Please give a warm welcome to Jackson Pearce, author of Sister Red, which I’ve read, reviewed and really enjoyed. Thank you so much for being here, Jackson, it’s a pleasure to have you!
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This story is about…
I’ve never been really good at those elevator pitches. You know, the quick “This story is about a boy wizard going to school!” or “This story is about a girl’s fight for her life in a dystopian setting.” The little one-liners that tell the reader/friend/parent/fellow elevator passenger the core of the story in one quick, succinct phrase.
I think it’s because I have trouble paring my books down to one single sentence—hell, I have trouble paring any book down to a single sentence. After all, how can you possibly understand how clever Harry Potter is if you leave out Quidditch? Or how romantic Hunger Games can be if you don’t mention Peeta or Gale?
I think this is because my goal as a writer is to write books that are about more than just one thing. I don’t want to write just a love story, or just an adventure, or just a story about personal development. I want everything I write to be something more, to be something greater than the sum of its parts.
In SISTERS RED, it was important to me that I tell a story about two girls on opposite sides of a battle to define themselves. I think at its deepest core, SISTERS RED is a story about figuring out who you are independent of others. Scarlett is a warrior, she’s tough, she’s cunning, yet she feels like she can’t define herself without her sister by her side. She doesn’t know who she is without Rosie, and is afraid to find out. Rosie, on the other hand, desperately wants to be “normal”—she’s a warrior too, but it isn’t the life she wants for herself. She knows exactly how she’d define herself without Scarlett, but loves her sister too much to do so.
SISTERS RED is also a love story. Rosie falls for Silas, hard, but I wanted their love to be more than “you’re really pretty!” “you’re really sexy!” “we’re madly in love!”. Their love is based on a long friendship, on a history together, on mutual interests and the ability to have a long conversation. They inhabit the same world; one isn’t a mystery or a secret to the other. It was incredibly important to me to show a relationship like this, since a slow, meandering romance is much closer to the kind of love I’ve experienced in my own life—I’ve never fallen in love at first sight.
And, of course, I wanted SISTERS RED to be an action. A mystery. Something that kept you flipping the page nervously, something that made readers worry for the lives of the main characters. It was important to me that the book be a page turner and something that even a reluctant reader could enjoy.
So, sure, I’ve got my one sentence pitch for SISTERS RED—but I don’t like using it. I hope my book is among those that can’t be crammed into one sentence; I hope it’s among those awesome books that takes more than a single sentence to define. Otherwise I’m going to have to find a new way to quickly summarize my book to strangers on elevators…what do you guys think about interpretive dance?
Just a thought.
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Thanks Jackson!
5 Comments
i loved this book, glad to hear from the author regarding this
The Blog
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This was a great post ^_^. I really want to read this book.
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Nice post, you sure makes me wanna read this one :=)
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I've had this on my 'want' pile since I first saw it from the publisher on The Book Smugglers website.
I can't wait to get my paws on it!
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Thank you for the introduction to this book. Will try to get a copy!
Pragmatic Mom
Type A Parenting for the Modern World
http://PragmaticMom.com
I blog on children's lit, parenting and education
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