Hi everyone,

This is Marie-Claude. Guess what, this is the big day! It’s voting time for the American Title V. I’m very nervous about the judges’ comments. I’m just petrified to go over to the RT website (www.romantictimes.com) and look at what they said.

But I am so curious to read all the first lines of my fellow contestants, so I’ll have to be brave and go over to read them out.

I encourage you to play editor for a day and go read all the entries, vote for the one that grabs you in the first line, then read the judges’ comments. How fun!!!

Today, I have the pleasure to interview Jessica Darago, who finaled with The Serpent’s Tooth, a Victorian historical romance with a touch of suspense, set in America, England, and Scotland.

First let me announce the winner for today… Jane !!!! Congratulations.

Now back to Jessica.

M-C: Jessica, what is the first thing you did when you found out that you were an American Title V finalist.

Jessica: I was at work, and my office mate and I were discussing our busy upcoming weekends—all the housework, social events, and whatnot we had to get through. I was talking about the writing and editing I had on my list (in addition to my own fiction and my critique groups, I also freelance for a couple of ebook presses), and just as I was saying, “Plus, I still haven’t heard back from that big contest,” I glanced at my computer screen and saw a new email from Dorchester. I opened it. I squealed. My office mate squealed. My boss ran in, squealed, and hugged me. Then I started emailing—my family, my boyfriend, my critique partners, all in all some 30 people. I actually emailed 30 people and said, “Shh, this is just between us.” I didn’t actually catch the irony of that till later.

M-C: Better go over and email the same people and ask them all to vote now, right! How great to have so much support So far has the final changed things for you with your writing?

Jessica: My daily writing schedule has gone completely out the window in favor of all the promotion work for American Title, but I’m about to get back on track. I have shifted my goals a little as well. I write across several different genres, and I’d been focusing on the draft of a chicklit, just for a change of scenery. But since The Serpent’s Tooth is historical, I’m going to put more energy into revising and expanding a 20,000-word historical suspense about the Great Fire of London that I wrote for the International 3-Day Novel Contest in 2006.

M-C: Wow, this other story looks very interesting. Now, can you tell us what The Serpent’s Tooth is about?

Jessica: It’s a gothic tale of love, revenge, and redemption set amongst the dramatic, sometimes violent social upheavals of the mid-19^th century. All Reba MacKenzie ever wanted was to live the life of a country doctress, learning the art at her beloved Uncle Toby’s side. But Toby insists she needs a formal education–and on sending her to Scotland to get it. But when Toby is killed and Reba is left destitute, all their careful plans fall to ruin, and Reba ends up in the last place she expected: in the employ of her parents’ killer, and in the arms of his son.

M-C: How sad and yet gripping. Where did you get the ideas for this story?

Jessica: It actually started as sort of a joke. My old roommate and I were on a long drive and started throwing around ideas for a romance novel plot. Aside from a few jotted notes and scenes, I didn’t really work on it until almost a decade later. At that point, I did a bit of research about the period, did a lot of daydreaming, and finally, once I felt like I could tie the characters’ lives to the research, make these huge events like the Highland Clearances and the Underground Railroad movement really personal for them, I trashed all the pieces I’d written thus far and wrote the thing straight through, start to finish, working on my lunch hours over a period of about 11 months. I changed jobs shortly thereafter and had a lot less time to devote to writing, so the revisions took me almost two years!

M-C: My husband being Scottish, I know how deeply the Scots feel about the Highland clearances. Good for you to bring this up in a romance. What series of words would best characterize your writing style or tone?

Jessica: Dark, sensual, smart, intricate, evocative, witty, ironic.

M-C: I am curious to know how dark and sensual translate in The Serpent’s Tooth.

Jessica: The Serpent’s Tooth is a very dark story, but also very sensual—in more than one way. I was trying to evoke the style of a real 19^th-century gothic novel, without going completely impenetrable or melodramatic. Even though the characters are invented, the history they are living is very much real, and I tried to be as authentic as possible about the political, economic, and social realities surrounding them. The book also takes place in locations that I know well and love very much. I really wanted to bring Virginia, London, and Skye alive for the reader. I strove to make the landscape feel like another character. Everything about my style was calibrated to make the reader feel as if she’s really there.

M-C: I am really looking forward to read this. I love gothic settings. Do you have any idea why you wrote in such a dark tone?

Jessica: I’m always surprised by how dark my writing imagination is. I’m actually a very goofy person. I love puns and wordplay and really bad jokes. Hanging out with boyfriend and me is like living in a Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn comedy crossed with an episode of A Bit of Fry and Laurie. We’re always playing verbal one-upmanship, making up songs about squirrels and bubble wrap, telling each other really rude jokes. I guess the part of me that makes stories is the flipside of that, the outlet for my imagination’s sinister side.

M-C: Is this story more character-driven or plot-driven?

Jessica: I always feel that plot and character are inextricably entwined. You put the right person in the right situation—or, more accurately, the wrong situation—and the plot is how that character changes her circumstances. In the case of The Serpent’s Tooth, I started with the idea of a strong-willed young woman who wanted to be a doctor in an era when women just didn’t do that. I added a hero whom she just wouldn’t get involved with, and I got her involved with him. Reba changes her world, but her world changes her, too.

M-C: Can you describe the pace of The Serpent’s Tooth? Is it a fast/edge-of-your-seat kind of story or more the kind of book you just want to bury yourself in for hours?

Jessica: The Serpent’s Tooth is definitely a rainy-day-and-cup-of-tea sort of read, but that’s not to say there’s no action. The last three chapters in particular aim to make that tea go cold.

M-C: Sounds great, I love to bury myself in a good book for hours. What is your heroine like and how does she relate to the hero?

Jessica: Reba is smart and brave and compassionate and takes everything far too seriously. Her life has been a bit of an uphill struggle. She lost her homeland and almost all of her family in one fell swoop when she was a toddler, and now she’s fighting the whole world just to be allowed to do what she does best: be a physician. When she meets Nate and discovers he’s the son of the man who destroyed her family, she pegs him as one more obstacle to overcome. And then he turns out to be the opposite of everything she expected. He’s kind and generous and funny wants to help her live her dreams. But he also has his secrets. The question becomes how much of him is real. Can she, when her own life is on the line, trust him?

M-C: Can you define Nate as a romance hero? Alpha or Beta?

Jessica: I don’t think Nate would fit easily into either alpha or beta categories. Nate was born the eldest son of a Scottish marquis, but he ran away at sixteen because…well, that would be telling. He made his way to America by working on cargo ships, then found his way to New Orleans, where he made himself an independent fortune through good poker skills and even better business sense. So he’s entirely his own man, and he knows what he wants and goes after it without hesitation, which is alpha-ish. But he’s not a domineering presence or brooding man of mystery, either. He’s like that movie sidekick who ends up stealing the show (and sometimes the girl)—a Jack Sparrow, a Barney Stinson, a Spike, a Mercutio. He’s the kind of character who always grabs my attention, so instead of relegating him to sidekick, I put him front and center.

M-C: He sounds very intriguing. How important is a happy-ever-after in your writing?

Jessica: In The Serpent’s Tooth? It’s essential. At the risk of spoiling the ending, Nate and Reba resolve both their conflict with each other and conquer the personal demons that have tormented each of them their whole lives. The plot is built in such a way that they couldn’t have met either goal without also meeting the other. But I can’t say happily-ever-after is always the case in my stories. Sometimes I like to leave the reader with happily-ever-possible—the sense that, though there may be tough times ahead, the characters have the strength to meet them. Then, of course, there’s the paranormal I plan to write that starts with a dead heroine and ends, happily, with a dead hero—and no, I don’t mean undead. Basically, I try not to worry about “the rules of romance” so much as being true to the characters.

M-C: What do you think readers will get out of your story.

Jessica: My real aim was catharsis. I want to put the reader through an emotional ringer and have her come out satisfied, maybe a little more thoughtful or introspective about what it means to love, to trust, and to forgive. It would be a nice bonus if I get people interested in an often-overlooked period of Scottish history as well.

M-C: Seems like you have everything covered. Do you have any villains? And how do they relate to your hero and heroine?

Jessica: There are multiple villains in The Serpent’s Tooth, and not all of them are people. Similarly, there are good people who do bad things and bad people who do good things, just like in real life. The whole story does build to a final showdown, but to say anything more than that would spoil the surprise!

M-C: Let me repeat myself, it does seem like you have everything covered Do you have any more projects in the work beside your AT entry?

Jessica: Like I said above, I’m presently revising a novella about the Great Fire of London into a full-length novel. But I can’t deny that other plotbunnies are hopping around, demanding my attention. Depending on where my pantser brain (now there’s an image!) decides to take me, I may end up marketing myself as a cross-genre writer very early on in my career!

M-C: If readers want to know more about you and your writing, where on the web can the find you?

Jessica: I chronicle my personal and writing life at my LiveJournal blog, http://justjayj.livejournal.com. I also have a website advertising my freelance editing services at http://www.darago.us, though I’m not taking on many large or long-term contracts these days, since I’m working full time for an educational publisher and, of course, doing more writing. I hope in the near future to be offering pre-submission editing services for other novelists, but I’m not focusing on building the business just now. In addition to all that, I recently drank the Facebook and Twitter Kool-Aid. I’m Jessica Darago (of course) on the former and justjayj on the latter.

M-C: Now you’ll come back on Thursday to interview a character? Who did you choose to interview and why?

Jessica: I decided to interview one of the tertiary characters—Gladys, a ladies’ maid in the service of the heroine’s chaperone, Mrs. Baxter. When Mrs. Baxter takes it upon herself to keep Nate and Reba apart, Gladys takes it upon herself not to let that happen. And like a good Victorian servant, she knows everyone’s secrets. I thought it would be fun to get the view from “below stairs.”

M-C: How clever, I love “downstairs” characters. I’m looking forward to Thursday. Aren’t you all?

Thanks so much for answering all my questions, Jessica.

See everyone back on Thursday.

But before don’t forget to go vote at
www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle.php.

And don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win.

Thank you so much, Sylvia, to have us over today and to have gathered such great prizes!

Marie-Claude Bourque

www.mcbourque.com

Tags: american title, contest, dorchester, publishing, romantic times

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