Author Interview with Rebecca H. Jamison

A special welcome to author Rebecca Jamison! Her first novel, Persuasion: A Latter-Day Tale, is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. She likes books, music, water, children, and dancing.

List five movies you LOVE:

Bringing Up Baby (black and white with Cary Grant)

The Shop Around the Corner (black and white with James Stewart)

Groundhog Day (with Bill Murray)

Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson)

Hobson’s Choice (Black and White British)

As you can tell, I love old black and white movies.

Favorite Quote:

“A year from now, you will wish you’d started today”—Karen Lamb

List five books you’ve read recently that you liked:

The Help, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa (Nicholas Drayson), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Jane Eyre, and Sophie’s Heart (Lori Wick)

Best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Read a lot of good books.

How do you come up with ideas for your books?

All my books start with one of my obsessions. I wrote my first novel because I was interested in a refugee I met who was abused by her husband. (It’s not published, but you can find it in the BYU library. It was my Master’s thesis.)

Eight years later, I fell in love with Jane Austen’s Persuasion and got the idea to write a modern version of it. I didn’t want to write a romance, but it was torture to have two chapters stuck in my head. I just had to write it.

I’m still working through my obsession with Jane Austen now as I’m writing my version of Emma.

What type of readers would like your book?

People who enjoy clean romance or Jane Austen retellings.

You can visit Rebecca’s blog here. And here’s a sneak peak of her writing:

Mary swings her legs out of bed. “You never told me how you know that boy that was with Lily and Hannah.”

I decide to change the subject. “He’s hardly a boy. He’s got to be at least twenty-nine.”

“He seems nice, the poor thing. Lily and Hannah are both after him. How’s he ever going to decide which one to pick?”

I’m not in the mood for this conversation. “I’m sure he’ll survive.”

I don’t have time to wonder whether I’ll see Neil again. I see him again that evening as I’m taking out the trash. He’s leaving the Musgroves’ house as I’m carrying three giant trash bags out of Mary’s. He gives me a policeman-like wave with his good hand as he limps along in the direction of Jack’s house. I think it’s probably the same wave he’d give to someone on parole.