Exclusive Interview With ‘Sisters Red’ Author Jackson Pearce

You may remember me mentioning author Jackson Pearce in this post about Little Red Riding Hood. Jackson is clever, fun (check out her hilarious YouTube channel) and obviously passionate about writing young adult literature. She recently had her first book published, As You Wish (Harper Collins), about a young girl and her star-crossed romance with a genie. I recently spoke with Jackson whose new book, Sisters Red, is being published in June 2010.

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris– the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She’s determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax– but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they’ve worked for.

www.jacksonpearce.com

What is the biggest misconception people have about young adult literature?

People think that young adult books are books that deal with high school (or middle school) issues, and nothing else. They expect painted covers with girls wearing sweaters, tame books about learning not to use drugs, or vapid stories about becoming popular. The issue is that there was a time when the majority of YA was like that, because it hadn’t yet developed into a genre separate from children’s literature. YA today, however, covers a variety of very adult-themed topics, features characters in life or death situations, characters in love, characters dealing with demons personal and external—and the painted covers are out, I promise. I wish more people would realize that there’s more to YA than their dusty old copies of Babysitters Club and see that the common thread in YA—“coming of age” stories—doesn’t become outdated when you reach the age of twenty.

What is compelling to young adult audiences? What direction would you like to see the genre headed?

I think young adults find challenge compelling. They want to think, they want to explore, and they want to philosophize, and it’s only very recently that I think the norm in YA literature is to give them the opportunities to do all that. I think that the genre is going to continue to push the limits even farther than it already has about what some people deem is “appropriate” for teens. YA to me is more about the story’s overall theme, and not about if it’s PG-13 rated or not.

You’re being published by little, brown—the same publishers of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Does it bother you that many young adult readers are more familiar with titles like Twilight or Harry Potter than they are with the classics such as Little Women and Fahrenheit 451?

It doesn’t necessarily bother me if they’re more familiar with it—Harry Potter and Twilight are engaging and entertaining. It only starts to bother me when readers put blinders on to other fantastic books—classics or otherwise. Sometimes it begins to feel like Twilight has become the standard to which other books are held, as if it’s the perfect example of literature. And it isn’t—it has problems, just like all books do. There is life beyond sparkly vampires, and if you’re reading ninety seven “Twilight Guides” instead of venturing into new-book-territories, you’re going to miss some really beautiful, amazing books.

Sisters Red is a modernization of Little Red Riding Hood, which has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. Why are you drawn to that story?

Little Red Riding Hood has so many underlying themes—good vs. evil, sexuality, deviance, etc. Adapting it from the original allowed me to incorporate multiple themes as well as build on them to create a love story and good versus evil story on a larger scale.

Where did you get inspiration for your characters in Sisters Red? Are you a sister?

I knew I wanted to write a book about sisters—more specifically, a book about what it means to be an older sister versus what it means to be a younger sister. The idea of a modern Red Riding Hood had been floating around my brain for some time, and one day the two crashed together.

I have a younger sister, and while I wouldn’t say neither Scarlett nor Rosie is based on us, some aspects of our relationship inevitably worked their way into the story. The most prominent of these is Scarlett’s desire to protect her younger sister, even when Rosie is capable of (and needs to) make her own decisions. I think some sort of “caretaker” dynamic—where one sibling feels responsible for another—is something that exists in most sibling relationships.

Do you identify more with Scarlett, Rosie or both?

While I’d like to identify more with Scarlett, I think I identify more with Rosie. Scarlett is a risk taker with a strong moral compass—she will give up anything to do what she knows is right. Her selflessness in regards to her cause—killing Fenris wolves—makes her a somewhat selfish person, but it’s hard to hate her for it since, after all, she’s doing something for the greater good. Rosie, however, is more like a “normal” girl—she loves her sister and wants to have the same drive Scarlett does, but at the end of the day she also wants to be in love, to relax and watch a movie, etc.

I think you made a smart choice using first person narrative for Sisters Red. Why did you choose to do that?

Sisters Red is told in alternating first person narratives—each chapter switches between Rosie and Scarlett’s point-of-view. I think using first person helped me get inside each sister’s head and think like that sister, without bias toward one or another.

Did you watch any werewolf movies while you were writing? Do you have any rituals that get you in the mood to write?

I have avoided werewolves like the plague, actually—when I was working on Sisters Red, I didn’t have the Fenris mythology completely in place. Now I do, for the most part, and am worried that I’ll see a werewolf movie and it will mess with my setup! I do, however, have a few rituals: For each book I write, I tend to find several songs that capture the book’s vibe. For Sisters Red, it was Sister by Dave Matthews Band and The Special Two by Missy Higgins. I listened to those two songs on repeat for almost a month. Seriously.

What are you reading right now?

I just finished reading The Hunger Games finally, which is phenomenal—I’d recommend it to absolutely anyone and am about to start it’s sequel, Catching Fire. I also read Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater not too long ago, and Beautiful Creatures, an upcoming book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, which is one of the best representations of the South I’ve seen in modern literature.

When you’re not writing, what are you doing?

I coach a high school colorguard, so I spend a lot of time at the school with my students. But honestly, other than that and the classic “spend time with friends and family”? I don’t do anything. I love writing and love coaching, so I’m very, very happy that most of my time is taken up with those two activities.

Image: Lisa Russo