1.- Could you introduce yourself to Jamreads’ readers?
I’m Ruth Frances Long, a writer and librarian in a specialist library. I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I also write as Jessica Thorne. I love all things SFF and Romance, history, archaeology, folklore and art/craft and especially all things books - from reading, collecting, book binding, libraries and the history of western printing

2.- What impulsed you to start writing?
I have told stories for as long as I can remember and I always loved to write. I’m not even sure what the original inspiration was, just a need to share stories. Perhaps it's part of my love of folklore and storytelling, an huge part of my Irish upbringing. 

3.- How was the process to get your first books published?
My first books were published by a digital first publisher in the US which is no longer in operation. I submitted in the traditional way - sending three chapters and a synopsis. Later, I was lucky enough to find an agent. I have published with all kinds of publishers, and I’ve self-published some books as well. Every time it’s a bit different, but it's always both terrifying and exciting. 

4.- Under the pen name Jessica Thorne, you started writing fantasy romance. How was the decision to adopt this pen name?
I always wrote some form of fantasy romance, but with the Jessica Thorne books my publisher asked if I would be willing to have a pen name to differentiate them from my previous book, which had been more YA for a time. Pen names are really useful if you change the genre or target market for your books as it helps readers get an idea of what to expect. It has never been a secret that I write under both names and I hope readers are happy to follow from one to the other and back.

5.- Do you find any kind of complication when dabbling between genres in your writing?
Not really. I always focus on the characters and the story in my writing, rather than what the genre might be. That said, I always include an element of fantasy and an element of romance in each one. They’re just the things I love when I read a book. I love exploring new elements and themes but my favorites are always in there as well.

6.- Talking about your most recent novel, The Book of Gold, how was the original idea that inspired this one?
The Book of Gold was inspired by a rare book which we hold in the library in which I work. It is the Biblia Regia or Antwerp Polyglot Bible, printed by Christophe Plantin in the late 1500s. It’s a remarkable work with an even more remarkable story. My main problem was that while I wanted to write that story, I am not a historian and I really feared making a mess of it. I have also always had a love of heist stories and it was only when I brought those two elements together that everything seemed to click into place very quickly indeed. The characters leapt to life on the page for me.

7.- Could you tell us a bit about the process of pitching this novel to publishers?
We took our time preparing this one for submission. As it was personally an extremely important book to me, I wanted to get everything right. A number of writing friends read and critiqued it for me and helped me polish it up. I wrote a description of all the characters, a very detailed synopsis as well as a brief one for the pitch, and carefully decided what angle that pitch would take, to maximize the impact. I also wrote a letter about the inspiration behind the story, with details about the Biblia Regia and other stories from that period of printing. We put the whole package together and then my agent submitted it. It was nerve racking, while I had been published many times before, this really was the book of my heart. Thankfully, it found the perfect home with Hodderscape.

8.- Which challenges would you say that appeared to keep this story manageable, as it features a heist at its core?
A heist always takes a bit of planning, in fiction as well as in real life. However, in fiction, inevitably, the heist always goes wrong at some point. So I took that as my jumping off point and first of all wrote what happened, before going back and writing what was originally meant to have happened. My editor and I worked on the series of heists throughout the book, making each one unique but also tying them together. The main thing was to keep the plot humming along at a brisk pace to keep the reader intrigued and entertained. 

9.- What can we expect from Ruth Frances Long / Jessica Thorne in the future?
I am currently editing the sequel to The Book of Gold and that’s taking up a lot of my time at the moment. We’re planning three books in the Feral Gods series so once I’ve finished book 2 I’ll have to start making plans for book 3. With Jessica Thorne, my trilogy The Lost Queen (A Touch of Shadows, A Kiss of Flame and A Crown of Darkness) has now been fully released from Second Sky and are all available. They’ll be getting a paperback run in the US next year as well. I have a few ideas ticking over for the next Jessica Thorne stories, but obviously I’m focused on The Book of Gold right now, as it’s coming out on the 28th November. 

You can already order The Book of Gold using this link.