Quintette asks writers five quick questions. This week’s interview is with:
Jane Elliot
1. What’s the name of your latest story – and how hard was it to pick a title?
Randy. Usually it takes me forever to come up with a title I like for a book, but this time I had the opposite experience — I had tons of titles I liked and debated for ages to pick the one that was the best fit.
2. If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest story?
Randy Harrison would be a great match for Randy (though I didn’t make the connection when building the character).
Garrison is much tougher, because he’s so far from the stereotype of a wild west denizen that it’s hard to find a good fit among the typical western actors (and saying something like “Stephen Fry, but without the humor or towering intellect” or like “Jane Eyre’s Edward Rochester, but without the money and the misanthropy” probably isn’t helpful.) After a lot of thought and careful consideration, I’m going to have to go with: Eeyore.
3. What five words best describe your story?
Gritty, hopeful, sad, trust-building, relationship-focused (I maybe have cheated a little bit there:)
4. Who is your favourite fictional couple?
This answer changes a lot as I grow in age and (hopefully) wisdom. At the moment I’d vote for Michael and Nikita, from Nikita, because their lives were hard and their relationship continually under immense stress, but they stayed true and toughed it out to the end. Plus, they actually liked each other, which seems to be considered optional in a lot of modern romances.
5. What song always makes you cry?
Jeff Buckley’s rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah
About Randy
Approaching middle age, Garrison Gaines has come to realize that all his humble hopes for the future have crumbled into dust. He’s traveling through the vast Unorganized Territories of the central United States when his path crosses that of Randy Everett, a young man who dreams of great adventures in exotic far-away locales – and, while no one knows the future, one thing is quite certain: neither man will walk away from the encounter unchanged.
About Jane
Jane Elliot has been writing novels, short stories, and screenplays for over twenty years. She believes that fiction can help promote understanding and acceptance of alternative and marginalized societal groups and most of her writing is focused on relationships, be they platonic or romantic, between individuals from all walks of life.
- Twitter: @IMJaneElliot
Buy Randy
Randy Manifold Press
Would you like to answer a Quintette interview? Email me at nmharrisheart@gmail.com!