Mexico

The Real JadeAnne Stone

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This month’s Author Spotlight features award-winning crime novelist and poet, Ana Manwaring and her latest release – a memoir/travelogue, Saints and Skeletons (Indies United Publishing, 2023). I’m especially excited about this one because it’s such a rare treat to catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a successful crime series. In Saints and Skeletons, readers will get to experience the author’s real-life adventures, which set the stage for what later became the Jade Anne Stone contemporary thriller series. All four books of the still evolving series have been published by Indies United Publishing and trace the edgy exploits of PI, JadeAnne Stone and her quest to save a trafficked teen and get her back home safely. Sounds easy enough, right? Add in politics, money laundering, big oil, and corruption in Mexico City and beyond. It’s a well-written, exciting series in and of itself. But now we get to meet the real JadeAnne Stone…

In Saint and Skeletons, we get to armchair travel through Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala in an engrossing personal memoir and travelogue, seeing the origins of the JadeAnne Stone character emerge from the author’s own experiences with loss, betrayal, danger, and personal transformation.

Author Interview

How does the process of writing a nonfiction memoir differ from writing a thriller series? 

Writing a memoir uses the same craft as fiction—characters, setting, plot, vivid detail, compelling dialog, tension and conflict. But memoir requires an honest look inside yourself and the guts to admit the truth. In a way, that’s pretty thrilling. Sometime sickening! As far as writing a memoir vs. a thriller series—nobody’s real life could sustain the continuous car crashes, explosions, shootouts, kidnappings, murders and border jumps of a series.  One book’s worth is enough. Okay, maybe two. Saints and Skeletons doesn’t complete the saga. 

When you were in Mexico, had you already planned to write about your travels? Did you know about JadeAnne back then?

Yes and No. Yes, I planned on researching then writing a book called Stonecarver. The trip was to last six months, not three years, and I planned to  visit  ruins. I did – but I never wrote that book. It was about a ninth century architect/sculptor from Copan, Honduras who traveled to the north of Cuernavaca to build a ceremonial center in the style of Copan. The Xochicalco ruin exists, but the book doesn’t. Although Eb Zotz wasn’t with me through my travels, the seed of JadeAnne was. I just didn’t know it. But when I started writing, I knew she’d been with me  throughout.

Do you feel like there were more skeletons or saints among the people you encountered in your Mexico travels?

There were many saints. People are helpful and caring if you give them the  chance. I found the Mexican people to be lovely and giving, but I was in love with Mexico and its people long before I lived in-country. Perhaps that showed? Not everyone was honest—my bus was broken into twice, an electrician stole money when he came to fix the wiring, and a friend of my lawyer acquaintance, a policia judicial,  stole and forged my check, emptying my bank account. I don’t count these as skeletons—the only skeleton was how I comported myself. Okay, Spring Break wet t-shirt contests, but I was not at my best!

How many more books do you envision will be in the JadeAnne series? 

I’m exploring several ideas for a new series set in Mexico, the Dafne Olabarrieta mysteries. There will be at least six Jade books. Jade and company will appear periodically ten years later in the Dafne series.

In what ways do you feel like you and JadeAnne are alike? In what ways are you different? 

JadeAnne and I might be twins: thirty-ish, smart, good-looking, redheads who can wear spandex salsa dancing dresses and bikinis. Well, in my past life! Jade knows more about guns than I do and her orchid collection is much nicer than mine. We both love Sausalito and the houseboat community and have had business offices there. She’s braver than I am and we’re probably equally as reckless. What can I say, I put my shepherd mix into “Jade’s” VW camper and drove through cartel country (and to Guatemala—read all about it!) alone. Jade, at least, carried a gun. We both hooked up with adorable but inappropriate men while we were in-country, and we both are taqueras, lovers of tacos. And so far, we’ve both lived to tell the tale.

What do you know now about the publishing industry that you wish you knew 20 years ago? 

Writing a good book isn’t enough! There are no “overnight sensations” – only hard, hard work to write the best book you can, figure out how it fits on the shelf at the bookstore, convince agents that your book will sell, then wait months for the book to come out, and finally have to take on the job of book marketer because the publisher isn’t going to do it for you. I chose to go a more independent route and sign with a smaller publisher who operates the publishing house more as a marketing collective.

What advice would you give to a novice writer starting their first book? 

Take your time. Don’t rush—get help, take classes, pay for professional editing, proofreading and cover design. Don’t believe your words are precious! The work starts after you write “The End.”

Start the Adventure

“In Manwaring’s immersive memoir, Saints and Skeletons, she deftly takes her reader on a pilgrimage to Mexico. Rendered with heart and vulnerability, we observe her inner life through the risky choices she regrets, the love she desires, the sublime beauty she discovers. Don’t miss this multisensory adventure of a lifetime.”   

     — J. C. Miller, Amazon Best Selling Author of Vacation

Buy Saints and Skeletons:

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