A Wrinkle in Time meets Flatland in this thrilling journey that challenges the meaning of family, loyalty, and our universe at large.
We chat with author Dianne K. Salerni about her latest book release Jadie in Five Dimensions, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Dianne! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a retired elementary school teacher from Pennsylvania. Jadie in Five Dimensions is my seventh book for kids and teens. I write mostly speculative fiction: fantasy, science fiction, supernatural, sometimes in a historical setting. You can find me spending a lot of time at my local rescue shelter, walking dogs and serving the needs and whims of feline overlords and whatever assorted critters we have in residence (rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, hamsters, ferrets, and occasionally potbelly pigs).
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember. I still have the first book I authored, The Dragon and the Girl, which consists of four pencil-drawn illustrations and no words. My father wrote the title on the cover for me. I was four years old.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
I’m sure they weren’t the first, but the first books I can remember reading were Nancy Drew mysteries. Two books that made a huge impact on me as a young writer were Shirley Jackson’s I Have Always Lived in the Castle and Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree – both books with unreliable narrators. I hadn’t known that narrators were allowed to deceive readers! And the book I can’t stop thinking about? Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
Your latest novel Jadie in Five Dimensions is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Geometry, monsters, kidnappers, physics, & spies!
What can readers expect?
My book envisions our three-dimensional universe existing inside a larger four-dimensional one like Russian nesting dolls. 4-space is populated by beings who can see inside our space and manipulate events. These beings, who call themselves Seers, use human agents, like my main protagonist Jadie Martin, to nudge events in the direction they want, claiming to act in the best interests of humankind. Jadie, for instance, was an abandoned baby rescued by the Seers and placed in a loving adoptive family. But then Jadie learns that the Seers lied about her origin story, and she begins to wonder what their true intentions are, especially when a second group of 4-space beings, calling themselves Resisters, turn up with a completely different agenda. Who’s lying? Who can she trust? And what can a three-dimensional human girl possibly do to thwart all-powerful enemies from a higher dimension?
Where did the inspiration for Jadie in Five Dimensions come from?
First, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott and its sequel Sphereland by Dionys Burger, excerpts of which I read when I was in middle school. Both books recount the adventures of a Square, a resident in the two-dimensional Flatland, who is visited by a Sphere, a being of three-dimensions. The Sphere is, in turn, visited by an Oversphere, a being of four-dimensions.
Many years later, as an adult and a novice teacher, I discovered The Boy Who Reversed Himself by YA horror and SF writer, William Sleator. Sleator introduced me to ana and kata, terms coined by mathematicians to describe the additional directions available in four spatial dimensions. That is, 4-space beings can move forward, backward, right, left, up, and down (just as we can), but also ana and kata, directions imperceivable to humans.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
As I approached the climax of the first draft of this story, I realized I had written myself into a corner. My human protagonists had figured out what was going on, why the Seers and Resisters were manipulating events in the human world, but they were powerless to do anything about it. I had made their adversaries too strong. Not only could 4-space beings see and move in directions imperceivable to humans, they were huge enough to squish troublesome humans like bugs. My heroes were helpless against them in both 3-space and 4-space.
How did I overcome this issue? Martinis in the hot tub under a starry sky. I described my problem to my husband, who said, “Why don’t you [brilliant suggestion that catapulted my story in an entirely new direction]?” You’d be surprised how many plot problems I’ve solved this way.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I always have fun writing characters with a questionable moral compass. In this case, it’s Ty Rivers, Jadie’s nextdoor nemesis and one of the antagonists in the novel. Like Jadie, Ty serves as an agent for the Seers, but he’s been secretly exploring ways to use the fourth dimension to get inside locked places – like banks and jewelry stores. What I love about Ty is that he’s not sure what he’ll do with the fortune he wants to amass, but his fantasies involve secret lairs on private islands and dangling his emotionally abusive father over a shark tank.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best advice I’ve ever received is that it’s okay for your first draft to be a complete mess. Author Shannon Hale sums it up best: “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoving sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
The worst writing advice comes from anyone who tells you there is only one way to write: You must outline. You should never outline. You need character sheets on every character before you start. You should never edit while you draft.
Everyone’s style is different, and every book is different. Out of my seven published works, three were outlined completely, and four were pantsered – written by the seat of my pants. However you get it done is the right way.
What’s next for you?
My next book, The Carrefour Curse, will be published by Holiday House in 2023 and is my homage to the supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows, which I imprinted on when I was four years old (and which probably contributed to my preference for all things supernatural and gothic).
Twelve-year-old Garnet Carrefour and her mother, Emerald, are summoned against their will to Crossroad House, their family’s ancestral home, to witness a transition of power. Once a whimsical place where Emerald and her cousins employed magic to entertain their friends, Crossroad House is now a crumbling ruin. The dying family patriarch fights to retain his life by stealing it from others. Every accident that isn’t an accident, every unexpected illness, and every unexplained disappearance grants him a little more time.
While the wary family takes magical precautions and squabbles over who will inherit the old man’s power when (if) he dies, Garnet encounters a suspicious visitor in the family cemetery, ghosts in the attic, doors that lead to other times—and a curse that has decimated three generations of her family and now threatens Garnet’s existence.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Two recent books that I could not put down and didn’t want to end are Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. They are as different as can be, one an adult science fiction (heavy on the science) and the other a YA fantasy built on fairy tales and East Asian folklore. What they have in common is splendid world-building and an engaging, relatable protagonist.
Thank you for this opportunity to chat with The Nerd Daily and your fans!
You can find Dianne on Facebook and Twitter, along with at her website.
