The Other Side of the Looking-Glass
By Dakota Jackson
Publishing Date: November 17, 2023
Trade Paperback Edition
ISBN: 979-8-9857483-8-3
Blurb:Naomi struggles to find her place in the world until Emmeline and Wren Blackwell come into her life. A new school, close friends for the first time in her life, a production of Alice in Wonderland, and a fresh start for her and her guardian Matt, Naomi is finally getting a taste of what it feels like to fit in.
That is until she is swept into a forbidden relationship with her best friend’s older brother that quickly spirals beyond her control. Trying to keep her head above water, Naomi juggles hardship after hardship as she fights to maintain her secret and her newfound sense of normalcy.
Will she break, or shatter the glass?
Author Interview
At what point did you decide to be an author and what was your path to publication?
It’s difficult to say if there was a day in which I ‘decided’ to be an author. It’s more like over time, I finally found ways to set aside all the reasons why not to be an author. I’ve been writing for my whole life, (my first attempt at a book was back in elementary school, and it was about gremlins or something like that), but I’ve always had a hard time believing in my own ability to make it. For a long time, I kept my writing quiet and to myself because I never thought I deserved to call myself an author. Over the years, with a lot of help from family, friends, and a number of teachers/professors, I realized that this wasn’t true. If you write, you’re a writer. It’s that simple. And because I love it so much, I threw myself into it full-force.
The path to publication was similar in terms of difficulties and struggles with self-worth. I had written a novel prior to my upcoming debut and queried it unsuccessfully about a dozen or more times. I was getting extremely disheartened by the impersonal responses and denials that I thought about giving up. Then I found Oprelle Publications, a small indie press, and submitted to them with an entirely different story (which also got denied a few times before). I didn’t have much hope but soon after, they became my publisher. The moral of the story: when it comes to querying and publication, never give up.
Describe your writing process. Do you outline, plot and plan, or is your writing more organic?
Yes… ?? Haha, I do a very strange mix of all of these things, to be honest.
I have a habit of creating extremely broad outlines. These outlines will consist mostly of in-depth character biographies and arcs, and then a general idea of the start and end of the story. From there, I will make a chapter-by-chapter outline that I only update as I’m already writing. There isn’t so much plotting and planning as there is bullet pointed lists and already-written pieces that need a home. So I’ll jot down a ton of information, write a chapter, jot down a bunch more information that the previous chapter inspired, then write the next chapter off of that, and so on. In most cases, though, I begin with the first and last lines of the story already written. (This is how I choose whether or not to buy & read books, so I’ve naturally started doing it with my own writing!)
What can you tell us about your upcoming debut novel, ‘The Other Side of the Looking-Glass’?
The Other Side of the Looking-Glass is what I’ve taken to calling a cautionary young adult fiction novel. It outlines the start, middle and end of a grooming relationship between an adult male and a teenage girl, all within the much broader lens of complex families and coming-of-age… My main character, 15-year-old Naomi, gets wrapped up in this toxic relationship with her best friend’s older brother Wren shortly after moving to town with her parental guardian, Matt—who just so happens to be her biological father’s ex-best friend. And with her biological father still being alive and in inconsistent contact with her, these dynamics are all over the place. So while this relationship with Wren is a result, in many ways, of her difficult home life and upbringing, it’s also the catalyst to unpacking those difficulties and forming stronger bonds and understandings with that family. Though there’s some extremely heavy content here, at its core, this novel is about family and growth more than anything else.
Why did you choose to write this book? Is there something you wish for readers to take away from it?
Absolutely. I wrote this book because I hope to be a part of the movement to take the media in a better direction. Historically, the book, television and film industries have allowed unhealthy and unacceptable relationships, like the one between Naomi’s and Wren, to be portrayed as ‘cute’ and/or ‘desirable.’ For young minds, these ideas can be detrimental. I want to be someone who fights back against that because this topic is so important and the safety of people is even more so.
Naomi’s personal story is one of a million out there. I am telling it in hopes that someone reads it and finds something valuable inside. I want readers to take strength and hope from the heavy realities depicted within it.
Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?
Yes, but with reservations. I personally find it extremely hard to write protagonists that aren’t similar to me in any way, shape or form. I find that even if I go in expecting to create my opposite, they’re influenced by me and my opinions/experiences/etc in some way. For Naomi, I did not write her or her story from a place of personal experience, but even so, she turned out to be someone I could see myself in nonetheless. I haven’t been in a grooming relationship like the one she goes through, but I have been a fifteen-year-old girl. I think that’s enough on its own to read the story and feel solidarity with Naomi and what she goes through and how she feels about it all. Beyond that, she has some emotional responses and thoughts that are very personal to me so of course I identify with her there, as well.
Lastly, what is your favorite line from the book?
This is such a tough question for me! I think I will settle on a line in the very last chapter of the book, because it best encapsulates the hopeful feeling I want readers to leave with:
“That was all anyone could ever really do, wasn’t it; just get better each day?”
About the Author
Dakota Jackson is an author and editor native to Connecticut. She writes fiction stories that strongly reflect the nonfiction reality — with many inspirations coming from her own experiences. Her mission is to shine light upon queer identities, giving the scary stuff in life a place to find hope. Dakota has an MFA in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Film Studies from the University of Connecticut.
