Jackie Shemwell

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a native of Louisiana and my home state’s history and culture have had a profound influence on me. I studied English and French in college. I’m fluent in French and enjoy reading Francophone Cajun folktales. My career has always involved writing in one way or another. My background is in grant writing and then marketing and communications. The Devil in Canaan Parish is my first novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I got the idea for The Devil in Canaan Parish as an undergraduate student. We were reading the journals of the early English Puritans in New England. Most of it was pretty dry and a bit boring, but there was a passage in John Winthrop’s diary about the hanging of a young woman named Mary Martin. She was 22 and had been abandoned by her father. She went to work as a maid in a household, and the married man of the house raped her. She tried to hide the pregnancy, and ended up delivering the baby by herself in a back room. She then killed the baby and hid it in her chest. She was convicted of murder and hanged. I felt so disturbed by this little blip of a passage. I wanted to know more about Mary. What did she go through at the mercy of the men who controlled her life? I began to write Mary’s story, and over the course of many years, changed the names and the setting to a time and place with which I was more familiar. And so was born The Devil in Canaan Parish.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I spend a long time on the planning — outlines, character development and dialog. I sketch things out — I usually have a strong beginning and ending developed and then work to fill in the story line to get me from point A to point B. Once I’m ready, I start writing, continuously. It took years to prepare to write The Devil in Canaan Parish, but I wrote the whole novel start to finish in two months.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and To Kill a Mockingbird are my three favorite novels of all time. I love the traditional gothic and Southern gothic genres and especially how women like Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Mary Shelley, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, Flannery O’Conner and Anne Rice have dominated these genres. I love the strange tingle you get on the back of your neck, the suspense and the way the environment — the weather, the landscape, the architecture — both reflect and amplify the emotions of the characters involved.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m preparing to write my second novel, the follow up to The Devil in Canaan Parish. It’s not a sequel — in fact it’s set 20 years before my first novel, during the Great Depression. But like The Devil it will include a Cajun folktale, a mystery, some great suspense, a surprise ending and of course it will be set in South Louisiana.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As a self-published author, I am still figuring that out.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up. Become a student of the business. There’s so much information out there. Be careful of sites and services that offer to market and publish your book for a fee. Some are very helpful and some are more predatory.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

What are you reading now?
Huey Long’s biography by T. Harry Williams.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now I’m really focused on promoting my first book and writing the second one.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible, SAS Survival Guide, and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jackie Shemwell Website
Jackie Shemwell Amazon Profile

Jackie Shemwell’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account