Meet Jane Thomson

 

Today Paws4Thought welcomes Fauxpocalypse author Jane Thomson. Tell us a little bit about yourself Jane.

I live in the capital of Australia, which is basically a small town no one goes to unless they have to.  My great dream is to live in the mountains with only ten dogs, three horses and a couple of echidnas for company.  My great nightmare is to be so successful as a writer that people demand that I finish my next book (pressure!).

How did you come up with the idea for your Fauxpocalypse story The Children’s Crusade?

The Children’s Crusade was a tragic crusade to Palestine organized in the middle ages: most of the kids died on the way and many ended up being sold as slaves.  I was trying to imagine a child’s eye view of this momentous event – the apocalypse – and came up with the idea of setting it in a remote ‘outback’ town where news of the exact nature of the disaster wasn’t allowed to percolate.  I guess the kids in my story are in some ways victims of an idea much bigger than they are – but triumph over it in the end.  Or something like that.

Do you think children would perceive the end of the world differently from adults?

Children perceive death differently than adults.  The same things aren’t important to them – for instance, for one little girl, all that matters is the survival of her pet dog.  Children also forget the most humungous events and just move on.

If you thought the end of the world was real what would you do?  

I would grab my kids, and my lover, and my pets, and I would shower them with all the love I had in me.

What inspires you to write?

I’m always walking around in a haze thinking about this and that (usually nothing to do with what’s around me) and every now and again I think, yeah THAT would make a good story!  So that’s it really, I have a desire to tell stories, to give people a different take on this place we live in.  I’d like it if people read my stuff and were emotionally moved, because that to me is what living is about – it’s about feeling.  And then there are ideas that interest me – death, right and wrong, stuff like that – and my writing is a way to explore the ramifications of those ideas.

What are you currently reading?

I just finished reading The First Phonecall from Heaven, by Mitch Albom.   I must say I’d be very skeptical if someone rang me from the afterlife and said ‘it’s cool here, really cool!’.

Do you like to listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?

No, I can’t write and listen to music at the same time, it totally doesn’t work for me!

Tell us about your novel “Deeper”?

Deeper is based on the story of the Little Mermaid, who gave up her life in the sea for a human she loved, and then lived to regret it.  I wanted to present how this might have panned out in a modern reality – a primitive, savage sea-people, an unwise passion, a terrible choice, and the tragedy of burnt bridges.  So it’s not entirely upbeat (but the ending is – well, kind of!). 

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on an epic (yes!) fantasy romance about a young girl who falls in love with a god.  It’s a wheels-within-wheels sort of book, partly about the Machiavellian world of amoral divinities who use humans as monopoly-money in a sort of world-game – and partly about the humans who must resist them.

Visit Jane on WordPress and pick up a copy of Deeper on Amazon.

But I’m Beautiful

Living in Fairyland