Ask the Author: Dorothea Jensen
Answered Questions (5)
Dorothea Jensen
I'll have to admit that using nearly identical surnames names (Hargreaves in RIDDLE and Hargraves in BUSS) was due to my own absentmindedness. I had actually totally forgotten that I had already used Hargreaves in RIDDLE when I wrote BUSS. (My grandmother's maiden name was Hargraves, which had been changed from the original spelling Hargreaves when her father/grandfather came from England. There's a family tradition that the Gramma's grandfather was descended from James Hargreaves, who invented the Spinning Jenny at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. I can't find any proof of this, however.) Having admitted that using these similar names was not deliberate, I would like to say that now that I think about it, maybe Clara's family is descended from Geordie's family, and that perhaps someone decided to simplify the spelling in the intervening generations!
Dorothea Jensen
I have lots of information about life in 1820s America posted on various sites, such as my Pinterest and Blog pages and my YouTube channel. You can access these through links on my website at dorotheajensen.com. Thanks!
Dorothea Jensen
I deal with it by working on two very different writing projects simultaneously. Last year I wrote FRIZZY, THE S.A.D. ELF at the same time I worked on A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE. Honestly, I feel as if writing a rhyming fantasy story and writing historical fiction for young readers requires me to use very different parts of my brain! Therefore, if I got stuck on one project, I'd turn to the other. That always gets me "unstuck". In January, I plan to start writing another Santa's Izzy Elves story, BIZZY, THE KNOW-IT-ALL-ELF and also a new historical novel set in 17th century Massachusetts, called A SCALP ON THE MOON.
Dorothea Jensen
My most recent book, to be released on April 22, 2016, is A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE. I got the idea when I met an elderly woman who told me her great grandmother had been one of the little girls who greeted Lafayette in 1825 when he toured her town in Massachusetts. Lafayette had given this little girl a "buss" (a smacking kiss on the cheek). That little girl had kissed her granddaughter, who became the mother of my new friend, and who kissed her. I asked this lady to give me a buss, which she did. That meant I had been kissed by someone who had been kissed by someone who had been kissed by someone who had been kissed by Lafayette. After that, I wanted to learn more about Lafayette's "triumphal tour" of the U.S. in 1824-5. And the story grew out of that!
Dorothea Jensen
I just finished writing two new books, FRIZZY, THE S.A.D. ELF, and A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE. Now I am working on another historical novel for kids called A SCALP ON THE MOON and another Santa's Izzy Elf story called BIZZY, THE KNOW-IT-ALL ELF.
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