Hey there, readers! Boy, do I have a treat for you! I was lucky enough to be given the chance to interview the authors of My Lady Jane, the inspiration for the new hit show on Amazon Prime! I loved that book so much and I’m so excited for My Salty Mary, the latest installment in the series. Get a peek into the mindset of the Lady Janies, authors Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows & Brodi Ashton.

Happy reading!

Cyn’s Workshop: How did you three meet?

The Lady Janies: We met when our publisher sent us on a book tour together in 2012. We spent about a week traveling through Texas together, and by the end of that week, we were fast friends.

CW: What brought you three together to start the Janies series?

The Lady Janies: Cynthia had just finished writing a sad book and wanted to write a happy, funny book to cheer herself up. She’d had the idea of making a comedic, fantastical version of the story of Lady Jane Grey kicking around in her head for years, but she wasn’t very confident in her ability to write comedy, so she asked Brodi to join her, since Brodi is such a great comedic writer, and then she asked Jodi to join them, since Jodi is a master of all things fantasy. But really it was just an excuse for us to hang out together more as friends.

CW: Can you briefly describe what the writing process is like for this collaboration?

The Lady Janies: We normally produce the rough draft over the course of two writing retreats, rotating to be near where one of us lives since we all live in different parts of the country. We do a lot of preliminary work in researching and outlining the story we want to tell before we get there, deciding on what characters we’re going to feature and which of us will write which character. (In our books, there are always three POV characters.)

When we’re at the retreat, we sit around a dining room table, and each writes a chapter every day for our character. (For example, Cynthia wrote Chapter One of My Plain Jane as Charlotte Bronte, Brodi wrote Chapter Two as Jane Eyre, and Jodi wrote Chapter Three as Alexander Blackwood.) After dinner, we sit down together and read our chapter out loud, laugh a lot, make suggestions and tweaks, and talk about how we see the next day’s chapters. By the end of a week, we have more than half of the book done!

CW: My Lady Jane has just been adapted. How much, if any, input did you have in the project? Also, how excited are you? (The previews look amazing)

The Lady Janies: We didn’t have any real input on the making of the show, but the showrunner, Gemma Burgess, kept us in the loop about what was happening with the show all along. To say that we are wildly excited is an understatement. The show is just SO GOOD. We all love it so much, and we’re waiting with bated breath to see if Amazon Prime will give the go-ahead for Season 2.

CW: 5. My Salty Mary is coming out soon, but Mary Read was not the original subject. Why the change in subject?

The Lady Janies: Actually, in our original sales pitch to the publisher, our third Mary book was going to be about Marie Curie. Our second Mary book, what ended up being My Imaginary Mary, was going to be about Typhoid Mary. We did research and began plotting the Typhoid Mary book, and we were excited to write it, but then the pandemic hit, and it suddenly felt like poor form to be writing a story in which the main character is actively ignoring medical advice from doctors and avoiding taking precautions to keep herself from infecting others, which in real life led to the deaths of several people…

CW: Would you ever go back and revisit My Typhoid Mary?

The Lady Janies: No. See the reasons above. But we all really sympathized with Mary
Mallon and believe that she has been much maligned by history, especially since
they didn’t know about asymptomatic infections at that point!

CW: Are there any other women in history you would like to explore?

The Lady Janies: We’ve thought about so many over the years! We’ve flirted with the idea of Joan of Arc, Marie Curie (as we mentioned before), Mary Mozart (Mozart’s older sister), Mary Anning (the amazing woman who discovered fossils on the cliffs of England), and lesser-known characters from the Salem witch trials and the Revolutionary War. We’re always on the lookout for a girl who was screwed over by the patriarchy so that we could offer a happy ending.

CW: If you were to pick a favorite moment in the series, what would it be?

The Lady Janies: Oh, gosh. Over six novels, there are soooooo many. We love the moment that Jane discovered her E∂ian self in My Lady Jane. We adore Helen’s hilarious commentary on Mr. Rochester in My Plain Jane. There’s a scene that takes place in a carriage trying to defuse a bomb in My Calamity Jane that still makes us giggle to think about. We are totally wrapped up in the intense friends-to-lovers romance between Mary and Francis in My Contrary Mary. We’re all completely sweet on Pan, the robot that Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace accidentally bring to life in My Imaginary Mary. And most recently, we’re totally into the Pirate King competition in My Salty Mary, where we get to meet Captain Crunch and Captain Hook, and Captain Morgan all within the span of a few pages.

CW: What was it like working on My Salty Mary after the pandemic?

The Lady Janies: It sucked. We had to work remotely for this book instead of meeting in person, which is not ideal for us. We powered through, and we’re so proud of Salty Mary, but it was way tougher than normal.

CW: Describe My Salty Mary in five words.

The Lady Janies: Salty salty salty salty salty.

Kidding. Only one salty. For the other four words, we’d pick: romantic, swashbuckling, adventurous, and fantastical.

CW: What current projects are you all working on now?

The Lady Janies: We are all working on solo books, which none of us can talk about much yet, unfortunately. Jodi’s is a middle grade, Cynthia’s is a contemporary YA, and Brodi’s is also a historical middle grade. Based off of Little Women.

CW: And I just wanted to thank you for doing this. I absolutely love the series (I own every book including the Litjoy version of My Imaginary Mary). Your collaboration has been so lovely and entertaining and I can’t wait to dive into My Salty Mary.

The Lady Janies: Thank YOU, especially for the book love! We can’t wait for you to read it!

Pre-order My Salty Mary today. Just click the link below 👇