Jessica A. McMinn is an author of queer speculative fiction based in regional NSW, Australia, with a passion for dark fantasy, dark coffee and cats (which, let’s face it, are all dark inside). When she is not writing (which is more often than you’d think), Jessica can be found raising her two beautiful children or immersed in an audiobook while drawing, crafting or playing video games.
- To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born, raised and schooled in a little regional town in NSW called Cootamundra. After moving away for Uni and to work overseas in Japan, I made my way back to the Riverina where I am raising my young family.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
I am incredibly predictable in that I have wanted to be an author since I was seven – that’s never changed. While I developed additional interests – teacher, mainly – writing books has always been, and I suspect always will be, my dream. I’ve always loved making stories and have never had a shortage of ideas. Follow through on the other hand …
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
Not so much a belief but a personal conviction: I’d never teach in Australia.
4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
Ooooh this is a great question. Wow, there are so many. I’ll try and avoid obvious ones, such as books, and go for things that have influenced me in weird and wonderful ways.
Firstly, the character design work of Tetsuya Nomura (Final Fantasy), Kosuki Fujishima (Tales of ~ series) and the various artists who have worked on the Fire Emblem franchise. All of these had a profound influence on how I visualised my characters, which in turn influenced how I wrote them and the worlds in which they inhabited.
Building on from that, the Japanese four-act ‘kinshotenketsu’ story structure, which climaxes with characters negotiating a third act twist or ‘reversal’ rather than a confrontation with the major conflict, has had a strong influence on how I tell my stories – at least in the early drafting stages, anyway. I’m very much drawn to character-driven narratives and love an open-ended conclusion!
Speaking specifically to Parasitic Omens (and to some extent, my ongoing dark fantasy quartet, Gardens of War & Wasteland), FromSoftware’s 2015 cult favourite PS4 game, Bloodborne, has been instrumental in shaping the overall aesthetic of my fantasy worlds. I loved its brutality, its darkness, the low-key traumatically monstrous creatures that repulsed as much as captivated me. Now it’s an aesthetic I want to replicate in my work.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
I have no idea. I was drawn to writing stories from a very young age – from six years old, my primary hobby was writing stories and drawing illustrations to go with them. When I discovered manga at 13, I wanted to convert the story idea I had into a manga but found the learning curve for developing my art to be much steeper than it was for writing, and so pivoted back to crafting a novel. Fun fact: that story idea became my debut novel, The Ruptured Sky, more than 20 years later.
6. Please tell us about your novel, Parasitic Omens.
Parasitic Omens is a gaslamp fantasy horror inspired by TV’s Supernatural, Bloodborne and Krystle Matar’s indie triumph, Legacy of the Brightwash. It follows a world-weary paranormal investigator (Lawrence Reed) who scrapes together a living solving the unexplained happenings in the backwater town of Copperton. Jobs have been few and far between, so Law agrees to run an errand for the tavern mistress in exchange for knocking a few charges off his bar tab. However, this errand is not as straightforward as it seems and Law opens a horrific can of worms involving a child trafficking cult and, of course, traumatically monstrous creatures.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
A lingering sense of dread and discomfort?
Lol, no, but seriously this is actually something I don’t think too much about when I write. The only thing I hope people walk away with is the feeling of having enjoyed a good story with characters they know like someone they went to school with.
8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
Again, there are so many but I’m going to narrow it down to Krystle Matar and Robin Hobb, both of whom are masters at character craft and intricate plot-work. Hobb is nothing short of genius for what she created with the sprawling World of the Elderlings. The slow burn series is engaging throughout, with a richly developed world and characters who endure the most incredible journeys. Matar I admire for much the same reasons, but with an added level of awe and respect for what they’ve achieved as an Indie author with a debut book to boot.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
World domination.
Seriously, though, I’d love to make a livable income from my books and write full-time. That’s the ultimate goal, really. Some ‘cherries’ would be making a Best Seller list or winning the Aurealis Award.
10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
Don’t give up. I know that’s so generic but perseverance is not to be underestimated in this industry. Nothing is going to happen overnight. The first book you publish will be your worst. If you want to improve, you have to keep working at it. Writing ‘The End’ on a manuscript isn’t where your work starts—it’s where it begins.
So yeah.
Don’t give up
Parasitic Omens
In the world of the occult, new is never good.
As one of Copperton's hardworking investigators, Lawrence Reed has seen it all: vampires, werewolves, warlocks and witches.
When a monstrous creature crawls from the corpse of a mutilated girl, Law is determined to find answers-with or without payment.
Ignoring advice to leave the mystery alone, he sets out to uncover the details of the girl's death. But the deeper he digs, the more questions he unearths.
Can Law bring peace to the dead girl's family? Or will his investigation open the door to far darker discoveries?
Only one certainty remains: monsters aren't the only evil stalking the streets of Copperton.
Parasitic Omens is a gaslamp fantasy horror, perfect for fans of TV's Supernatural and From Software's cult classic video game, Bloodborne.
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