Story by Harry Benscher
Photo by Ryan Low
Jeremy Lachlan explains how his books reflect his life story and how government regimes forced him to change not only characters in his books but how the books are sold.
Such as how the villain in the first two books was based off the cancer which killed his father. He also expressed how by writing you can find small things about yourself that you would not have known before.
The Jane Doe series is a four-part book series which the final novel coming out in September. Jane Doe is a carer for her father, and then her father is pulled into the manor – a mysterious place in between world. She must go after her father before it is too late.
After that Jeremy spoke about how he had to change the name of the book from a male character to a female since the publisher said that if it was male, it was for younger kids. So, he had it changed so it was a female character, so that it was made for older years.
He then explained that there was a romantic same sex relationship in the story. This complicated the book release in Russia given the government’s anti-is anti-LGBTQ+ stance. That meant the characters were just friends in his book. Although he left a few subtle hints within the series regarding their relationship.
The other challenge he had was in Hungary, whose prime minister Vicktor Orban discriminates against LGBTQI+ peoples. Despite this, Lachlan said that the publishers were very brave and published it. The government made a rule that it cannot be sold less than 100 metres from a church or school, which made it very hard for them to sell a lot of copies in the country.
Jeremy, who won the 2019 ABIA Book of the Year for Older children for Jane Doe and the Cradle of all Worlds, also gave the students some key tips to help with their writing.
They included draw on your life to inspire your writing, make the main character relatable. And keep editing and checking your writing.