1. Let’s start at the heart of it. Who is Machaela Jackson in your own words?

I’m an introvert who struggles, every day, to find my place in the world. I was a teen mom who graduated high school early, got married really young, and I’m trying to play catch-up with my dreams while raising my family.  

2. You are a mama of four, an educator, and a writer. How do those roles shape the stories you tell?

I try to separate my mother and teacher roles from my writer role, because being a writer is the only thing that I do for me! I love my kids and have a great job where I make a difference in my community, but I think that I try to put those ‘mom’ and ‘educator’ hats in a drawer when I sit in front of my computer.

3. With degrees in Education and English, writing has been a lifelong love. When did storytelling first feel like more than a hobby for you?

I’ve always had an overactive imagination. My barbies used to live out soap operas when I was a kid. I wrote my first story in middle school about a group of people who got stranded on a deserted island, but I had a teacher who wasn’t very supportive of my passion, so the storytelling got pushed to the side and I wrote a lot of angsty poetry in my teens. I think, to answer your question, it was never a ‘hobby’. I wrote because I had a lot of ideas and no one to talk about them with. I had feelings that I didn’t know how to express (or would be afraid of expressing). It was a coping mechanism before it became a part of my career. 

4. You write romance as well as thriller and mystery. What draws you to exploring emotional tension across genres?

I enjoy reading a wide variety of genres, and I wanted to see if I could write a wide variety as well. I think the question ‘Can I do this?’ is what draws me in. Though after giving birth to a 10 lb 11oz baby in my dining room, I don’t think that there’s much I can’t actually do lol.

5. Your novels My Othello and If You Had Chosen Me are both already released. What connects these stories thematically for you?

Shakespeare does. My Othello plays with themes of jealousy that you find in the play of the same name. If You Had Chosen Me has to do with star-crossed love (like you would find in Romeo and Juliet). Shakespeare is kind of a big thing for English Majors and Secondary Ed ELA teachers, so I don’t think it's crazy that I’ve been influenced by him. 

6. My Othello draws on intense emotional dynamics. What inspired the heart of that story?

It actually started off completely different than the book that is on shelves today. When I was drafting My Othello, I wrote it as a dark romance about a married woman who was seduced by a male demon, who had to immortalize her in an artistic way and get her to sign her soul over to him. It was a fantasy-type book and I would like to maybe circle around back to that some day, but as I was writing Maddie, I didn’t feel like she fit in that story, so I created a new world around her. Maddie was younger than my other protagonist was. Unmarried. Childless. I kept the occupation (professor and advice columnist), but a lot else was changed for Maddie. I guess she inspired the heart of my story! 

7. If You Had Chosen Me focuses heavily on choice and consequence. Why are character choices so central to your storytelling?

‘Why did they do this’ is the big question for me when I’m writing my stories. But I wanted to write something different in the sense that we have these two people who are almost stuck in a sort of loop; a groundhog day situation… and they have to make different choices in order to advance (and avoid painful death). My tagline for that book; If You Had Chosen Me, Would Everything Be Different? Plays with the concept of free will and the power of choice. But it also talks about growth and regression at the same time. I like the idea of reincarnation, as well, and learning from mistakes, as well as being rewarded for your past life’s actions (or punished for them).

8. You describe your work as character driven. Do your characters tend to surprise you, or do you know exactly what they will do?

It’s probably not very iconic of me as a writer, but my characters tend to do whatever I would do. I put a lot of myself into my characters, and having them go ‘against the grain’ feels unnatural and forced to me. I tend to know exactly what they will do.

9. Is there a specific character from either book who demanded more of you as a writer?

Peyton did, for sure. In My Othello, I was very attached to Maddie because I saw so much of myself in her. It was my debut and I absolutely put my heart and soul into every choice that she made and everything that she felt. Peyton has a lot of religious trauma and suffered from several forms of abuse, which caused her to view love differently than she should. I have put a lot of myself into Peyton as well, and it was kind of strange and challenging for me to confront those less healthy parts of myself as I created her character.

10. Settings play a big role in your novels. How do you choose the places where your stories unfold?

Most of the stories that I have written (even those that aren’t published) are set in New Orleans. I’ve always been drawn to the resilience of the individuals who live(d) there and the magic that the city has made me feel. It’s like nowhere else in the United States. With such a rich and diverse culture and history, it’s hard to keep my characters away from New Orleans! Even my characters from The Woman Of Redwood Hall, who were born in Maine, migrated there at the end of the book.

⚡ Rapid Fire (Go With Your Gut)

11. Character first or plot first?

Plot

12. Writing in quiet moments or writing in the middle of life’s chaos?

I never have quiet time. I have four kids and five cats. 

13. Coffee, tea, or something else fueling your writing time?

Dr. Pepper and ice water!

14. Draft fast or draft carefully and slowly?

I have to go in full-blast and do my best to keep that momentum until the end. My plots are very meticulous, but I do so quickly. 

15. One word you hope readers use to describe your books.

Beautiful. Or unique. I have no interest in shocking people or making them angry; I want to make them fall in love with the world that I’ve dropped them into.

📚 The Author Journey

16. What moment made you realize, “I am really doing this author thing”?

My first book signing. It didn’t feel real until then. 

17. What has surprised you most about putting your work out into the world?

1. How subjective everything is. People have adored my books. People have failed to understand my books. 

2. I really thought that my village would come and support me when I did all of this. But, they didn’t. I have a huge family, and 99% of them couldn’t give a crap less that I’ve completed a lifelong dream. 

18. What advice would you give to writers balancing family, work, and creative ambition?

If you wait to ‘have time’, you will never get it done. You have to make time. Any time. There have been moments where I haven’t even written anything down; just saw the last thing I typed and thought about the next step, but then had to close my computer and nurse my daughter or break up a fight between my older kids. The point is to keep putting in the effort and to show up every day. Write something EVERY DAY.

19. You mentioned you love discussing the choices your characters make. What is one character decision you still think about?

Epidia betraying Valens is something that sticks with me. The only reason I could justify it in my head is that she needed to protect her baby. But there’s something in me still that sees it as cowardice and I have a hard time accepting the choice that she made lol.

20. How do you emotionally detach from a story once it is finished and released?

I haven’t! I consider all the time how to keep the story going. How I can create a sequel even if I hadn’t originally intended there to be one. I’ve considered prequels of IYHCM where each book is a full novel of each past life. I’ve considered a sequel of My Othello called My Desdemona where one of Peyton’s exes kidnaps Maddie and holds her hostage in the same cabin that she escaped in My Othello.

📚 Looking Ahead

21. You are currently queuing a book for traditional publishing. What excites you most about that next step?

The route that an author takes for publishing is a very personal choice, and there are ups and downs to both options. But for me, trad publishing has always been the dream. I self published The Woman of Redwood Hall, If You Had Chosen Me, and My Othello because I was told that they aren’t marketable and, if I’m honest, I’m not great at rejection (Peyton and I, both). I keep hoping that ‘this is the one’ that will land in the trad market. So that’s what excites me the most here.

22. You just started writing a YA fantasy. What made now the right time to explore that genre?

I wanted something that my son could read. He’s 8 but loves fantasy and mythology. My other stories have adult themes that he can’t read but he really wants to. He’s so proud of me and what I’ve done, and I want him to be able to see the world and characters that I have created for once.

23. How does writing for a younger audience differ from writing your current novels?

I don’t write smut, but I enjoy crafting intimacy between my characters. That looks different at the younger level. I’m excited about this because YA is a market that I’ve not been able to reach yet, and I will be able to soon enough, here. When I have book signings, moms come around with their kids and I wish I had something that would appeal to the kids, too! Now, I will. 

24. What is something readers might be surprised to learn about you or your writing process?

I have 14 works in progress right now, in many different genres. For me, the easiest part of the story is the beginning, so I will often write the first 10-15 pages and then get a new idea, so start something else. I have some WIP that are further along (an adult dark romance fantasy that's about 50k words, a contemporary romance that’s 40k words, a fantasy pirate romance that is 30k words) but most of them are very conceptual in their completion-stage.

25. When readers close one of your books, what do you hope stays with them the longest?

What's really important for me, especially with the books that I have out now, is that I want the readers to feel like I’ve done NOLA justice. I admire and hold so much love in my heart for that city and I would hate to know that a native Louisiannan read my book and felt as though I’ve done it a disservice. In the same breath, I want to say that I need my books to take them there, too. I spend a lot of time crafting sensory details in my scenes. I want them to be vivid.