My Writing Life

Photo by Lyn Sims

 

Jennifer Lee Carrell is the internationally bestselling author of two Shakespeare thrillers, Interred With Their Bones and Haunt Me Still, as well as a work of history, The Speckled Monster. Born in Washington, DC, she grew up in Tucson, Arizona. After earning degrees in literature from Stanford, Oxford and Harvard Universities, she taught literature and writing at Harvard. Later, she became the classical music, opera, and dance critic for the Arizona Daily Star. She’s also written a number of pieces for the Smithsonian Magazine, as well as a few screenplays. She lives in Tucson with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. She is currently at work on a historical novel about the painter Jan Van Eyck.

 

 

 

Extended Bio

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I penned my first story about talking animals at the age of seven. At the time, my fallback career choices were ballerina and astronaut. Later, I thought I’d become a Shakespeare professor. Through some strange twists and turns, I circled back to writing.

Here are the details:

 

Education

I earned a Ph.D. in English from Harvard, along with undergraduate degrees from Oxford and Stanford. In addition to Shakespeare, I studied the Arthurian legend, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Norse sagas; my father jokes that I have five degrees in fairy tales. Before I began to write books full time, I taught literature and writing at Harvard.

 

Journalism

I began my writing career by free-lancing for the Smithsonian Magazine: a shift that led me to rappel off a six-story tower in an improvised harness, track mountain lions through the wilds of southeastern Arizona, sit beneath a sapling of Newton’s apple tree, hoping some fruit would fall (it didn’t), and pose on the set of a David Hockney documentary, bundled into a Renaissance gown originally made for Star Trek, while sporting a turban made of men’s red velvet breeches wrapped around my head. Later, I was the classical music, opera and dance critic for the Arizona Daily Star.

 

Books

The Newton article morphed into a possible book on alchemy, which morphed into my first actual book, on smallpox: The Speckled Monster. As a career trajectory, that doesn’t make much sense, but it was a lot of fun. I then turned to thrillers about Shakespeare. Just as Interred With Their Bones was released and I was diving into Haunt Me Still, writing about dark magic and murder, I added “Mom” to my list of titles and responsibilities. Currently, I’m writing a historical novel about the artist Jan Van Eyck.

I live in Tucson, Arizona, with my husband, daughter, and two dogs. My favorite word is ‘serendipity.’

Awards and Recognition

The Speckled Monster was chosen by Barnes & Noble as a Discover Great New Writers book.

Nominated for the International Thriller Writers Best First Novel, Interred With Their Bones has been translated into more than 25 languages. In London, it reached #6 on the Sunday Times’ bestseller list, and in Poland, it reached #1.

Haunt Me Still was an Indie Notable book.

Three awards for distinction in undergraduate teaching at Harvard.

Ongoing Adventures

What I Like to Read

I like big stories about people who turn out to be exceptional when tested by the extraordinary. It’s why I love epics and adore Shakespeare. I have little patience with small, gray stories about people with small, gray souls. Give me tales with sweep and grandeur.

 

All Time Favorites:

Lord of the Rings; Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller; Lonesome Dove; Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series; The Shadow of the Wind; Possession; Laxdaela saga; Beowulf; Le Morte D’Arthur; Middlemarch; anything by Isak Dinesen, Jane Austen, Jorge Luis Borges or Ursula Le Guin; Great Expectations; To Kill a Mockingbird; and — of course — all of Shakespeare (okay, maybe not Timon of Athens or Lear)

 

Historical Fiction

Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond chronicles; Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series; A.S. Byatt’s historical novels; anything by Lisa See, Sarah Dunant, and Geraldine Brooks

 

Big Worlds

Besides the books already listed above: S. A. Chakraborty’s City of Brass universe

 

History & Non-Fiction

Erik Larson; Simon Winchester; Yuval Noah Harari; Sy Montgomery (especially The Good Good Pig and The Soul of an Octopus); Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk; Isabel Wilkerson, Caste; Natalie Angier, Woman; Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel; John Keegan, The Face of Battle

 

Thrillers & Mysteries

Phil Rickman and Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Jacqueline Winspear and Diana Gabaldon are fabulous historical mystery writers. There’s always Agatha Christie, but my favorite classic detective fiction writer is Dorothy Sayers; I still have a crush on Lord Peter. Mysteries that are usually classed as “Literature”: Bleak House, The Moonstone, Hamlet

 

Childhood Favorites

The Oz series; the Narnia series; Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising set; A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels; A Wizard of Earthsea and The Borrowers, ditto; Gone Away Lake; My Side of the Mountain; From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; Harriet the Spy; the Secret Garden; Half Magic and its sequels; anything by E. Nesbit or Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Advice to Writers

I’m often asked for advice on how to become a writer. My answer is…