INTERVIEW WITH JACKSON KEENE, AUTHOR OF SARAH QUANLI
Q. There are all kinds of fiction genres
that authors write for. You’ve written
two books (NOLICHUCK, and now SARAH QUANLI) in the vein of historical
fiction. Why is that?
ANSWER:
Having earned undergrad and grad
degrees in history, plus having spent a year toward a doctorate in same, I’ve
always had a healthy fascination with long ago events and individuals (whether
common folk or famous personages), with major trends and traditions, and how
such evolved through time.
Q. Please go into more detail why the
historical genre appeals to you so much.
ANSWER:
It’s interesting to dig deep into
how people carried on – how they managed – during the great epochs of past; how
they lived, loved, survived, overcame, left legacies and lineages to continue their
name and blood-line. How each generation
is beholden to the last, but still tasked with creating its personal stamp for
the next generation to come.
Q. What are the major elements that come to
play in the story behind SARAH QUANLI?
What led you to include those specific aspects in your narrative?
ANSWER:
I’ve loved and played the sport of
basketball since childhood. I greatly like
Chinese people and China as a country.
In fact, I have several Chinese friends with whom I play pick-up
basketball games most every week. In
addition, I’m an evangelical Christian. Plus,
I love action and adventure, both in movies and in reading. I’m also a very passionate (highly romantic)
person. So it almost seems natural I
would write an historical novel with romance and danger that combines all these
things into a unified story.
Q. So what makes SARAH QUANLI so uniquely
different from other historical romances?
In some ways, the continuing saga of
SARAH QUANLI has elements of both The
Good Earth and East of Eden. It’s all about the lives and loves of several
generations of a Chinese family, begun when a handsome Scottish missionary
marries a beautiful Chinese girl. The
newly published Book One covers the time period from the birth of David Adam
MacDougall in 1882 to the birth of his first child, a daughter, named Sarah
Quanli MacDougall in 1916.
Q. Will there be other books in the story
of SARAH QUANLI?
Yes.
Books Two, Three, and Four – still to come – will take the reader through
the brutality and turmoil of strife-torn twentieth century China, and later,
concurrently, through the social upheaval of the 1960s and beyond in golden California.
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