(Photo Credit – Jenna Berman)
The highly-anticipated book Snake of the Nile came out May 31, 2022, and its author, E. A. Jackson, shared insight into its creation. the Leo Award-nominated actress is best-known for her work in the “The Grand Unified Theory,” “The Switch,” “Alone on Christmas”, and “The Dragon Prince.” This multi-talented star happens to be trained in mounted combat, archery, firearms, and swordplay. Now her first-ever book is part one of a trilogy that readers are going to love. She already has part two in the works.
Born in Perth, Western Australia, she grew up on vineyard farmlands and wore out “Xena the Warrior Princess” DVDs as a kid. Get to know E. A. Jackson and hear stories including how she might be related to the legendary King Odysseus!
Colleen Bement: Congratulations on your exciting new book Snake of the Nile! What inspired you to write it and do you already have ideas for other books in The Aegean Series?
E.A. Jackson: Thank you very much. It’s been a wild ride so far! I think this story, or pieces of it, have been formulating in my mind for years but I’ve always been interested in Ancient Greece and Egypt. Those civilizations are fascinating to me and there were characters who would come to me and I felt they needed to be written.
Yes, the first book is book 1 in an epic trilogy and I’ve already penned the beginnings of the second installment. The big twist reveal comes in the first chapter of the second book and spurs the drama for the rest of the story so I’m very excited.
CB: How has your life changed as you focus on writing instead of acting?
EAJ: I am still auditioning, just not as much lately with Covid-19 still around and causing problems so it’s actually been really nice to focus on something else and pour my energy and love and time into it because I’ve been in the film industry for just over ten years now and it can be a tumultuous field to survive in.
EAJ: The change of art focus was very welcomed and enjoyed. I spend more time with my cat on my lap while I write and email and converse with my publishers but I can do it anywhere, at cafes or friend’s houses, etc. which is so lovely. My friends are all starting businesses so we get to have a lot of work dates.
CB: Tell us about that beaten-up shoebox filled with “Xena the Warrior Princess” DVDs. How did that impact your life growing up?
EAJ: Oh that’s one of my favorite memories and stories. I have an aunty whose personality and perspective and imagination is so like mine and she showed me an episode of the show because she loved it and that was it for me. I was in love at first watch. I was read all the Greek myths and legends by my mother growing up so this was a show that captured some beautiful New Zealand scenery, so close to where grew up in South Western Australia, all these phenomenal and committed actors, and funnily enough, SO many themes of morals and values and the characters’ struggles with defining where they stand with their morals and values. It was a really transformative period for me and I was head over heels for this type of show for as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to work with Lucy Lawless.
That show taught me where I morally stand on friendship, love, war, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and redemption. I learned all that I know about values and spirituality, right and wrong, and good and evil, and I will forever be grateful to my aunty for that Christmas when I ripped off the paper of an old Reebok shoe box to find CDs labeled with every season and episode. I never looked back.
CB: I read that you’re a Greek-Australian actress and I’m curious, have you researched your Greek heritage? Who knows, maybe you’re related to a king or queen!
EAJ: Haha yes I have. That same aunty actually began our family tree research for other reasons but I’ve asked her some questions here and there and the Greeks, for all their wisdom and innovative accomplishments, weren’t so great at keeping written records of people once you go back to a certain time.
We discovered that a great, great, great, great grandparent changed his name when he came to Ikaria, where our family is from. We found his original last name but we have no idea where he came from. There was talk of links to Ithaki (Ithaca) which is where the legendary King Odysseus is said to have reigned but the lineage after his son had children is lost to history, so who knows, maybe I’m a descendant of the legendary king? That would explain my love of archery!
CB: Your combat, firearm, and swordplay skills are simply super-impressive. Do you continually train to stay sharp?
EAJ: Thank you kindly. Unfortunately, the upkeep of training is very expensive, so I did train as much as possible when I could but it became too expensive to keep it up long term. I still work out and make sure I’m limber for when an acting opportunity arises that requires any of this experience. Then I can just brush up on my learned skills and hopefully pick up where I left off. Horses are expensive to ride as well and they’re usually out in Richmond and Langley so all the training locations are hard to make time for but I do have my carbon short sword and my steel Sais at my home so I get to pick them up and give them a work out here and there.
CB: Do you find downtime for yourself, and how do you spend it?
EAJ: I actually struggle with relaxing, I’m not good at doing nothing. But I’m working on it.
CB: I have too many ideas and too many projects and too much craft going on that I find it impossible to embrace stillness unless I force myself, which eventually happens every few months or so. Though, downtime from the major components of my life would include taking forest walks with my partner and our pets. I craft Greek weavings with beads etc. I love to bake and paint and I’m just so in love with cinema that I’m usually crafting while hunting for a new production that really moves me. I’m also a Voice Over artist and that takes up quite a chunk of my time which I couldn’t be more happy about.
Written by Colleen Bement
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