Jennifer Macaire is the author of the unique time travel series set in the time of Alexander the Great.  The first two books Time for Alexander and Heroes in the Dust are available now.  The third book is scheduled for release in December 2003.  Also out on 13 October 2003  is Angels on Crusade. In between books Jennifer has kindly found the time to answer some questions for the Magical Romance website.

Welcome and without further ado on with the show...

LB    First of all could you please tell us a bit about yourself as an introduction to the visitors to the Magical Romance Website.

JM    Hi Louisa! I'm an American writer living in France with my French husband and our three children. I've been an avid reader and writer since I was five - I penned my first book about a horse called Tafy at that time. My husband is a professional polo player and we traveled extensively for many years. I wrote magazine articles and short stories during that time, and then turned to novels when we finally settled in France and I bought a typewriter. I wrote my first draft of Time for Alexander on that typewriter, I can remember each time the ribbon wore out. We lived way out in the country and it took ages to get a new one. When my husband bought a computer for me, (Windows 3.1 - does anyone remember that?) I polished up Time for Alexander and sent it off to publishers in New York, quite sure it would start a huge bidding war between major publishers. (Well, it was a nice dream!) It came winging back with lots of red markings on the cover: 'Ancient Greece doesn't sell!' 'Alexander the Great doesn't sell!' 'People don't want to read about time travel!' 'Love triangles definitely don't sell!' I am a stubborn person, so I kept at it for another year, getting thirty rejections from NY publishers and agents. I came into contact with Louisa and we exchanged e-mails (remember Louisa?)  (NOTE FROM LB: Yes I remember ;-)

About that time, I found out about electronic publishing and as I lived in France and buying English books was very expensive, I started buying e-books. Cheap, instant gratification. But back then, most were terrible. I remember one or two as being very good, and the rest were unreadable. Then I stumbled upon Jacobyte Books in Australia. I bought one of their books, then another, and another. Each book was very good. The quality was amazing, and for about six months I bought all their books and read happily away...until it suddenly occurred to me that I might want to submit Time for Alexander there. The rest, as they say, is history! Time for Alexander has done amazingly well, and my publisher calls it 'an underground cult best-seller'. Book 2, Heroes in the Dust, was published in May 2003, and book 3 will appear in December. There are 7 books in the series! Jacobyte wants to put them out every six months, so we are hard at work editing and proofreading book 4 right now!
 

LB    Can you tell us about your popular Iskander series?

JM    It's about a time-traveler who goes back in time from our future to interview Alexander the Great as part of a historical journalistic program. As I worked as a journalist for a while, the idea of interviewing famous people intrigued me, combined with the power to travel in time and interview whoever I wanted...well, that was the chance my heroine, Ashley, had. So off she goes to interview Alexander, never dreaming that he would mistake her for the goddess Persephone and kidnap her! (I had no idea that would happen either, the whole series started out as a short story. But there you have it; Alexander took over and I simply couldn't stop writing!)
 

LB    The the time of Alexander the Great is not usually covered in this genre of fiction. Why did you choose it?

JM    I have always liked ancient Greece and Rome, and Alexander happened to live at a time of immense social, religious, climate and political change. He was the cause of some of that change, but it was mostly serendipity, I think, that put him at the right place at the right time. Plus his personality must have been just formidable to have carried such a sweeping change and keep the momentum going so long after his disappearance.
 

LB    How easy or difficult was it to research this era?

JM    It was an easy era to research because hardly any era except our own was so carefully documented. Science was in full swing, the Greek philosophers had discovered electricity, the planets and their rotations. (They thought they all rotated around the earth, but at least they knew they were round!) The invisible world of microbes was being discovered, philosophy debated, people depended less on the gods and more on science and medicine, social structures were being modernized, government was being developed and democracy perfected...it was an amazingly modern time and would last until the fall of the Roman Empire. People were more modern then than at any other time during history, and that made it a perfect time for me, at any rate!

LB    If you were a time travelling journalist who would you choose to interview and what question(s) would you ask?

JM    Let's see, I've already been to ancient Greece and written an entire series about that interview! I suppose I would love to interview Jesus. His personality fascinates me, and I think he would be an incredible person to meet. Historically, I think there is much to be said about his time period too - again, another time of upheaval and change. His influence has been even stronger and more incredible than Alexander the Great's. He was one of those unbelievably charismatic, driven people that are born once every three or four hundred years, and I would love to be able to petition the Tempus University and Time Travel Program to let me go back and interview him!

 

LB    Your latest novel is Angels on Crusade. Can you tell us about this book? It is likely to extend into a series such as the Iskander novels?
 

JM    It's about Isobel, another time-traveler, who, unlike Ashley, is sent back in time as punishment and left there. Her mission is to save the crown of France, and if she succeeds she will be allowed to live in the twelfth century for the rest of her life, if not, she will be erased and vanish from time. It's a single title, Isobel's story was an incredible adventure to write about but I didn't make it into a series. I spent a long time researching that period, and the book started with a visit to the St. Chapel in Paris. St. Louis built it to house the crown of thorns, which he'd bought when he'd been on the 7th crusade. The years passed and he decided to go back on another crusade - the ill-fated 8th crusade. It was so dreadful, so many things went wrong, from storms as sea, to battles lost, to sickness that I as I read about it I couldn't help seeing it like a film, and in the middle was a woman trying to keep one man alive - a man who's personal story never made it to history books, but whose descendants would someday rule France. Poor Isobel has her work cut out for her, because Jean de Bourban-Dampierres is a headstrong youth determined to fight the infidals at his king's side. This book will be out October 13th at Novelbooks, and available most everywhere!
 

LB    You have also written some books for the younger readers out there. Can you tell us about those?
 

JM    I wrote a young adult science fiction book called 'The Promise', for my twin sons, then 9 years old. One had begged me to do a story for him about a world where there were no adults. (He must have been mad at me that day, LOL!) So I sat down and started 'The Promise.' It turned out to be a surprisingly deep tale of friendship, loss and survival. It made it to several teacher's lists in schools across the country, but the place I was most surprised (and pleased) to find it was in a juvenile, maximum security prison. My mother teaches English and math there, and she used my book. The kids just loved it, and identified very strongly with the character Red Sky, a boy who starts out as a terrible bully then redeems himself. I went to the prison one whole day to read chapters and talk about my books and writing. The kids amazed me by their interest and wonderful questions. They wanted to know why both Ryan, the hero, and Red Sky, the 'bad guy', both let the wolves out of the zoo, so we talked about that, and they explored the possibilities of how kids with no special powers and thrown into a horrific situation could survive. The experience was one I'll never forget, and I'll always be glad I wrote 'The Promise', as it seemed to give so much hope and enjoyment to these troubled boys.

I also have 'The Secret of Shabaz' coming out soon - it is a young adult fantasy, complete with unicorn, elves, orcs and wicked necromancer. It took three years to write and I just love it. I am in the middle of getting some illustrations done for it, and I think it will be terrific. Both books are published by Double Dragon e-books in Canada.

'Sadie's Island' is a coming of age tale set in the Caribbean and it will be out sometime early 2004 at Hardshell Word Factory. It is about a young girl with a terrible scar on her face, who, after an operation, turns into a beauty. As I grew up in the Caribbean it is a place particularly dear to me, and this book is one of my favorites written especially for teenage girls.

 

LB    What are the most interesting historical facts you have come across when researching your novels? What has really surprised you when delving into the past?
 

JM    I was surprised to find that there were no contemporary writings about Alexander the Great. All the information we have comes from four hundred years after his death. The facts are few, the legends many, and it was hard sifting through the rumors to find glimmers of reality. I was also amused when I found out that St. Louis had bought the crown of thorns for three hundred thousand pounds. (I pictured an Arab rug salesman holding it up saying, 'Well, I have this little article here, pas cher, I can make you a good deal!') At the time, the crown cost more than the chapel he built to house it. If anyone goes to Paris, they should not miss the chance to visit the St. Chapel near Notre Dame de Paris. It is a tiny, gothic jewel built in the courtyard of the prefecture. It has the most incredible stained glass windows I've ever seen.
 

LB    What other books are you working on and what can we expect to see on the shelves from you in the future?
 

JM    I'm finishing a fantasy book right now. It has a talking cat and a runaway prince. But it's nowhere near done and I will be working on it for a while! I have been very busy writing erotic romance as Samantha Winston for Ellora's Cave. I have seven books there, the eighth coming out at the end of this month. There are contemporaries, science fiction, romantic comedies, fairy tales, and a ghost story. I think that the fantasy will go there as well. I love writing for that publisher, and they were recently recognized by Romance Writers of America, he first electronic publisher to have that honor!

 

LB    Do you have a message for all your readers out there?
 

JM    I love to write and I enjoy entertaining, and I love to hear from my readers. I don't post on lists very much, as unfortunately I don't have time. I am a housewife, mother of three, English teacher, avid gardener and cook. Sometimes I don't know how I fit everything in with my writing, but I do try to answer all my mail!

Many thanks to Jennifer for taking the time to answer questions.  We look forward to the upcoming books.
 

Books by Jennifer Macaire: The Iskander Series and Angels on Crusade

Visit Jennifer Macaire's website

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