Jennifer S. Alderson asked Jennifer S. Alderson:

You worked as a journalist and web developer, why write an art mystery?

Jennifer S. Alderson I’ve been fascinated with exhibition design since I was a kid, though I didn’t know what it was called back then. My mother tells me I used to rearrange her knickknacks and photos on a regular basis, creating displays out of objects I found interesting at the moment.

After traveling extensively through Asia, I became so fascinated with the spiritual power and beauty of cultural objects that I quit my job as a web developer to study cultural anthropology in Darwin, Australia. Unfortunately I never really did adjust to the extreme temperatures and weather conditions and ended up leaving right after I’d completed my graduate degree. On the way home, I had a twenty-six layover in Rome. I remember quite distinctly that I was really pissed off about it because I had absolutely no interest in visiting Italy (now one of my favorite countries on the planet). Shortly after a bus dropped me off in front of the Colosseum, I called my airline to change my ticket, and ultimately spent three months backpacking around Europe.

When I did make it back to Seattle, I was only home long enough to sell my possessions so I could head back to Amsterdam and start an Art History degree I’d found out about during my travels. After completing a Dutch-language Master’s degree in Museum Studies, I was lucky enough to work at several wonderful museums before government subsidies were slashed and the cultural sector collapsed.

Writing The Lover’s Portrait was a way for me to use my newfound knowledge of museums, art history and culture in fictionalized form. In my future novels, I intend on combining my love of art and culture again, next time focusing on Bis poles, missionaries and anthropologists in Papua New Guinea.

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