Priscilla Oliveras
asked
Virginia Kantra:
Hi Virginia, I have so enjoyed your Little Women retelling series. I'm wondering, what led you to group the sisters for the two books: Meg & Jo, Beth & Amy?
Virginia Kantra
Thank you! Great question.
Little Women (subtitle actually "Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy") was originally published in two volumes set 3 years apart. My modern reimagining, the March Sisters, is also written in two books, with the action in Beth & Amy picking up about 3 years after the story in Meg & Jo. Otherwise the story would be about 800 pages long. :)
The series is all about figuring out what you want to do to live your best life--which most of us are doing in our 20s and early 30s. So some of dividing the story up the way I did was just that Meg and Jo, being a little older, figure it out before Beth and Amy.
There's a natural bond in the books with Meg "petting" Amy and Jo championing Beth. But there are also a lot of temperamental similarities between traditional, nurturing Meg and quiet, self-sacrificing Beth and between ambitious writer/artists Jo and Amy. The younger sisters are in some ways shadows of the older ones.
In Beth & Amy, I wanted to bring the younger sisters out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
Little Women (subtitle actually "Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy") was originally published in two volumes set 3 years apart. My modern reimagining, the March Sisters, is also written in two books, with the action in Beth & Amy picking up about 3 years after the story in Meg & Jo. Otherwise the story would be about 800 pages long. :)
The series is all about figuring out what you want to do to live your best life--which most of us are doing in our 20s and early 30s. So some of dividing the story up the way I did was just that Meg and Jo, being a little older, figure it out before Beth and Amy.
There's a natural bond in the books with Meg "petting" Amy and Jo championing Beth. But there are also a lot of temperamental similarities between traditional, nurturing Meg and quiet, self-sacrificing Beth and between ambitious writer/artists Jo and Amy. The younger sisters are in some ways shadows of the older ones.
In Beth & Amy, I wanted to bring the younger sisters out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
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