Recently I caught up with #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson to talk about her new novel, Without Mercy.
The starred review for Without Mercy in Publishers Weekly (Feb. 22, 2010) opines, "This campy cool thriller builds to a surprising cliffhanger ending." How do you interpret their 'campy cool' description of your story?
I'm thrilled with the starred review, of course and I think the 'campy cool' line is up for debate. I don't know what the reviewer really meant, but I love the line! I sound so much hipper than I really am!
Your official bio says you have "an obsessive curiosity about the dark side of life." Obviously, this is working for you and your readers. Your in-depth characters demand you spend a lot of time with sick and tormented minds. How to you manage this, then leave that behind and live a normal life? Do your characters ever "haunt" you when you're not writing?
I'm pretty good at separating fact from fiction, fantasy from reality--especially when I write it. I am fascinated by puzzles, psyche, enigmas, the paranormal and tortured souls, but I try to avoid all of that in real life. My friends and family are upbeat and extremely "normal." When I submerge into my book, yes, the characters are real, what is happening to them touches me, but when I surface, I leave them to themselves. Often times getting away from them, stepping back from the story makes me understand the characters and a problem with the plot more clearly. Yes, of course, the story stays with me, the characters whisper in my ear, when I'm not writing, but usually this is when I'm alone and thinking, if only at a subconscious level of the book--it's not when I'm watching Lost or playing cards with my friends!
Without Mercy utilized the concept/setting of "the school from hell." Did your own educational background inspire this in any way? Are your ideas ripped from the headlines or strictly a product of your avid imagination?
Ha! The scariest part of the public high school I attended was the fear of being a wall flower at the Friday night dance or the fact that my mother, grandmother and aunt worked at the school, so it was a trick to cut class. My schools were very, very normal. I was inspired to write about Blue Rock Academy in Without Mercy by an advertisement for a school I heard on the radio as I drove through town. It was a crystal-clear spring day, the sun bright and the advertisement caught my attention. (There's a scene in the book where the heroine, Jules, has as a similar experience.) As I waited at a red light, I thought, what if the school in the advertisement is a sham? What if the school for troubled teens is more like a horrible boot camp? Would I send my kid there? What if there was a killer on the loose, someone really twisted? From there, the idea grew and yes, my imagination ran wild! I was so excited about it, that when I got back to my desk, I emailed my editor and from there, the book was plotted.
How are your novels which are co-written with your sister, Nancy Bush, different in tone or intent from your solo efforts?
Because Nancy and I have distinct writing styles, the books seem to meld into something in between each of our solo efforts, so there are definitely differences. In Wicked Game and our upcoming 2011 release in the series, which are set around a cult on the Oregon Coast, Nancy's somewhat more wry voice is evident. She also has a great sense of humor for the mundanely absurd and I think I'm more melodramatic. So far, our books together have a paranormal element, so that's a lot of fun--as is "the colony" the cult we dreamed up while driving to a mystery writer's conference a few years back. Again, I know exactly the day, how clear it was, that Nan was driving and I was the passenger as we talked about the books all the way up and down I-5. Hey, does it sound like I'm ALWAYS in the car? I guess it's true I do my best thinking while walking, driving or showering.
What is your general writing style? Are you an early riser, for example? A plan-ahead writer or a go-where-it-takes-you plotter? Do you polish as you go or write it clear through and then look back? Anything else that is a distinctively Jackson method?
I guess I fly by the seat of my pants, but I am an early riser--between 4:30 and 6:00. It's just my time to howl--I do everything from exercise to vacuuming in the early morning hours--my laundry is finished by eight! But it's what works for me, not everyone. Some of my friends write deep into the night and, boy, would I love that! The truth is that if I try to force myself to be on a schedule I usually fail. I do plot out my books, create a character roster and write a full and detailed synopsis of the book. My editor adds his revisions at this point (the first set). I sometimes stray from the synopsis but not from the basics of the plot. A new character might appear, a side story might develop, a new villain may rear his head, but I stay close to the synopsis. I write sporadically, but every day, until I really find my pace and then I submerge and avoid most social engagements/errands/friends until the book is finished. I polish as I write, and my sister or a trusted friend/editor helps me edit before I send in the completed manuscript. However, oftentimes I start over around page 150 or so---back to the beginning, just so that the story starts off on the right foot. It takes me until that point before I truly understand my characters and then. . . I have to start over. (I would not recommend this method, it just happens to work for me.)
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Karen Harper has been published for 25 years. She is the winner of the 2006 Mary Higgins Clark Award. A former college and high school English instructor, Harper currently writes contemporary suspense for Mira Books and historical novels for Putnam. She and her husband divide their time between Columbus, Ohio and Naples, Florida.
