Interview with the Author - Wayne Josephson

Author Wayne Josephson (Photo: Victoria Feola)

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• Review: Emma and the Vampires
  

• About the Author - Wayne Josephson
  

Wayne Josephson is the latest author to provide reader with an Austenesque mashup.  Emma and the Vampires (releasing August 1st, 2010) is a the tale of Emma, the herione of Highbury, and her attempts at matchmaking all the eligible bachelors of the land with her alive and vibrant friends.  Is it her fault they're all undead?

Wayne was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new book and this unique genre.

According to the information on your website bio, this sort of classic book editing isn't new to you, is it?  Do you see yourself doing more of this?

Josephson:  Yes—I’d like to expand on the kind of fiction I’m writing now. I have always enjoyed the classics, but sometimes found them difficult to read. I still have nightmares from high school when I was assigned Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter. I hit upon the idea of gently editing the classics to make them more accessible and less frustrating for modern readers, updating arcane language while still retaining the author’s original voice. Out of this, Readable Classics was born—they are literature study guides for students and reader-friendly versions for adults. So far, I have published Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, and The Scarlet Letter.  The next four Readable Classics to be published are The Odyssey, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, and The Red Badge of Courage.

In fact, when writing Emma and the Vampires, I first rewrote Emma to make it more readable for young adults. Afterwards, I added vampires as icing on the cake. My hope is that this book will introduce teenage girls to Jane Austen and help them begin a lifelong love of the classics.

Read my review of Emma and the Vampires.

Were you a fan of Austen before you decided to do a mashup of her novel Emma?

Josephson:  Yes, I was. I have been a fan of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma for years—both because they are delightful to read, but also because they are important. One of the reasons great literature becomes great is that it makes a statement about the society and the culture of the period. Jane Austen wrote brilliant, entertaining novels, but through them she also boldly protested the sad fate of women in Regency England. Unable to inherit property, a young lady had to marry a wealthy man or she would become destitute. Jane Austen was very courageous to challenge the rules of the day, and I admire her for that.

Why did you choose Emma of all of Austen's novels?

Josephson:  I chose Emma because she presented the perfect character who might be clueless if she were surrounded by vampires—since this is England, everyone is pale anyway. She goes about her merry way, trying to make matches with the young ladies and gentlemen of Highbury, and occasionally fighting off vampire attacks, not realizing that she is surrounded by them. Of course, the vampires in her world are all gentlemen, so why should she suspect anything?

You make some fairly witty additions to the book, did you find it difficult to do?

Josephson:  Not really. The story of Emma offers so many comic possibilities that my vampire additions seemed to grow intrinsically out of the story. For example, Mr. Knightley observes that, when he gazes upon Emma’s beauty, 'I cannot breathe and my heart cannot beat.' This is mainly because vampires do not breathe or have heartbeats.  And when Mr. Elton, the vampire vicar, touches Emma’s hand during communion in church, he sends a bolt of electricity through her body (a characteristic of vampires) which Emma mistakes for the hand of God.  

Your vampires are a little more modern than Count Dracula, are they not?

Josephson:  Yes, they are more like Twilight vampires. In fact, my teenage daughter gave me the inspiration to  modernize my vampires along those lines. For example, Emma’s vampires can read minds--'Mr. Knightly seems to know my thoughts before I have spoken them.' They dislike the sunlight, so the clouds and drizzle of England are perfect for them. Mr. Weston is a vegan, and only drinks the blood of small animals, so the forests are a perfect place to hunt raccoons. And the most modern improvement of all is that the gentlemen vampires of Highbury strictly observe society’s code of conduct--they would never dream of feasting on a young lady unless they had been properly introduced.

Do you think you'll be tinkering with any other Austen novels in the future? What are you working on right now?

Josephson:  As a matter of fact, I have just completed my next novel. I felt that mashing classics with monsters may have run its course, so I came up with a completely new type of mashup—a classic with a classic. The result is Pride, Prejudice and Moby Dick. Just imagine the outrageous sitiuations when the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys are rescued from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean by the Pequod, when a gale sinks their pleasure ship. Mr. Darcy demands that Captain Ahab return them to England at once, but no! They first have to capture Moby Dick. Mr. Darcy’s pride is humbled by rowing the oar in a harpoon boat, sharing a hammock with the cannibal savage Queequeg, and other misadventures that will keep readers howling. Hopefully, PPMD will be out next summer.