a legend along the Chinese coast and Susanna finds herself in danger – and love...
What
prompted you to first start writing?
As soon as I could talk I was making
up stories to tell my younger sister. Learning to read got me hooked on books.
At school I loved writing essays. It just evolved from there.
Can
you summarise your latest work in just a few words?
A young woman flees Cornwall for China,
faces death and finds love.
Did
you do any research for this book?
Masses! I learned about pearl diving in the South
China Sea; jade carving; well-intentioned but inept missionaries; opium and the
two wars it caused; Yangtze pirates; and trade in Shanghai.
What
does a typical writing day involve for you?
Afternoons are my creative time so I
try to keep them free for work on the current book. Mornings are usually hectic
as I juggle housework, dealing with email, drafting posts for my website blog, and
promo work for backlist titles newly released as paperback and ebooks. I also
try to fit in a walk every day even if it's just the half-mile to the village
for shopping. Fresh air and a change of scene often produce solutions to story problems.
Do
you have a WIP?
With two more paperbacks out between
now and May and a brand new historical romance out in June I'm never without
one! I'm at the beginning of an exciting
new project – a 'cosy' contemporary Cornwall-based book about a widowed
genealogist. My publisher and I hope this
will be the first of a series.
What
has been the best part of the writing process...and the worst?
I love research because it opens
doors into worlds I knew little or nothing about. I enjoy planning the book: choosing situations
and events that create the most emotionally engaging and dramatic story from
among all the possible 'what ifs?' I
interview the characters, learning who they are and how they feel from not
simply from what they tell me, but
their tone of voice, body language, and what they refuse to reveal. I know the
book is going well when they take over and leave me trying to keep up with
what's happening.
I'm not so keen on all the promo expected
of authors. I would prefer my books to
speak for themselves. But it's a
necessary part of the job now. Letting
people know about a new book while not irritating them by pushing it too hard
is like walking a tightrope – balance is everything.
Do
you plot your novels or allow them to develop as you write?
When I first started writing novels
I was a 'pantster.' I'd done my research, knew the period, background,
characters and a starting point, and launched into the story from there. It
worked. My books were accepted and published with rarely more than a single
page of edits. But life became complicated
and after being away from the story for days or weeks at a time trying to pick
up the threads was really difficult. So
I started planning. I know authors who fear they'll get bored if they know
where the story is going. I found the opposite: that it gives me scope for a
more complex plot. Besides, if you don't know where you're going, how will you
know when you've got there? You might
stop too soon and miss something amazing. I think of my plan as a road map of my
story. It shows my intended route from starting point to destination with 4-6 major events along the way that build to the
climax. What it doesn't show is the state of the road – is it smooth or rocky; expected
events that might force detours, or weather creating drama, danger and delay. Best of all, it's not written in stone. If your characters suddenly take off in
a direction you hadn't foreseen you can follow them, safe in the knowledge that
if it proves to be a dead end you can easily retrace your steps and rejoin the
planned route. If this new direction is better for your story you can adapt
your plan accordingly.
What
book/s are you reading at the moment?
I read voraciously in many
genres. I've just finished reading
Ranulph Feinnes' 'Cold.' His power to drive himself on in circumstances that
would kill most of us is simply awesome; as is the fact that he has raised over
£10 million for charity. I'm currently switching between Jane Austen, Lesley
Horton, Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly,
Georgette Heyer, Lesley Cookman's cosy
crime series 'Murder In...' CJ Box's Joe Pickett series about a game warden in
Wyoming is another favourite, as is Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series set
in Canada. I adore Terry Pratchett's
Discworld series; Kate Hardy's medical romances, and Jodi Taylor's Chronicles
of St Mary's, 'Just One Damned Thing After Another' and 'A Symphony of
Echoes.' I'm currently reading 'The
Semi-Detached Marriage' written in 1830 by Emily Eden, and it's superb: hilarious,
and a wonderful study of human nature.
Do
you have any advice for new writers?
Read – as much and as widely as you
can. You won't write well unless you do.
Worried about absorbing someone else's style? Don't be. It's not that
easy. (If it were, everyone would be doing it) Write about what moves you deeply. If you are
not passionate about your characters and their story, how can you expect to grab
and hold readers? If you are planning to
self-publish, employ a first-rate editor. It will be worth every penny to have
an expert and unbiased eye help shape your story into one that will hook
readers on the first page, keep them riveted until the last, then immediately
search for your other titles.
Thanks so much for inviting me onto
allthingsbookie, Julie.
Website: http://www.janejackson.net
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