Jessica Fortunato stops by TeamNerd to chat with Annabell about her
debut novella, The Sin Collector, what makes a
woman strong, and what she would do if she got to hang out with her favorite
author Oscar Wilde.
Annabell:
Olexander was my favorite character! Was he inspired by anyone in particular?
Where did his name come from and does it mean anything specific?
Jessica
Fortunato: He was actually the one character NOT
based on anyone in real life. I
enjoyed writing him because he is one of the few characters who seem to hold on
to old ways. I don’t know
the exact meaning of his name. Olexander was the middle name of a kiddo I
babysat for years ago and I always liked it.
Annabell:
Liliana is a strong and assertive woman. I read that she was based off of a few
women in your life. What do you think makes a woman strong?
Jessica
Fortunato: I think speaking your mind makes you
strong. Living your truth.
Don’t be a wilting flower or damsel in distress. Find your own way down from the tower,
absorb knowledge like it’s air. Don’t
get me wrong, I still want Prince Charming. However, I want a weapon too, maybe
one day I’ll need to rescue him.
Annabell:
The characters get to travel to Madrid, Spain, somewhere I desperately want to
go to! Why did you choose to place the setting of the second and third half of
the novella in Spain? Have you ever been?
Jessica
Fortunato: I have never been
anywhere…literally. Any
place I send my characters is a place I would love to see. Ireland is my dream
vacation, and my characters find themselves there a lot. I would also love to visit Australia
and Italy.
Annabell:
There’s a special dagger the Castus use to eliminate those who are Sin
Collectors. Where did the idea for the dagger come from?
Jessica
Fortunato: When I’m not reading fiction, I read a
ton of religious non-fiction from all over the world. In the bible, and other sacred texts
mythical weapons are extremely prevalent. The staff of Moses, the sword of
Michael, daggers, spears, and even slings are given magical properties. Since the Castus come from a very
religious place, to me it seemed natural.
Annabel:
I would love to be able to read a short story on Rebecca. She was also a
character I really liked but she wasn’t in the book as much as I wanted. Would
you ever write a novella on her?
Jessica
Fortunato: I have mulled writing her story for this
winter. I gave fans the opportunity to vote for whose story they wanted to hear
most, Rebecca or Thomas and Thomas won. His
story releases Friday July 20. The votes were close. I will have to see how Thomas’s story
goes before I decide about Rebecca.
Annabell:
If The Sin Collector became a movie, who would you like to
cast as Liliana, Billy, and Olexander?
Jessica
Fortunato: I have said that were that to happen I
would sell my soul to ensure Ben Barnes played Olexander. The rest of the cast
is on the fence. I have never seen an actress who would play a perfect Lily in
my mind. I formed a Pinterest board so fans and I could offer suggestions for
casting.
The
link: http://pinterest.com/thesincollector/the-sin-collector-cast/
Random
Fun:
Annabell: Liliana is really good
with knives. What’s a weapon you would love to be good at wielding?
Jessica Fortunato: I actually just got my sister
throwing knives for her birthday, so I can’t wait to try them out with her. I
loved archery in school (back before Katniss made it cool) and wouldn’t mind
pursuing that if I were somehow given the opportunity.
Annabell: Top Five Favorite Quotes
from Dorian Gray:
Jessica Fortunato: That one is hard, but I will
do my best.
5. “You
will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the
courage to commit.”
4. “Humanity takes itself too
seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to
laugh, history would have been different."
3. “There were opiates for remorse,
drugs that could lull the moral sense to sleep. But here was a visible symbol
of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men
brought upon their souls."
2. “The only way to get rid of
temptation is to yield to it.”
1. “Nowadays most people die of a sort of
creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things
one never regrets are one's mistakes.”
Annabell: As an Oscar Wilde mega fan
(I join you in that love!), if you got the chance to have dinner with him, what
are some of the questions you would ask and what would you cook?
Jessica Fortunato: Well Wilde was Irish, so I
would probably find some traditional dishes to make, give him a taste of
home. I can’t even begin to
name all the questions I would ask. I imagine we would keep one another up for
days bantering back and forth getting lost in circular philosophical
discussions about nothing. I
like to think that were we alive at the same time we would have raised some
glorious hell together!
Favorite Superhero: The Flash
Favorite Brand of Cereal: Coco Puffs
Annabell: Thank you, Jessica,
for stopping by! Had a lot of fun with the interview and am looking forward to
seeing what she writes for Thomas. Check out
the new short story being released based
of one of the characters from The Sin
Collector, Thomas.
Be sure to Add both The Sin Collector and Thomas to your Goodreads Shelf!
You can purchase them both on Amazon.
Follow the author on Twitter @JessFurtunato and Goodreads.
Check out her site at The Sin Collector.
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