Jessica Warman writes because she doesn’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. She says there was a brief time of three or four days in college when she wondered if she should have a backup plan, but that didn’t last long.
“Since my dad is a psychologist, I knew that if I followed in his footsteps, I would be guaranteed a position in his practice after graduation,” Jessica told Cracking the Cover. “So I told my adviser I wanted to switch majors, and then I registered online for classes. I got a phone call shortly afterward. It was my adviser, and he was basically like, ‘You know you have to actually take psych classes in order to major in psych, right?’ I’d registered for all English courses. There was no way I could have been happy in another career.”
Jessica is the author of the successful young adult novels “Between,” “Breathless” and “Where The Truth Lies.” She says she writes for young people because she wouldn’t enjoy any other audience nearly as much. “I’m 31, and every so often I’ll consider the possibility of writing an adult novel,” she said. “Inevitably, those thoughts end with me wondering, ‘But … but what are adults like?’
“I’m married, I have kids, and all of my friends are navigating the adult world quite successfully. I go to dinner parties and balance my checkbook and take a fiber supplement, all that grown-up stuff. Yet I just don’t think my innermost thoughts – the ones that would make it onto the page – are well suited for adult novels.”
Teenagers experience life from a unique perspective, Jessica says. “I like to think that my books give them the opportunity to sort of try out some of the larger issues and emotions they’re starting to deal with, but with the safety net of a fictional setting. I think I’m good at creating that kind of experience for my readers, so that’s what I plan to continue doing!”
Jessica’s latest novel, “Beautiful Lies” is about identical twin sisters who are so connected they can feel each other’s pain. When one of the girls goes missing, her sister immediately knows something’s wrong, especially when she starts experiencing physical trauma, though no one has touched her. It’s up to the twin left behind to solve the mystery, but knowing who to trust is half the battle.
“Beautiful Lies” came from a number of places. Jessica has redheaded twin sisters-in-law that share a very close relationship. Her family also has a history of clairvoyance, with her great-grandmother working as a professional psychic during the great depression. “I’m very, very skeptical about things like that, but some of the stories I’ve heard about her are just incredible, and I used quite a few of them in the book,” Jessica said. “Beyond that, I love a good psychological thriller, and I wanted to write one!”
Society’s emphasis on individuality makes the idea of two genetically identical people fascinating, Jessica says. It forces questions of nature vs. nurture and it serves as proof that superficial appearances can be deceiving. “It’s foreign to most people – we can imagine what it might be like to have an identical twin, but we can’t know for sure. So naturally, there’s a lot of potential material right there!”
Jessica’s books have a weight to them. It’s not easy to achieve and it’s just as hard to explain how to accomplish it. Jessica says she just does the best she can and that it seems to be working out pretty well.
“I want my writing to have meaning beyond providing a few hours of distraction or entertainment, so I try to approach characters and situations in ways that will be thought-provoking to readers,” she explained. “There’s always an effort to do two things at once: define what makes a character or situation unique, while also making them relatable. It’s a balance. It’s always a challenge.”
As she continues to write, Jessica feels she continues to improve. A lot of that has come from being more critical of her work. “My goal is to keep raising the bar,” she said. “I want every book I write to be a challenge. With that in mind, I try to be very tough on myself, and I’d like to believe it’s paying off!”
If the successes of her books so far are any indication, it does indeed look like Jessica’s hard work is paying off. “I think I’m a good writer, but I can’t tell you how flattering it is when other people tell me they think so, too,” she said. “Writing feels like my purpose, and I sort of feel like the universe is confirming that sometimes.”
Read the complete transcript of Jessica’s interview with Cracking the Cover.
