Jennifer
Jennifer Macaire is an American living in Paris. She likes to read, eat chocolate, and plays a mean game of golf. She grew up in upstate New York, Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.
How I found out about Jennifer's books
I first came across Jennifer’s books when she brought The Road to Alexander on tour with Rachel’s Random Resources. She’d already finished the series when she first started bringing it on tour, so I was lucky I didn’t have any delays in reading them!
Why you should read Jennifer's books
If you enjoy time travel and historical romances. I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with Jennifer’s writings!
It’s such an amazing mix of the two that you end up captivated from start to finish.
What Jennifer writes about
Jennifer has created her own universe set in the *future* where people are sent back in time. All her novels (so far) are based in this universe and focus on the trips back in time.
Depending on the novel, you could end up anywhere from pre-historic times to France during the Crusades.
My top picks
Top pick
It has to be the whole Time for Alexander series. I’ve always been a fan of Alexander the Great and I love the idea of knowing more about his everyday life and his personality.
So Jennifer writing about it was so cool!
Of course it can’t be 100% factually accurate. But one can wish can’t they?
Second pick
Since I went with a series first I’m going to go with A Remedy in Time now. It goes back to pre-historic times and it felt like it explored the idea of someone who’s not socially adept (aka. me) learning to become socially adept and finding her place in the world. Which personally, I loved!
My chat with Jennifer
1. What first drew you to writing novels?
I’ve literally been writing since I was five years old. My mom has a copy of my first book – an animal A-B-C, that mysteriously starts off with the letter ‘B’, B is for Bear – they slepe all winter becaus thayr pads are thin.
As you can see, I needed to hone my craft before sending anything to a publisher.
I loved English literature in school, but I never thought of becoming a “writer”. I was supposed to go to college and become a veterinarian, but I took a year off and ended up in Europe, and then I met my husband.
I think my father was disappointed that I didn’t come back to live with him and go to university – he’d enrolled me and picked out all my courses, but – you know – love.
So I stayed in Europe, got married, and started travelling with my husband, a polo pro. We travelled a lot, and I started writing articles for magazines about our travels, then I published a few short stories, and things just went on from there.
4. How do you decide what stays in your books when editing?
I’m lucky to have great editors who tell me “Jennifer, you don’t need five pages of how to make toothpaste in ancient times.” Otherwise, I think my books would be a hundred pages longer, lol.
2. What is your aim with your writing?
In the beginning, my aim was to earn some pocket money for myself, because since we travelled so much it was impossible for me to get a job.
But truth be told, I just love to tell stories and writing is something I love to do. Most of the time, I feel there are not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do (or finish everything before the deadline arrives!).
3. What drew you to writing about science fiction?
Science fiction – how cool is that?
And history interested me as well – so I combined the two in time travel novels; a dash of science fiction, some history, and intrepid time travellers sent on various missions to the past.
I wrote my first time travel book (The Road to Alexander) in 2001. At the time, it was called Time for Alexander, and it was published in Australia. The story started off in Tempus U, Institute of Time Travel.
I kept the Institute as a starting point for other books, starting with A Crown in Time.
5. What is your greatest writing achievement?
I love my Alexander series, but (ask any author) my books are like my children, and it’s hard to choose a favourite.
