Ep 195: Jennifer Donnelly

First Draft Episode #195: Jennifer Donnelly

Jennifer Donnelly, New York Times bestselling author of A
Northern Light, Revolution, These Shallow Graves, and The Tea
Rose series (incl. The Tea Rose; The Winter Rose; The Wild Rose)
and Waterfire Saga series (incl. Deep Blue; Rogue Wave; Dark
Tide; Sea Spell), Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book, among
others, who is back with the New York Times bestselling
Stepsister. Jennifer talks about being raised on bedtime stories
about life under the Hitler regime; how to deep-dive into writing
a historical novel; and the joy of being obsessed.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode



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The New York Teen Author Carnival




When Jennifer visited Portobello Road in East London, she
felt like she was stepping back into the London of Charles
Dickens (author of Great Expectations and A Tale of Two
Cities), artist William Hogarth, Jack the Ripper (learn more
with The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Phillip
Sugden), The Labour Movement, the London Dock Worker Strike




Simon Lipskar of Writer’s House was interested in Jennifer’s
first crack at writing a novel, which was 1,100 words(!)




Sally Kim, VP and Editor in Chief at Putnam, was then at St.
Martin’s, when she purchased Jennifer’s first book




Steven Malk at Writer’s House became Jennifer’s agent to sell
A Northern Light and subsequent books




Jennifer’s mom bought her a copy of An American Tragedy by
Theodore Dreiser, and that sparked the obsession that led to
A Northern Light. (Non-fiction accounts of the murder of
Grace Brown include Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder
Case of 1906, written by Joseph W. Brownell and Patricia
Enos; and Murder in the Adirondacks: An American Tragedy
Revisited, by Craig Brandon.)




The murder case of Laci Peterson, documented in true crime
novel A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson
Investigation by Catherine Crier




Jennifer was stopped short by a New York Times article about
the heart of Louis Charles, Dauphin of France, the imprisoned
son of the king of France who was toppled by the French
Revolution. The story was likely either “Genetics Offers
Denouement To Mystery of Prince's Death,” by Suzanne Daley,
or “MEANWHILE : Learning from a heart stilled by revolution,”
by Catherine Field.




Jennifer was inspired by “Savage Beauty,” the Met’s
retrospective of fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s work




Jennifer’s short story in Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry
VIII Tell All led her to explore the themes of beauty and how
we reinforce those standards on young women in Stepsister




I blow up Maurene Goo’s spot (author of I Believe in a Thing
Called Love, The Way You Make Me Feel, and her newest,
Somewhere Only We Know) getting obsessed with the
Supernatural TV show (listen to Maurene’s First Draft
episodes here, here, and here)




I’m obsessed with The Dyatlov Pass Incident, which was
covered in Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the
Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar




 
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