Welcome Back, Booklovers! I am excited to bring you the first interview of the new year and it's with an author whose book you definitely want to check out.
Where did the idea for Forging a Nightmare come from?
Sadly, the current American education system and the bane of standardized testing is killing childhood imagination, suffocating the creative spark. I learned this when I turned my creative writing students loose to work on their first stories. They stared at me, stunned like sheep raised inside a barn. They didn’t know what it was like to be free, outside in open, green pastures. So I went to the board and did a mind-mapping activity where I just let ideas flow, starting with the character of Michael Childs. When I was done, they just sat in their desks, still staring at me. “Question, comments, or concerns?” I asked. “Are you going to write that?” they asked. “Because you need to write that novel.” For months, they would not let it go until I did start working on it along with them.
I read that you originally imagined Michael as white. What made you change that?
One morning, one of my students, a young Black man, met me at my classroom door. Holding a book in his hands, he was bouncing up and down in glee. This was a senior in high school, almost 18-years old, giddy about reading? I asked what the fuss was about. He announced that the book in his hands was a fantasy with Black people as the main characters. He had never read a fantasy book with a Black cast. His excitement was infectious. I will forever be haunted by that moment.
I grew up in a world that told me to be beautiful, I had to have blond hair and blue eyes. Tragic fallacies with tragic consequences! There are children in the world, like this student and me, who need to know that black skin and natural hair are equally as desirable and beautiful! Forging a Nightmare was my exorcism to uplift about that fundamental truth. Anaba is as much my savior as she was Michael’s, making us become who we were truly meant to be. I vowed to love myself and come to terms with who I was as Black woman—unapologetically beautiful! I’m on a mission to bring not just diversity, but representation into the SFF genre with protagonists, mentors, anti-heroes, even smug, genius villains of color, so that BIPOC folks can see themselves represented in a world where we are often underrepresented or relegated to the token ensemble.
Do you have a favorite non-spoiler scene from the book?
Oof, that’s hard! I do love when Anaba kicks Michael’s ass in Chapter 2! Marines rule! And he deserved it! But my favorite scene is when Michael and she are trapped in an alley, where they are about to be attacked by the bad guys. To save them, Anaba reveals her true nature and shows Michael that she is a terrifying force to be reckoned with. Oo-rah!
You mentioned starting what became Forging a Nightmare on Wattpad, do you think Wattpad is a good platform for aspiring writers?
Yes and no. Wattpad is a fantastic platform for practicing the craft of writing, especially when you level up and have to share your work in real-time with complete strangers in order to build your readership. I have always said, if you want to ‘own’ your writing, you have to ‘hone’ your writing skills. However, the feedback is the difficult part. You either get super cruel people, who generally do not know what they are talking about when it comes to writing. Some take pleasure in trashing your work. Or you get really nice folks who are too afraid to be honest with you. You have to work at finding genuinely good readers/writers who are willing to provide honest feedback.
You wrote The Black Sands of Socorro, a supplement to the Star Wars role-playing game. What was it like writing in a universe where the lore is already established?
The first part of dream come true! Writing in an established universe is less stressful, in my opinion, because the world-building is done for you. But it’s also a grind for any writer who forgets their purpose: to create. I was never interested in writing about the main characters or adding to the canon. When the Death Star blew up, someone was burying their spouse of fifty years. Someone else was having a baby. And where the hell were the Black folks who looked like me? I wanted to tell ‘those’ stories. So my approach was to tell great stories about people and their lives, but within the framework of the Star Wars mythos fans have come to love.
What has it been like balancing writing a book while also teaching during a pandemic?
Writing is my therapy. I do it because it’s a compulsion to maintain sanity in an upside down world. If I can’t get out to the barn to ride my horse, I can lose myself on the limitless playground of my imagination. Daydreaming is a self-preservation tactic for this only child, especially during the pandemic when teaching, a difficult occupation, became even more difficult. I have never seen a time when teachers are so villainized and reviled. So I established boundaries. Unless a kid was in trouble or needed advice, school time was school time, and I did not allow it to encroach on home time. (I fail epically at this on a daily basis because I love my students <sigh>.) But when things get tough in the real world, I perch myself on the couch, break out my trusty iPad, and lose myself on the Vestibule Road.
Is it hard to get students interested in reading and writing?
YES and yes! I find that 80% of my students do not read. THEY DO NOT READ. It’s a jaw-dropping fact. Many have never even considered what genre they want to write in because of this. They claim they don’t have time to read, but if they would steer clear of social media for a few hours, they would have PLENTY of time to lose themselves in a good book. I think the majority of the exhaustion they are experiencing due to the pandemic is self-inflicted, caused primarily by their addiction to the digital realm. They are always connected and interacting on social media. They never take the time to unplug. Adults are equally as guilty.
As for writing, it is difficult for kids to be creative because digital interaction provides instant gratification, wielding magical powers to whisk kids away to worlds of fantasy and lore. When the kids have to actually do the wizarding themselves, creating the magic behind every story, many fall short, usually due to a lack of confidence. “That’s hard work, miss,” they say. And beyond the hard work is harder work with editing. There are few students who are truly devoted to their craft or the task of improving it. A heartbreak to a teacher who has seen many a best-seller never get off the ground.
What was your experience like dealing with the recent book ban in your school district in York, PA?
It has been exhausting and liberating at the same time. I have been blessed to stand on the frontlines with the leaders of the Panther Anti-Racist Union (PARU), a student-led club, and their faculty advisor Mr. Ben Hodge to be a voice against this insidious effort to whitewash history and cleanse culture. The ignorance sweeping this country and the call for book banning is fueled by nothing but racism and hatred of anyone who is not white, heterosexual, cis, or Christian. It is a travesty! And worse, these narrow-minded people want to redefine what it means to be an American into their own ugly image, ignoring that this nation was built on the backs of Black and brown patriots who suffered egregious injustice, but still fought and died for this country.
After the death of George Floyd, the book ban was the final cut to my psyche. When the kids stood up to speak their truth, I decided they would not be silenced. Nor would I. These insular people can burn their crosses, but they will never again keep me in the shadows. The cost for standing up to speak that truth has brought public and personal attacks, calls for termination of employment for myself and my colleague, as well as repeated trolling of my social media. I am ever thankful to the ACLU and their mentorship, as well as Dr. Bernice King for her words of encouragement and wisdom.
Have your students read any of your published stories?
Yes, some of my students have read a few of my Star Wars short stories. The very first beta readers for Forging a Nightmare were students in my creative writing classes. From concept to published work, I have shared every moment of this journey with several classes over the years, even the unboxing. (Rotten kids made me cry. I love them so much!) The students who were present in the early drafts helped me wrestle with issues of plot, character development, and worldbuilding. It cracks me up when they compare the first drafts of the novel to the published version. Some have even gone so far as to listen to the audiobook and report in with me.
How did you get into horseback riding?
My dad used to watch Bonanza, and I fell in love with Little Joe and his Paint. My folks were raised in Alabama, and my mom had a cousin that had a horse that looked just like that one, so I got to hang out with him during the summer. When I was 12, I did the riding camps with the Girl Scouts to earn my badges. I think my dad was waiting to see if it was a phase, but it wasn’t, so I started lessons, and got my first horse, Fonzi, for my 14th birthday. I have owned horses ever since. A forty-year love affair that shows no signs of stopping, even if my body makes it difficult. I own two horses now, the ever lovable Maya (aka Cookie Monster), and one of the best show horses I ever had the privilege to call mine, Indy, an off-the-track Thoroughbred who helped shape what it means to be a Nightmare.
Do you have any other hobbies besides riding horses?
I LOVE to play Dungeons and Dragons (yep, total geek girl). I also love video games, but it has to be a really good role-playing game because it’s competing with my overactive imagination and writing. I am awaiting the new Mass Effect with great anticipation (though expectations are low after the last one) and I enjoy playing Witcher III, especially since Netflix is producing the series, which I love!
Are there any projects you’re currently working on that you’re able to talk about?
I am very tickled to say that the first draft of THE NIGHTMARE HITMAN (working title) is complete, but far from done as I work to put the puzzle pieces together. While the characters are different, the novel is set in the same universe with fallen angels, the Vestibule Road in Hell, a lovable, but misunderstood Nightmare, and the chosen Nephilim who loves him. According to current beta readers, this story is a bit darker and grittier than Forging a Nightmare, but no less action-packed with a twisting plot, reinvented religious and mythical lore, and a crew of extremely affable heroes and diabolical villains. I am hoping that it will find a good home, so that I can once again share the ride with others.
Follow Patricia A Jackson on Twitter @Treistan and on Instagram @bybirthright for updates
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