A while back, I interviewed Jackson Pearce, author of As You Wish, Sister's Red and Sweetly. I first met Jackson at the Decatur Book Festival in 2009. I later found out that she is friends and co-workers with my cousin. Such a small world!! Well, I instantly fell in love with her writing and ever since, I have been dying to do an interview with her. I will have companion reviews to follow this interview shortly dealing with the series that we are discussing. I hope you all enjoy the interview and thank you so much Jackson for answering my questions!!
Do you use experiences with your sister as inspiration for your books?
I think I use experiences from everything in my life in my books, but yes, my sister did specifically play a big role in inspiring SISTERS RED. Like Scarlett and Rosie, we often had a hard time understanding one another when we were younger, but became closer as sisters when we were able to view one another as individuals instead of just “my sister.”
Is there a character in SISTER'S RED that you can relate to, or modeled after yourself?
A lot of people think I must have based Scarlett after myself, since like Scarlett, I’m the older sister. The truth is, I think I can relate to both Scarlett and Rosie, which is part of the reason telling the story was so interesting—I understood and empathized with both characters.
Who is your favorite character from your books?
I don’t have one, though lately I’m especially partial to Sophia from SWEETLY.
Is there any one author that inspired you to write?
It was actually the lack of a specific author/book that inspired me to write—I wanted to find a very specific book in a bookstore, and when I couldn’t find it, I decided to write it myself.
Is there anything that you like to do or have while writing?
I like it to be very, very quiet—I usually don’t even have any music playing. I also always want a giant cup of water or sweet tea or diet coke (trying to cut back on the diet coke, though that isn’t going very well).
If SISTER'S RED were to be made into a movie, who would your choice cast be?
I don’t really dream cast my books—what my characters are like personality-wise is way, way more important to me than how they look. In fact, I specifically don’t describe them in detail in some books, because I want readers to imagine whomever they want in the role (PURITY, for example, contains very little physical character description). There was, however, a girl named Tania Raymonde who was in Lost—I always thought she’d make an excellent Scarlett or Rosie.
Thank you again, Jackson, for taking the time to answer my questions and to share your insight with us! I look forward to reading more from you and perhaps we will be able to talk again about your work!