1. What inspires you to write for young readers?
The characters and voices that come to me, and the stories I want to tell, all involve younger people- whom I find more interesting and more fertile territory for stories than adults. Younger characters grow and transform whereas adult characters at best might change slightly, or realize something. With younger characters, there’s always so much potential, even if there’s damage. Young characters learn about the world, how to handle it, and how to become.
2. What themes/message(s) do you want to explore in your work?
It doesn’t sound like a very promising subject for young readers, but my stories tend to gravitate toward the space between life and death. I believe we are all deeply interconnected and themes of responsibility pop up, too – to ourselves and others. As individuals then, why are we here? What can only we contribute? What do we owe ourselves and others? And, yeah, what happens when we die? I think plenty of young readers find these subjects interesting too.
The human mind and those that may work differently than “normal” are also fascinating. I’m an advocate for destigmatizing mental health and try to include abled and disabled characters in my stories who may struggle with mental illness in some form. This doesn’t define them and may or may not give them an extra obstacle or challenge to deal with—along with all the other obstacles we must give our characters. Helping to normalize attending to mental health along with physical health is a goal of mine, if not a theme.
3. Please tell us about Romancing the Dark in the City of Light, as well as any future work you'd like to share about.
Both of my novels are older YA. Romancing the Dark in the City of Light is about an eighteen-year-old American girl living with her estranged mother in Paris, and dealing with depression and alcohol abuse (as the two sometimes go hand-in-hand). In an indication of her distorted thinking, she believes that finding romance will help her despair and give purpose to her life. And she falls for two very different young men--one who wants her to embrace her life and get help, and one who wants to convince her that life—and death—are in her own hands.
Here's the blurb for The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent which will be out March 2023: Eighteen-year-old Del is in a healthier place than she was a year and a half ago: She's sober, getting treatment for her depression and anxiety, and volunteering at a suicide-prevention hotline. Her own suicide attempt is in the past, and living in San Francisco with her beloved aunt has helped her see a future for herself. But when Aunt Fran is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Del's equilibrium is shattered. As she struggles to care for her aunt and prepare herself for the inevitable, Del must confront her own demons and rethink everything she thought she knew about life and death.
4. Where can we find more information about your work?
More information is at annjacobus.com, Ann Jacobus on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, and Ann Jacobus Author on Facebook. Here’s a linktree link for all the above.