Today, Olivia is chatting with author Jenny Trout about her debut novel, SUCH SWEET SORROW! Check it out!
Never was there a tale of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo… But true love never dies. Though they’re parted by the veil between the world of mortals and the land of the dead, Romeo believes he can restore Juliet to life, but he’ll have to travel to the underworld with a thoroughly infuriating guide.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, may not have inherited his father’s crown, but the murdered king left his son a much more important responsibility—a portal to the Afterjord, where the souls of the dead reside. When the determined Romeo asks for help traversing the treacherous Afterjord, Hamlet sees an opportunity for adventure, and the chance to avenge his father’s death.
In an underworld filled with leviathan monsters, ghoulish shades, fire giants and fierce Valkyrie warriors, Hamlet and Romeo must battle their way through jealousy, despair, and their darkest fears to rescue the fair damsel. Yet finding Juliet is only the beginning, and the Afterjord doesn’t surrender souls without a price…
Olivia with YA-Mag: Jenny, welcome to the Young Adult Magazine! We’re here talking about your debut, SUCH SWEET SORROW!
YA: Let’s talk about your Romeo and Hamlet. How did you first meet the guys? What made them the perfect characters to tell this story, as opposed to other Shakespearean leading men?
Jenny Trout: The idea to use Romeo and Hamlet came from Nick Harris at The Story Foundation. When I first heard Romeo and Hamlet in the same sentence, I thought it sounded nuts. Then I thought more about it, and I realized that if any two Shakespeare characters could really understand each other, it would be Romeo and Hamlet. They’ve both lost loved ones in incredibly horrible circumstances, and there’s no justice for them. In their original stories, they both end up ultimately destroying themselves with their grief, but in opposite ways; Romeo’s passion kills him, Hamlet’s obsessed intelligence does him in. Once I looked at it from that perspective, I thought, “Yeah… there’s something here.”
YA: What sets Hamlet and Romeo’s story apart from other YA reimagined classics, like OPHELIA by Lisa Klein or A.G. Howard’s SPLINTERED series? What will readers find that isn’t anywhere else?
JT: I think there’s something definitely unique in the way this story is told. It’s not just Shakespeare with paranormal elements—Shakespeare included paranormal elements in a lot of his plays already—but it’s an entire Shakespearean metaverse. I think of it as like, the Buffy or Merlin of Shakespearean retellings. You can see the characters and a hint of their original stories, but it’s very much its own thing, in a fun, lawless, cool kind of way.
YA: What non-book influences (films, television shows, music, plays, etc) helped spark this story or your writing career in general?
JT: I found Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I was writing my very first book, which was a vampire novel. It really influenced the way I related to my female character. The idea that a female character could be the center of the story, and her personal journey could be more important than the romantic aspect of her life, really shook up how I felt about my own writing.
YA: When you were a teen, what was your favorite book (YA or otherwise)? Now that you’re an author for teens, what is your favorite contemporary YA?
JT: The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith. Which, incidentally, I have to say I think she’s a genius, and Alloy Entertainment just threw her away. Legions of fans from before the television show have been disappointed at her firing, and I know this will needlessly frighten a lot of authors off from for-hire gigs. I know I did a lot of soul searching before signing my contract for Such Sweet Sorrow specifically because of this, but ultimately the idea was too good to refuse. But every time I think of what happened to L.J. Smith, who breathed life into these characters that I and millions of other teenage girls were obsessed with, I’m absolutely furious.
My favorite contemporary YA is harder to choose, because I’m reading so many of them lately. But Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys is a very strong contender for my favorite.
YA: With Shakespearean characters and plots, it’s perfect to borrow from the plays, but what is the full story behind the title SUCH SWEET SORROW?
JT: It’s not a very sexy answer, unfortunately. We decided early on that we would use quotes from the plays as book titles. The first title of Such Sweet Sorrow was Wondrous Strange, but then that became the series title, and we went with the title it has now. The working title of the sequel is The Abysm of Time, because it features characters from The Tempest. But of course it’s never final until it’s on the cover!
YA: This marks the start of the WONDROUS STRANGE series. What can you tease about the next story and how the stakes are raised?
JT: Romeo and Hamlet are left in a pretty precarious position at the end of Such Sweet Sorrow, and they’re going to have to navigate that together, while fighting against a very powerful sorcerer. A lot of people they love are going to be placed in danger, and Hamlet especially is going to have to go to some very dark places to protect his friends.
YA: The idea for this story came from Nick Harris at The Story Foundation. After your agent put you two together, he took you on as the writer. What has this process been like? What were your responsibilities; what were his?
JT: My responsibility was, first and foremost, delivering a story we could all be proud of. I spent a lot of time on the phone and emailing with Nick and with my agent, Miriam Kriss, hammering out plot details and brainstorming things that later we decided, okay, this is good, but it just doesn’t fit, let’s find something different.
Before I worked on this project I always thought I would never be able to write a book with someone else, but it was refreshing to have people to bounce ideas off. It felt like less pressure.
As for The Story Foundation’s involvement, they’re currently handling the film and television side of things out in L.A., which is good, because I have no idea how any of that stuff works! I’ll get an email from Nick saying, “This agent is going to rep this,” or “it’s going out to this studio this week,” and I’m terribly impressed by it all, but I have no idea what any of it means.
YA: If you could cast the Dream Film of SUCH SWEET SORROW, who would you cast?
JT: Alex Pettyfer as Hamlet, Robert Sheehan as Romeo, and Coco Jones as Juliet. They were the people I pictured in my head as I was writing. Although at the time, I didn’t realize Coco Jones was so young! She’s so talented and poised, I imagined she was in her late teens or early twenties at least.
YA: What’s up next for you in YA land? Any pet projects you can tease us about?
JT: Right now, I’m really interested in exploring NA fiction, and I have a few ideas for paranormal stories set in that genre. YA wise, I’m pretty tied up with this series, and I really want to focus on that right now. But I do have a partial of a YA gothic set during the Regency that I would love to share with readers some day.
YA: I loved your blog post on exclusionary attitudes in self-publishing. You hit on some subjects near and dear to me (unchecked privilege, ‘real art’ attitudes, women and POC author representation and respect, among others). In your opinion, what are some of the first steps that authors, writers, readers, and booksellers can take towards a more inclusive publishing industry for the indie author? Do you have a favorite self-published YA author or novel?
JT: I think the biggest thing the publishing industry needs to do to be more inclusive is to stop trying to pigeonhole authors of color into writing “big issue” books. A comment left on that blog post was from an author who found that once she disclosed her biracial status, she went from being “an author” to being “an Asian author,” and that’s all anyone was interested in seeing from her. That’s a very one dimensional, exploitative view of authors of color, and their potential audience.
I’ve heard people say, “Oh, those types of books don’t sell,” but where are these books that aren’t selling? If they’re not available or promoted or even published, how do we know they’re not selling? Why not put them out there and support them the way white authors are supported by the industry, then make a decision regarding profitability? Rather than demanding that those books prove themselves against a stacked deck?
As for a favorite self-published YA novel, it’s funny. All of the self-published books I’ve read are erotica or erotic romance, I haven’t gotten to a self-pub YA yet. But I do have Severed by Dax Varley on my TBR, and I’m really excited to read it. You can’t go wrong setting your YA in Sleepy Hollow!
YA: All right, last one! If you could spend one day with Romeo and Hamlet, what would you do together? What would advice would you give to each about his past or future?
JT: I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to hang with them. They seem to get into a lot of trouble. Like, they’re the speedy rabbit diagram on the riding lawnmower, and I’m more like the turtle. But if we could do something that didn’t involve actual danger, I assume we would play Dungeons & Dragons. It would be cerebral enough for Hamlet, and action/adventurey enough for Romeo.
YA: RPGs with protagonists? Count me in! Well, thank you very much, Jenny! It has been such a pleasure. Again, from YA Mag, congratulations on your debut, SUCH SWEET SORROW! We look forward to hearing a lot more from you in years to come!
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Readers, be sure to check out Jenny Trout at www.JennyTrout.wordpress.com. Or follow her on Twitter @Jenny_Trout.
SUCH SWEET SORROW, published by Entangled Teen, is now available at your favorite retailers and local independent bookstores!
Olivia Hennis is a transplanted New England girl dropped by a tornado into the magical Land of Jersey. For more info, follow her on Twitter@OliviaHennis.