Lesbian Fiction
Date Published: October 2019
Anne Elliot broke off her relationship with Freddie Wentworth when her family didn't approve. Almost eight years later, Freddie re-materializes in her life. She's a captain in the Air Force, successful, single, and as beautiful as ever. Mortified that she doesn't have much to show for the intervening years, Anne tries to avoid her. When contact is inevitable, her life is turned upside down. Self-doubt becomes self-improvement, old wounds are reopened and then allowed to heal, and true friends and true love win in the end.
Interview
What is the hardest part of writing
your books?
Knowing when to stop. That wasn’t as
true with my new novel, A Woman’s
Persuasion, because it’s a modern translation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. I went through the original
chapter by chapter as I was writing. But most of the time, I will write and
rewrite and rewrite before I consider it “ripe” enough to show other people. I
mean, why ask people to read things that
aren’t right yet? With my second novel, Brains
and Beauty, I still had more details and research I was planning on adding
when I realized it was already a 600 page novel. I needed to stop adding, and
start editing. I had to be pretty brutal. But I got it down to 400 pages, just
a little longer than the first book.
What songs are most played on your
Ipod?
Waltzes. I’m a dance instructor, so
all of my music is dance music. Of my dance music, it’s probably the waltzes I
play the most often. Once my students “get” the flow of cross step waltz, or
the power of a regular turning waltz, the dance is invariably the favorite.
Do you have critique partners or beta
readers?
I have an army of friends whom I call
on to read my book with a critical eye. Some of them are English teachers,
other sorts of college professors, editors, and just avid readers. I never let
a book be seen by readers until I’ve had at least six pairs of eyes on the
manuscript. It’s important to have feedback from many different perspectives.
For example, how do you spell the nickname for a BMW? I think most of us would
spell it “beemer” or “beamer.” But one beta reader happens to work in the auto
industry, and gave me the correct spelling: “bimmer.” Because it’s German.
What book are you reading now?
Funny, I’m actually not reading a book
at the moment. I’ve got a stack of magazines next to my exercise bike, and I’ve
sternly told myself I don’t get to start any new books until I read through
this stack of Smithsonian Magazines
and National Geographic’s History
Magazine. Once I’ve cleared that stack, I’m thinking that Prairie Fires, a biography of Laura
Ingalls Wilder. If not that, I have a tall stack of books waiting in my
library. Mostly biographies.
How did you start your writing career?
Well, how do you define career? I used
to entertain the children I babysat with stories, using their stuffed animals
as the characters. I never wrote those down. Then I told stories to my best
friend as we walked to school. She made me write them down. In high school, I
was an editor on the school newspaper. My English teachers encouraged me to be
a writer; it took me a few years, but I’ve finally lived up to my potential.
I am very excited to be releasing A
Woman’s Persuasion. I had been at a conference for the Jane Austen Society of
North America, promoting my current novel, Jane
Austen Lied to Me. One of the presenters talked about how there are a ton
of rewrites using Pride and Prejudice,
but not so many with Persuasion. An
attendee made the comment, “Well, that book just isn’t as timeless of a story.
The situation is much more dated and just doesn’t resonate with a modern
audience.” I sat there listening, and thinking, “It’s perfectly relevant to
today. You just have to have the stakes right.” I had the rough idea sketched
out in my head by the end of the lecture, and started writing the day after I
got home. I had Jane Austen’s novel open next to my laptop, and I translated
the entire book, chapter by chapter.
I’ve never written a book so quickly
before. I’m incredibly excited about it. While Jane Austen Lied to Me is really written for Janeites, and if you
aren’t a Jane Austen you won’t get the humor, this new one is perfectly
readable if you’ve never read a single Jane Austen book or seen a single
adaptation. I did a test read at the Charlotte Writers Club during their open
mic night, and read the first page of Jane’s original, and then my modern
translation. There were people who came up to me and told me that my book is
better. (Sorry Miss Austen. Such blasphemy is only because they are not
familiar with your work.) Prior knowledge of the original source material is
not required to enjoy a good story.
About the Author:
Jeanette Watts was happily writing historical fiction when she got the idea for her first Jane Austen-inspired novel, Jane Austen Lied to Me. Going to a JASNA event to work on selling that book, she attended a lecture that asked, "Why does everyone rewrite Pride and Prejudice so much more than her other novels? Why doesn't anyone rewrite Persuasion?"
So she had to...
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