Carolyn Hennesy - Pandora Gets Jealous In conversation with Pen & Ink

“There was a time, during the golden age of men and gods, when mankind became forgetful, almost to the point of its own destruction.” Thus begins Pandora Get Jealous, by Carolyn Hennesy, her first tween novel of a seven book series, published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books. After Pandora Atheneus Andromaeche Helena, Pandy to her friends, accidentally unleashes seven big Evils upon the Earth: Jealousy, Vanity, Laziness, Lust, Rage, Greed and the biggest Evil of all...wait for the book! Pandy is tasked by Zeus to recapture the Evils or face Zeus’ wrath. With her best friends Iole and Alcie, Pandy voyages through the world of 49 BC where Olympic Gods, monsters and mortals co-exist.

“Pandy and her best friends are characters readers can relate to,” Carolyn says. “Iole is the brainy, frail one. Alcie is beautiful and outspoken. Pandy is the center, the heroine, who knows what to do...except when she doesn’t. Pandy accepts responsibility for her actions. Because of that, Pandy gets to build her character, have wild, death defying adventures and save the world.” Carolyn includes universal tween themes of parental difficulties, school bullies, awkward crushes and the drudge of homework.

“I was the least productive of the group,” Carolyn speaks of her participation in a writing group which is where Pandy was born. A visiting author heard Carolyn read her short story concerning a teen-aged Pandora and encouraged her to expound on it. “He pointed out A, B and C happens. Uber-broad strokes.” Just the beginning, middle and end. The author encouraged Carolyn to write “1000 words a day for six weeks.” The result was the first draft of Pandora Gets Jealous.

The road to publication was “a fluke. Really six-degrees of separation. A phone call was made to an important agent” which then led to the Nancy Gallt Literary Agency who “absolutely loved the book. I was told this was chick lit, real ‘girl power’ reading. This agent shopped the book for six months and then Bloomsbury bought it. Then the battle started with the editors, because I was so new to the world of writing that I made a classic rookie mistake of wanting to hang on to every word as if it was a gem. Got over that real quick and realized that my editor was actually crafting my work into a better book.” Carolyn’s original three book deal with Bloomsbury Children’s Books expanded when Bloomsbury bought the last four books of the series.

Carolyn, Hannah and Amanda love Pandy!

“Bloomsbury worked in concert with my publicist” to arrange book tours and appearances to fit in with her schedule. “I did an East Coast tour. I’d like to do a West Coast tour. I visit schools in my own backyard of Burbank.” During school visits, “The girls listen in rapt attention. The boys... I tell them I’m an actress and say that I was in Terminator 3. Then they’re alert.

“Who’re you in it?” they ask.

“I was the first person killed.”

That gets the boys.

“Whoa! Did you meet Arnold Schwarzenegger?”

“Yes.”

“They’re hooked. It gives me street cred.”

Carolyn embraces her flourishing social media presence. She plays mob attorney, Diane Miller, on General Hospital and appears as Barb on ABC’s Cougar Town. Carolyn maintains two websites and keeps in touch with her loyal fans via Twitter. She appears on many YouTube TV clips and interviews.

Carolyn was not a soap opera star at the time Bloomsbury bought her books. “The quality of the book, the manuscript stood alone. Only later…” when her career took off, did the popularity of Pandora rise. “Soap opera fans. They’re smart, together, savvy, opinionated, loyal, and the majority are women. The fans support Pandora as they support their favorite soap because they love a good story, good twist and turns and action”

Carolyn on Trapeze

Carolyn is a writer on a flying trapeze. Literally. “Writing a book, a short story, you name it...it’s very much like flying on a trapeze. There are so many steps to writing just as there are to performing a single beautiful trick. But even though you have to plot out the story...think about your moves in the air...and you have to jump off the board...in essence put your pen to paper, after all of that you simply have to trust that your moves and your words are good and the editor is going to catch you and straighten you out. You have to get out of your head and do the trick as a whole, not just a series of steps. And that’s how I’ve learned to look at each novel I start. Get off the board and get back onto the board. It’s all one motion. You have to think of the entire book, the entire trick as a whole.”

Weng Chen (Jade) illustrated the Pandora book covers. “I love the cover design. It’s Christmas candy.” When Carolyn first saw the cover of Pandora Gets Jealous, “I wept with joy at the cover. My girl realized. I went to my knees. These words sprung from my own head like Athena from Zeus. I saw them manifest. They will leave a mark. I created something tangible. It was humbling.” 

Carolyn Hennesy will be appearing at the Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, April 6-10, 2011. "I'll be speaking on a panel with other soap opera actors turned authors!"

L. Fernandez would like to thank Carolyn for granting this interview. For further information on Ms. Hennesy, visit her website carolynhennesy.ning.com and to keep up on the adventures of Pandora Atheneus Andromaeche Helena visit pandyinc.com.

Photos provided by Carolyn Hennesy.