Spotlight Sunday: Author E. A. Jackson Talks Her First Novel ‘Snake of the Nile’, The First Book of The Aegean Series

(Last Updated On: June 5, 2022)

I AM KP SMITH

Author E.A. Jackson, pen name of Ely Jackson, is a Greek-Australian actress best known for her work in The Grand Unified TheoryThe SwitchAlone on Christmas, and The Dragon Prince on Netflix. Jackson is also trained in mounted combat, archery, firearms, and swordplay, studied musical theatre in university, dance for eight years, and singing for five in addition to her work in film and television.

E.A. Jackson’s first book entitled Snake of the Nile was released on May 31, 2022. In this first book of the Aegean Series, many pieces are set in motion, deadly secrets are revealed, empires are shaken, and lustful, power-hungry men nurture the viper sleeping in Kleopatra’s heart, a secret known only to herself and Akela, with history-shaking consequences still to come.

Hi Ely! What is one thing that you think is important for people to know about you as an artist? 

Thank you so much for this interview. That my ambition does not match my stamina. My desire to create art is more than my mind, body and spirit can cope with most of the time. At the moment I’m weaving Stefànias, which are basically Greek versions of dreamcatchers, to get my stock levels up, while writing the second book and continuing to audition for film and TV. I also make themed cakes, cupcakes, and cookies that I decorate myself for events, I’m teaching voice-over at a local acting school. I have contract work in post-production sound for film and tv shooting here in Vancouver and have voice-over jobs that are currently recording. In addition, I am finishing a large set of custom paintings and am planning the beginnings of a spiritual retreat business that I hope to start. My point is that there is some deep well of creativity and expression that seems impossible to slow and it makes living life a little harder sometimes in the sense that I forget to buy groceries or that I need to pay the water bill but I function in a way that accepts the never-ending art I can’t control and I believe most people are this way to some degree. I hope that everyone who feels the pull toward a creative expression listens to their inspiration and lets it pour out of them. Life is hard enough to make it through, but a life without art is one where joy shrinks and one’s spirit is ignored. My life is chaotic but every piece of art I produce, whether it be painting, voice work, writing, or acting, I pour my whole spirit into and hope that it stirs deep feeling and purpose in the hearts of others.

How did you first become interested in writing? Did you journal as a kid? 

I’ve always loved stories. Being read them, telling them, sitting in a group to listen to them and seeing as the Greek Myths and Legends were my bedtime stories, I’d say they’ve been a huge part of my life since I could form thoughts. I grew up in a very isolated part of Australia and my parents worked in a vineyard in the middle of nowhere and I hardly saw them since they worked 7 days a week on the vines, so I had more time on my own with my imagination, and stories spurred the majority of my activities and thoughts. I’ve loved creative writing since primary school and used to enter all the creative writing competitions in high school. I did journal as a kid actually, my spelling is shockingly bad, but that’s what proof editors are for…

Ha! Absolutely!! Who are some of your favourite authors? Books? 

My attention span is pretty terrible and my daily life is quite busy so when I do get the chance to read, I’ll give any book a chance, but I know what style of writing captures my imagination and it’ll be clear in the first ten pages if I’m going to enjoy a book. Picky picky! So, my all-time favourites would be David Gemmell, in particular his TROY trilogy, and Stephanie Thornton, in particular, her novel Daughter of the Gods and for old times sake, I absolutely adored Shirley Barber’s books about fairies and unicorns. The illustrations are out of this world. 

Prior to your first novel have you written novellas? Short Stories? Tell us more about your journey as a writer. 

I’ve definitely written short stories here and there for competitions but this is my first actual novel. I got my degree in Scriptwriting for Film and Television in 2011 and shortly after I moved to Canada and began writing scripts, ghostwriting, and fixing up screenplays in the industry, so that’s primarily where my writing-centered creativity has been focused.  

What was the inspiration behind Snake of the Nile? What made you decide to write a series? 

Apparently, I can’t just start small with anything… But I also knew that this particular story I had inside me was too vast for just one book, that wouldn’t do the story or the characters justice. I love books that have long-awaited payoffs and I love how relationships between characters change over time. Enemies can become lovers and vice versa. So much can happen in a series so why not go all out.

Indeed, why not?! What do you want readers to know about Snake of the Nile and The Aegean Series?  What’s your pitch to potential readers on why they should read it? 

Oooo such a tough question as it’s such an expansive plot and cast of characters but I would probably start with a trigger/content warning first; it’s very violent and there are scenes that graphically depict sexual assault, animal, and child abuse, and torture. It’s not pretty but I do want the readers to know that these scenes are carefully crafted, planned out, and executed with integrity and are included for non-gratuitous purposes. I want readers to know that Snake of the Nile is just the warm up, it’s the world building book that sets up the premise, gets you used to my writing style, and carefully introduces the situations, the characters, and ongoing politics of the ancient time period it is set in, it is, by all means, a romance novel and I believe that the steamy scenes are to be worked up to, relationships are to be complicated and tested and grow at a natural rate. I want my novel to feel plausible so that when I drop the graphic intercourse on y’all, it gets the blood flowing. 

As for why they should read it – We’ve got wars going on, we’re still fighting tooth and nail for women’s rights in 2022, there are murders, rapes, atrocities, and obscenities happening in every corner of the world and we’re saturated in entertainment with superheroes and super powers. I wanted to take us back to the days long passed of our own actual ancestors, the people who walked the ancient world unable to comprehend the technology we have now and probably dreamed of a future where we weren’t killing each other and causing others pain. I wanted to take us back there and be true to the politics, foods, fashions, customs, languages, motivations and violent tendencies to show us where we originated from, how barbaric it was and how over hundreds and thousands of years, we’re still doing the same thing as our ancestors were. We haven’t grown. We haven’t changed and we haven’t learned. I hope readers read this and take a look at our own actions and tendencies and make those small changes that usher us toward a future where violence, greed, and lies don’t govern. 

You are also an actress, singer, and dancer. Please highlight your work in these areas.

I am indeed! I don’t sing professionally anymore, I get very nervous singing in public now but I still act and I still dance, I do a form of, I guess, belly dancing but it’s more tribally influenced by Grecian music of various tempos. I truly love it, dance is one of the few forms of exercise that I don’t see as torture and keeps me in shape for my film work. I’m also a voice-over artist, you might have heard me on Netflix’s The Dragon Prince and I’ve got an awesome kid’s show coming out soon called Monster Loving Maniacs and I can’t wait to see it all put together and on the screen!

Do you have plans to bring The Aegean Series to the screen? 

I do actually, I’d love to get it in front of some producers as I think it has the potential to give Game of Thrones a run for its money. I’ve purposefully written it to be easily adapted as an episodic, for the same reason I chose to write the story as a trilogy, I feel that these characters deserve their intricate and perilous journeys in a drawn out medium to allow viewers to fall in love with them and I feel that making it a singular film would end up with the story feeling rushed and ultimately that often makes cinema hot for a moment and quickly forgotten. I was going for quality as opposed to a quick adaptation to pump out for the box office. If there’s something we need in film and television right now, it’s a connection to ourselves and our roots, something profoundly human that holds a mirror up to us and says “look around, are you ok with how far we haven’t come?”  

Amen! If there is something that we haven’t asked that you would like us to feature please share it here.

I have three books planned for The Aegean Series but there is also a fourth book planned as sort of a spin-off you could say, about a certain Amazon character in The Aegean Series, who I felt warranted her own story that we don’t get to witness in the series. I’ve always wanted to play an Amazon, my family has always believed that the tribes of warrior women existed and were in fact wiped out by larger, male-led armies like Julius Caesar’s. To play a character that has been so much a part of my culture would be truly a dream. I’ve been weapons training for years now and learned to shoot an arrow at a target while on a moving horse, so getting to go through the physical training that one does when preparing for a role like that is a career dream of mine. 

Instagram: @elyshaj

Facebook: Ely Jackson

Author Website:    https://www.eajacksonauthor.com/

Thanks, E. A. Jackson!

I AM KP Smith

kenyan@weareentertainmentnews.com

Sharing is caring!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *