A Conversation with Joshilyn Jackson, author of “The Opposite of Everyone”
ArtsATL: Paula Vauss is a fascinating character, full of nuance and passion. How did you create her? Joshilyn Jackson: Paula is a minor character in [my sixth novel] Someone Else’s Love Story, and she was one of those characters who just kept taking over everything she was in. I probably cut 10,000 words of Paula out of Someone Else’s Love Story . She had the best lines, and I just knew she was going to get her own book. She’s an iteration of a character I’ve written before in a number of other books, but always in a minor role. She always showed up as a minor or secondary character because it’s hard to have a narrator that is that vicious and relentless and sometimes mean. But she has dimension for the reader because you see her past and you know that she was an underdog. As an adult, she has such a heart for the underdog and she’s oftentimes relentless for people who can’t be relentless for themselves. And she’s very loyal and ethical. Those things save her for me. When I was wr