Author Interview - Jazzella

A little while ago, my dear friend Cullen818 rec'd a story on this blog called Behind Enemy Lines by Jazzella. It sounded really intriguing to me, so I took a gander. Am I ever glad that I did! What an interesting, well-written & captivating fic. It is 10 chapters in so far & I can't wait for the next chapter. If you are not reading this right now, then you REALLY should! Trust! In fact, I love it so much that I got in touch with the author & asked her to do an interview for the blog. So take it away, Jazzella...

To start us off, tell us a little bit more about yourself. i.e. family, interests, hobbies, likes, dislikes, favorite music, etc.

I'm 38 and I'm from the UK. I work as a freelance children's illustrator and teach art to kids, which is why I post work under my second name, Tara; even kids can use the internet these days and my stories aren't child friendly!

I love listening to music of pretty much any genre, and play a whole range of instruments myself, although the guitar is my favourite. I'm a huge murder mystery fan, especially Agatha Christie's 'Poirot' stories and enjoy the work of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I collect tattoos and cats, and have kept a journal since I was eight years old, full of story ideas and general witterings.

I am also a huge Jackson Rathbone fan, both as an actor and as an incredibly talented musician. I will admit that I had my doubts that he'd be able to carry off my favourite character convincingly, being so short, even though I knew he was a high caliber actor. But when the films came out and he had me from his first appearance on screen and in my head I see him as Jasper now; he's just 6'3”, as he should be!

What got you into writing Twilight Fan Fiction in the first place?

I didn't like the books all that much. I thought Bella was spineless, Edward was a self-serving control freak and don't even get me started on Jacob and his narcissistic anger management issues! I liked the premise of the story but the only character I really loved was Jasper. I found him intriguing and enigmatic and by the time I got to Eclipse I was smitten.

After reading a few Bella/Jasper stories that all seemed to follow the same formula, a chat with an established author lead to her saying that if I thought I could do better, I should be writing too. You can't really argue with someone telling you to put your pen where your mouth is.

I'd had an idea wandering around for a mystery story, which is fairly unusual in the Twilight Fan Fiction arena. I decided to put my years of Agatha Christie adoration to good use by figuring out all the plot holes I saw in New Moon surrounding the party and started writing Behind Enemy Lines for NaNoWriMo 2010, which I do every year.

Tell us a bit about your writing process & how you came up with the ideas for Behind Enemy Lines.

My main issue with the entire story arc of the Twilight Saga was the party. The idea that Jasper nearly attacked Bella, but Alice didn't see it in time to stop it, really bugged me. No one made a decision, so she wouldn't be alerted according to SM Q&A answers. But no one makes a decision about the weather either, yet she knew about the thunderstorm for the ball game in Twilight. Surely Alice should have been watching the future, and Jasper especially? The whole premonition thing never sat right with me, I thought it was handled, not badly, but inconsistently, by SM. Alice had to know something was going to happen at the party.

That lead me to think that either she knew and kept quiet for a reason, or it was a set up. The set up idea intrigued me, because we already have a set of 'bad guys' in the arena via the Volturi, with a very interesting history and a little global political scandal involving the Romanians. From there it was just a case of working out who did what, and why. Once I had the basic motives and reasons, all I had to do was flesh out the red herrings and misleading information. The opportunity to have some of the family and their friends working undercover, almost like spies, was too good to ignore; so I threw that in too. We're almost one third of the way through the main plot now and most readers still have no idea whose side Alice is on! I can't wait for someone to figure out the big missing puzzle piece; even my betas haven't figured it out yet.

As for my process, I wrote the last three chapters of BEL before I started, because I knew how I wanted it to end. I have a notebook where I have a list of characters and notes for them, detailing their motives, who they work for, their relationships with other characters etc. I also have a chapter list that I chop and change as the story develops and I decide a particular POV needs to explain something to the reader.

I also have loads of snippets typed up that I want to include later on. I have a tendency to 'see' bits of a conversation in my head, almost like remembering a scene in a film, and I have to get it down on paper as soon as possible. If it gets used, great, but I can always change it or use it in another story; one of those drabble outtakes was what lead to my OS 'Fire & Ice'. I don't write chronologically, but I'm always about 5 chapters ahead, writing wise. I send everything to my beta's as soon as it's done and in order, so right now the readers are on ch11, but the betas are on ch13. I'm finalising 14-17 and have notes or partials for chapters 18-25. My brain works too fast sometimes, but having a fantastic memory for written words is a blessing in this situation, because I don't have too much trouble keeping tabs on it all.

I have the main plot mapped out on the white board in the kitchen so every time I see it, it triggers and idea for something. Once that idea hits I have to write it down, even if it's one line of dialogue. There's always a use for it somewhere. I do have wayward characters though. Peter is a pain in my ass because so far he's changed his method of involvement three times, which changes the plot lines. I had to completely rewrite ch14-17 because of him. He tends be very noisy when he wants attention.

Which is your favorite pairing to read and to write? Do you prefer canon or do you dabble in other pairings?

I mostly love to read Bella/Jasper in all their connotations, including dark, AH and kinky, and I love a good Jasper/Edward slash story. I tend to not bother with any others unless it's by a favourite author, because I don't have time to read everything and keep up with BEL's complicated plot lines!

Other than that I don't mind whether it's cannon or not as long as it's a good story and well written. I do like cannon pairings on the whole, but I hated cannon Edward as a character; he was so weak and cowardly yet he tried to control everything cannon Bella did and she let him. The only time I really like Edward is as a slash pairing with Jasper. Cannon Alice annoyed me because of the inconsistencies in her sight and the fact that she's the kind of overly perky person who gives me a headache. I always thought that the intelligent, snarky, but demonstrably emotional, Bella that appears in the first few chapters of Twilight, would be so much better suited to the strength, dry wit and sensitivity of cannon Jasper. They have so much in common and seem so suited to each other that it seems a shame to waste their potential chemistry.

I do like most of the cannon pairings; Peter & Charlotte have a lot of potential, and cannon Carlisle & Esme also have great potential for character development. I think that by writing in the first person SM limited how much of the other characters she could develop, which is a shame.

I'm not averse to any non-cannon pairings because story and plot is much more important to me; though I have an issue with any story where Carlisle and/or Esme start to get jiggy with it; it's too much like watching your parents making out. There's also some characters I'm less interested in than others; for instance, there are no wolves in my world. I like werewolves normally but not in Twilight.

Which FanFic author do you admire the most?

I want to be HammerHips when I grow up. Her brain must be the most fascinating place to live considering some of the stuff she comes out with, and I've loved everything I've read by her. She's a master of unique plots and she seems to like a good mystery too because she will definitely keep you guessing without apology. She's one of the few authors who can really draw me into a story within a few minutes and keep that same level of interest right the way through.

I really enjoy how she seamlessly links events between cannon and non-cannon, and then throws in factual and historical stuff, like she did in her OS, 'Erzebet'. Her ability to take a vague character, like Alastair, and weave a story around him that explains all the unanswered questions from the books, is an incredible talent. I'm better with whys and motivations, I'm not so good with changing characters; it's something I need to work on and develop.

What are some of your favorite FF stories that you can’t wait to see the updates for?

Someday by Duskri123 - Kirss is one of my favourites because she's never afraid to upset her readers by writing what she wants and sticking to her guns. I know she gets nervous sometimes about that, I'm sure we all do, but you have to write what you love or you lose interest in it.

Conversations with my Killer by Oracle Vas - This is my current favourite Jasper. He's so arrogant, odious and unforgiving, yet at the same time she makes him enigmatic, charming and likeable. Pure genius.

The Quiet Room by givemesomevamp – This one has only just finished and it is already in my top 5 completed J/B fics. Wonderful characterisation, especially of Bella and both funny and heartbreaking at the same time.

Mergers and Acquisitions by Domward's Mistress – This is a Jasper/Edward slash with a Peter/Riley sort of love square going on and it's heartbreakingly beautiful.

Anything by HammerHips. She's the only author I drop everything for.

I try to keep it to just those few and read everything else when it's complete. I find reading too many at once confuses me and I end up having to re-read three or four chapters back to get the gist again.

Thanks so much to the lovely Jazzella for getting back to me with her answers so quickly over this busy holiday period. I hope you all enjoyed reading her great responses as much as I did. Now, please, go read Behind Enemy Lines... it kicks ass! And don't forget to leave this talented author some love while you're there. She deserves it. You can check out her cool personal blog HERE. Also, she asked if she gets a lovely Jasper coming round to tell her off and put her through her paces now. Sadly, Jasper can't come to the phone right now as I've got him tied to my bed & he likes it there. A lot. So to make up for this inconvenience, I thought I would share this rather lovely pic of Jackson Rathbone that I saw on the interwebs today. Hope it helps.

'Til next time. ;)