Interview with Author Joanna Campbell Slan

It is my privilege to have author Joanna Campbell Slan as our guest today. Now Joanna Campbell Slan has a prejudice. She likes to write about underdogs, spunky women who refuse to give up. First came the Kiki Lowenstein mysteries, a contemporary series featuring a young soccer mom whose comfortable life is turned upside-down with the murder of her husband. Her first novel in that series, PAPER, SCISSORS, DEATH, was a finalist for the Agatha Award. Joanna is also the author of twelve non-fiction books, and many essays that appear in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Now Joanna tackles the Regency Period, by recasting that iconic heroine, Jane Eyre, as an amateur sleuth in the debut of Joanna's newest series, The Jane Eyre Chronicles, beginning with DEATH OF A SCHOOLGIRL.

 

I caught up with Joanna as she was fast at work on the sixth book in the Kiki Lowenstein series.

Jeri Westerson: Let's just put this out there first thing. Are you nuts? What possessed you to write a follow-up to Charlotte Brontë’s iconic classic? It certainly takes chutzpah to tread those waters.

Joanna Campbell Slan: Don’t I know it! Charlotte Brontë was a genius, which is probably why no one dared touch Jane. But I loved that book so much, Jeri, that I didn’t want it to end. If my series causes one or two readers to return to (or be introduced to) a beloved favorite, then I think Charlotte would approve.

As I recall, the reviewers were pretty cruel to Charlotte, weren’t they?

JCS: Yes, ma’am. They called her book “coarse” and attacked it as having a plot that was “extravagantly improbable.” Oh, and “anti-Christian,” too. Considering that Charlotte was the daughter of an Anglican vicar, that must have stung. Of course all that happened BEFORE they knew the author was a woman. Then the reviewers got nasty. Really nasty.

Does an author have the right to re-appropriate the work of another author?

JCS: Legally, yes, because the copyright has run out. Jane Eyre is nearly 150 years old. Morally? Certainly. Every work is a derivative work, a retelling of classic themes. One might argue that the highest form of praise is to want to extend the “life” of a beloved character.

How does your book differ from the original?

JCS: Recall, dear readers, that in the original, we have a very young Jane, an orphan totally without worldly resources. By the time I tapped out a new adventure for her, Jane is a wealthy heiress with loving cousins, an education, and a husband who is a member of the landed gentry. A very different situation, indeed, especially given the prejudices of the times. She’s also become a mother. Anyone who has made that particular transition knows that motherhood turns the meekest among us into Mama Bears, who will protect their young at any cost.

What did you learn about the Regency period while writing the book?

JCS: Like most of us, I grew up hearing about “Mad King George” whose failures sparked the Revolutionary War. In fact, my ancestors were landed gentry who wrote the King and begged him to reconsider his policies. But I never heard anything about George IV, the even crazier son of George III, who only ruled a short time. His dissolute ways contrast enormously with the highly ethical Jane Eyre. That gave me a lot of insight into the times. That and horsesh*t. I gather from my research that all of London was awash with horsesh*t. If you’ve ever visited a city with horse-drawn carriages on a hot summer day, you can only imagine the smell of London in the 1820s. Gag.

Okay, tell us something we don’t know about you and wouldn’t suspect.

JCS: When I was in college, I wrote a letter to Prince Charles asking him if he could behead people. I got a letter back from him.

What did it say?

JCS:  I’d have to kill you if I told you, Jeri. Maybe someday over a drink at a bar…

Death of a Schoolgirl, the first book in The Jane Eyre Chronicles (Berkley Trade) was released August 7. For more about Joanna, go to www.JoannaSlan.com But don’t expect her to tell you what Prince Charles said!

A Celebration of Charlotte

by Julia Buckley

With the success of yet another film version of JANE EYRE, and with a very recent anniversary of Charlotte Bronte's birth, I thought I'd pay tribute to both the woman and her work. On April 21st, 1816, Charlotte Bronte was born--one of six children of a clergyman in Yorkshire. She wrote often, even as a young person, perhaps as an escape from a rather dreary life. In adulthood she wrote under the name Currer Bell. Her greatest work, of course, is Jane Eyre.

I often teach Jane Eyre to freshmen, and I would have to say that it is the most underestimated and unappreciated work of all the literature that I teach. The young people, in general (despite a few fans in every class), cannot seem to relate to Jane Eyre, and yet I wonder why. It's wonderfully Gothic, and young people still appreciate the Gothic elements in their books and movies; it has a touching love story, a strong sense of mystery, a focus on the underdog--the very plain Jane. Yet it often leaves them cold.

I suppose the difference is that many young people can no longer stomach the style--the long sentences, the formal diction (much of which they don't know and often refuse to look up), the antiquated sensibility. This is about a girl, then a woman, who is continually oppressed. What the girls don't always see, however, is the gradual journey Jane makes: from weakness to strength, from ignorance to awareness, from anger to enlightenment. It's a remarkable work, and my continuing job as a teacher is to try to make them see that.

I first discovered Jane Eyre on my mother's bookshelf when I was very young--eleven or twelve,perhaps. I wanted to read it because it looked very adult: it was big, leatherbound, and intimidating. But when I opened it and found Jane sitting behind a curtain at Gateshead, hiding from her horrible adopted family and looking out at the dreary November day, I was hooked. Bronte was a brilliant storyteller, and Jane is such a worthy protagonist that reader can't help but be drawn into her life and to root for her success.

And of course one of my favorite things about Jane Eyre is its mystery; the wonderful sense that there is something going on that Jane doesn't understand, which creates tension for long portions of the book. I don't wish to spoil anything for those of you who might now be inspired to pick up Jane Eyre in honor of Charlotte's birthday, so I'll just say that the mystery itself has made an indelible imprint on our literary culture, and Jane Eyre remains as a beloved work of English literature.