Tell me a little about yourself (where you live, who you
are, what you look like, what you hope to achieve, etc.)
Well, my name is Jane Barnaby, and I’m 25 years old, I’m
working on my doctorate in archaeology, and I split my time between New York
and Oxfordshire. What do I look
like? Well, my father says I’m
beautiful, and so does my boyfriend, but they pretty much have to say
that. Seriously, though, I’m fairly
tall, I keep myself in decent shape (long days working at the dig site mean I
don’t need to belong to a gym to get a daily workout), and I’ve got long brown
hair and blue eyes. My wardrobe could
use some work – lots of faded jeans, worn-out sneakers and so forth – but
that’s an occupational hazard.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
When I’m in New York, I’m usually home in my free time
because my apartment comes with a very needy cat. When I’m at Oxford, most of my spare time is
spent in the library. Dissertation
research is never done!
What is your favorite color and why?
Blue, because it was the color of my mother’s eyes.
What is your favorite food? Why is it your favorite?
Shrimp with Special Brown Sauce. It’s the signature dish at my favorite
Chinese restaurant in New York, cooked by the woman who’s going to marry my
father, if they ever get around to actually setting a wedding date.
What would you say is your biggest quirk?
You want me to pick just one? OK.
It’s a silly little thing, but even though I’m 25 years old, I still
call my father “Daddy.” I did it when I
was little, and then I stopped, like most people do. But I started doing it again when my mother
died, right before I went away to college.
It just felt right, somehow.
What is it about your antagonist that irks you the most,
and why? Share a line in the book where this irk is manifested.
I don’t want any antagonists, but I keep finding them
somehow. In this book, it’s a Russian
jewel thief named Natasha.
“By the way, I refuse to believe
that’s her actual name. Does she have a
partner named Boris, too? Does she fight
a moose and a squirrel every week?”
What or who means the most to you in your life? What, if
anything, would you do to keep him/her/it in your life?
I can’t pick one person, that’s just not fair. I’m not going to choose between my father and
my brother and my boyfriend and my best friend from college who I still talk to
every day. I love them all, and I’d do
anything for any of them. I actually
have, too. I fought an actual, real-life
Nazi to help a friend get out of a bad situation. I chased a Russian jewel thief across Europe
to help my brother. You mess with
someone I care about, and there’s nowhere I won’t go to find you.
Not that I always know what to do once I do find them, which
is a whole other story.
What one thing would you like readers to know about you
that may not be spelled out in the book in which you inhabit?
I don’t know if my bookworm side really comes out in any of
the books I’m in. My author likes to
write about all the crazy things that happen to me, but I am actually pretty
smart. I’ve already got my Master’ from
Oxford, and they don’t hand those out to dummies!
If you could tell your writer (creator) anything about
yourself that might turn the direction of the plot, what would it be?
I actually would like to settle down a little bit and have a
less hectic life. I don’t think my
author really believes that, but it’s true!
***
A question for Kathryn:
Why do you let bad things happen to good people like us?
What would a story be without struggle? What would a life? You're in the book for a reason, Jane, and so are real, breathing people on the face of thisearth. We're here to grow, to learn, to become the person we were always meant to be. We can't do this if life is just a cake walk, and a great book doesn't happen when life poses little to no problems for the main character.
Thanks for asking!
***
Links:
http://books2read.com/HerBrother
(sales link)
http://getBook.at/HerBrotherAudio
(audiobook)
http://www.writingdreams.net
(author website)
http://viewAuthor.at/JJDiBenedetto
(Amazon Author Page)
https://soundcloud.com/user-680799288
(audiobook samples on Soundcloud)
