Author Confessions: Natalie Jenner

On her new historical novel, the five books she never published, and the danger of over querying agents.

Natalie Jenner and I became fast friends after her novel The Jane Austen Society released in May 2020. Both of us were wide-eyed debuts coming out with books during the pandemic, scrambling to find a balance in promoting our books on social media during a time when no one felt like promoting anything at all. Over the years, Jenner has kindly read early versions of my manuscripts, and I’ve done the same for her, which has been an honor. When I read her latest Every Time We Say Goodbye, it became clear to me why Jenner is such a great storyteller.

You just love her characters so darn much.

Case in point: Vivien Lowry. We first meet Vivien, an aspiring writer who works alongside a colorful cast at Bloomsbury Books in London, during Jenner’s second novel, Bloomsbury Girls. Vivien makes another appearance in Jenner’s latest Every Time We Say Goodbye, a historical drama set in Rome. This time, Vivien travels to Italy to work in the film industry, and we find ourselves on movie sets with sparkly midcentury stars. There’s budding romance and new friendships, intrigue and historical mystery, and lots of glamour to keep the pages turning.

Welcome, Natalie Jenner! Let’s hear about your process writing this book!

I love that we stay with Vivien Lowry in this novel. She's really kept her grips on you. What is it about Vivien that keeps you writing her story?
Vivien, the secretly aspiring, hugely talented, and very angry “shopgirl” from Bloomsbury Girls, was a favorite character of whom many of my readers asked for more, so that was definitely a factor in writing about her again!

I was also yearning to write about Italy, my favorite country, at a time (spring 2021) when international travel was still difficult. Ironically, Viv’s unexplored back story happened to include a soldier fiancé who went missing in action in North Africa in 1942, and in thinking about how to write about Viv again, I discovered that many of the Allied soldiers captured in Libya and elsewhere had been shipped to POW camps in Italy. So, it felt serendipitous that Vivien’s story could continue, and be emotionally excavated, with Italy as the background.

Finally, as a character, Vivien says and does all the things I wish I could—which of course makes her the most fun type of character to write!

We see Italy and the movie industry through Vivien's eyes, and it made me think about your connection to Italy. Tell us about the first time you went to Italy and why it made an impression on you all these years later. 
I was in love with the man who would become my husband, and we vacationed in Italy near the beginning of our relationship. I remember feeling as happy there as I had ever been (although having prosecco at lunch may have contributed to that!). But my love for Italy, and Rome in particular, actually started years before, in adolescence. I happen to be one of the last high-school Latin graduates in the province of Ontario! For six years I daily parsed the writings of Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus, and saw the intricate connection between that dead language and our own—in fact, it’s one of the few subjects I studied that impacts me to this day and in a very fun, writerly way.

You told me once that you had written many terrible novels before your international bestseller The Jane Austen Society came out in 2020. Why do you think those novels didn't work or sell, and what clicked or was different this time around when you started writing?
When I first decided to write what would turn out to be The Jane Austen Society, I told my family I would return to creative writing after a ten-year break if three things happened: I loved doing it, my husband loved reading it, and the subject matter had more than a snowball’s chance in hell of being of interest to someone outside the four walls of my house—let’s just say, when it came to that last reason, my first five books did not!

When I got the idea of writing about a group of villagers trying to save Jane Austen’s cottage, I was already well aware of how popular she is—I think that popularity only grew during the pandemic, as her novels offer a “safe suspense” that is particularly appealing in difficult times.

But I distinctly remember one other factor, first articulated to me during that oh-so-exciting first telephone call with my now-agent: he told me that he receives dozens of Austen-related queries every week, but he didn’t think “anyone had done WWII before.” I remember getting a shiver up my spine when he said that. I just knew: accidentally and coincidentally (the real Jane Austen Society was founded during WWII), I had hit on something much more marketable than I knew.

So many writers don't have the "instant" success that you did. Other than the fact that your first book was FANTASTIC, when did you realize it would be a bestseller. The great thing about being a debut is having no expectations—I didn’t realize it could or would be a bestseller until that actually happened. But my hardworking team at St. Martin’s gained so much early attention for this book, we could definitely see momentum building throughout the pre-release period.

Looking back, being named one of the nine most anticipated fiction titles for 2020 by Goodreads ignited that momentum in ways I am still processing, and for which I will be eternally grateful. But in the end, it was the jet fuel of Jane Austen that helped my book gain traction during one of the most difficult times in modern publishing, giving me yet one more reason to love her!

What is the single best piece of writing advice you've ever received? Can you give an example of when you used it while writing Every Time We Say Goodbye?
I remember our debut pal Heather Chavez, an incredibly talented suspense author, sharing some advice during a 2021 AWP group presentation: write to the middle. I hadn’t realized that I’d done that in all my earlier books—proving that the best advice is often something that you are already subconsciously doing.

With so many characters in Every Time We Say Goodbye, I knew I yet again had to pull them together by the midpoint of the plot: hence, the terrace scenes at Peggy Guggenheim’s Venetian palazzo on exactly page 149 of 319!

If you were given a do-over in the publishing industry, what would it be and why? Not to keep querying after a few dozen rejections. I think, as a former head-hunter and recruiter, I treated it as a job search: the notion that eventually I would find the agent who would love it.

What I have learned, the hard way, is that it doesn’t matter if they do: certainly, it’s a precondition to signing you and investing in developing the story, but the story must resonate with far more people than that, in order to one day sell in the way that will reward such investment. So I simply cannot overstate the importance of “the hook.” I don’t write to it, but I also don’t write until I come up with one, if that makes sense!

Bookish Facts About Natalie Jenner:

The best historical fiction novel you ever read:
The Remains of the Day and A Tale of Two Cities

The book that made you want to become a writer:
Anne of Green Gables, no contest!

The best line in Every Time We Say Goodbye:
“Even the smallest act of kindness keeps the best of the human condition in operation, while being the least we can do to honour the greatest acts of all.”

Your favorite place in the whole world: 
To quote Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, “Rome. By all means, Rome.”

I just got chills. I love that, Natalie! Thank you so much for stopping by, and good luck with this fabulous novel. Buy it here and here.

Now I have a question for my dear readers. Have you been to Italy? I’m thinking about planning a trip for next spring. Where do I absolutely need to go?