Getting to Know Don Jacobsen

By Barbara Tiller Cole

It is such a treat to spend some extended time getting to know an author. I have many authors that I have interviewed over the years, but it has been some time. I intend to correct that! And first on my list to interview is Don Jacobsen. He has posted with me here at Darcyholic Diversions a number of times over the years, but I never did an interview. And I am so glad that he agreed to visit with me! I hope you learn some things about Don as much as I did.

BTC: Hi Don: It's great to get a chance to sit down and talk with you. I know we have known each other for a number of years, but I thank you for taking time to do an interview.

BTC: Where are you from? And where do you live now?

DJ: Born in New England (Western Massachusetts to be exact).

BTC: Tell us about your background. Whatever you would like to share.

DJ: I graduated high school and moved to go to college at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. A few years there to meet a girl and then break up. After graduation, I went back to Massachusetts for a season until that same young woman called me out of the blue. Several long phone calls later, we agreed to drive back to Chicago (I had a $200 car) together. Three months of sharing an apartment saw us marrying at the end of December 1976. After six months, we moved cross-county to Los Angeles—Pam to follow her television dream and me to write movies. Have yet to write a movie, but I did end up becoming an advertising copywriter while she became a television producer. Two children later, we ended up back in Chicago following Pam’s television job. I stayed in advertising. After 24 years there—and a switch for me from advertising to teaching history at the college level—the empty-nesters moved to Seattle to follow both children, grandchildren. After another four years there, we pulled up stakes again to move to the Las Vegas area where we remain.

BTC: Wow, what a jouney you have taken around the country! How did you get inspired to write?

DJ: My writing started on the high school newspaper. Then corporate newsletters. Then advertising and academic papers. I wrote several diverse nonfiction books including camping and outdoor cookbooks as well as history text study guides. Finally fiction (my daughter was the trailblazer there. As Katie Jaros, she wrote two YA angels and demons books) in 2015.

BTC: Your early writing career reminds me some of my husband's who's writing in his college newspapers took him through newspaper journalism, combat journalist, advertising creative director--including a few CLEO's, live corporate entertainment, and TV live events and films. Did your love of C S Lewis or Jane Austen come first? And what inspired each?

DJ: Actually, I was a big fan of Speculative Fiction followed by espionage adventure. As I noted in the faux academic paper in the front of Volume I of the Bennet Wardrobe, I found the magic inherent in the transportation systems of the Wardrobe and The King’s Roads interesting, allowing my characters to transit to places where they can find destinies beyond the two dimensional portrayals.

I borrowed from Lewis, but write After Austen.

BTC: What inspired your first book series, as a crossover between the two?

DJ: Again, see the “academic article” that serves as a setup for Volume I, The Keeper. Originally, I planned to write three standalone books “rehabilitating” (Remember this is 2015-2017 when everything was JAFF rather than Austenesque. AND...nothing would be accepted if it was not Darcy and Elizabeth-=-god forbid you write a Persuasion variation.) I was bothered that the three younger sisters were thoroughly ignored. Austen used them as plot devices. Mary pontificated, Kitty coughed, Lydia flashed her ankles. I wanted to write a book each on Mary, Kitty, and Lydia based off the question, “If they cannot learn what they need on the regency timeline, when (and how) can they learn it?” That was the beginning of the Wardrobe...a portal to the future which can only be used by the Bennets (Bennet blood). Shortly, though, I discovered that there was a deeper theme and motive behind why the Wardrobe moved Bennets to where they learned what they needed. Suddenly, instead of three standalones, books in a series appeared. Also the great being guiding it all—The Old One. And the Seven Loves.

BTC: I do remember the academic article and encourage others to read it if you have not. I began in the world of JAFF and am enjoying more and more Austenesque today.

BTC: Tell us a little bit about the inspiration for your WWII crossover book.

DJ: I use my writing as a laboratory for myself to write different sorts of stories. For instance, Volume Six of the Wardrobe (The Thomas Book) is an homage to John Le Carre, an espionage book. “Ghost Flight” grew from my intense reading of World War II Romances. Yet women actively participated in the armed services and the Special Operations Executive. I wondered how Darcy and Elizabeth would “do their bit” in World War II. I could not imagine Elizabeth staying at home...any more than Darcy. But, I needed a way to bring them together. That’s Ghost Flight.

BTC: I really enjoy reading Jane Austen variations from a male author as they seem to feature different interpretations and scenarios. Do you have other Austenesque books you have written that you would like to tell us more about?

DJ: Outside of the Bennet Wardrobe series (9 books 2016-2024), I have also written Lessers and Betters (2018) which are paired novellas looking at the same situation from two different points of view, The Longbourn Quarantine (2020) which is a longer novella exploring how the Canonical characters would have interacted if forced into close company for a fortnight, In Plain Sight (2020) a novel exploring an inversion of station where Darcy has fallen so low as to be invisible to Elizabeth, The Sailor’s Rest (2023) which is a crossover between P&P and Persuasion—NOTE: Not a mashup which implies comedy—with a timeline shift to put both books at the same time, 1815, after the two couples become engaged but before the weddings. In Westminster’s Halls (2024) is a novel which time shifts P&P characters backward to 1807 so that we can examine the British battle to end the greatest social evil of their time, the British slave trade. I have also written Christmas Short Stories (Holiday Visions, 2023)...and have published a story in honor of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday entitled The Last Gift.

The Last Gift is longlisted in the 2025 CIBA Sea Shorts category and Ghost Flight: A World War II Pride and Prejudice Variation is currently longlisted in the 2025 CIBA Hemingway Wartime Literature category.

BTC: What inspired the North and South variation?

DJ: That came about thanks (in part) to Nicole Clarkston asking me to write a story to be used in the anthology Falling for Mr. Thornton. Cinders and Smoke (2019) is my entry. I enjoyed considering how Gaskell is a logical extension of Austen into the Industrial Revolution.

BTC: Seeing your books about on the road cooking has me now envisioning you writing from the great outdoors! Are you a traveling writer now? Or do you just camp when you camp?

DJ: Not at all. The camping and cooking phase of my life is closed now. Older joints prevent a lot of that. Maybe some glamping in our future. My first book Caves and Caving was published in 1985. The One Pan Gourmet, designed as a cookbook for scouts, was published in 1990 with a revised edition in 1995. The One Pan Gourmet Cooks Lite debuted in 1992 with The One Pan Galley Gourmet in 1996. My wife (a Registered Dietitian) and I published Roadcookin’: A long haul drivers guide to healthy eating in 2009.

BTC: So those books predated Austenesque. I understand, but still intrigued. I did a lot of camping when I was younger and seeing your cookbooks allowed some pleasant memories.

A book about caves was a surprise as I was looking through the books you have written! So you like to do caving! When did your love of caving come about? As a young boy scout? With your dad or granddad?

DJ: I had a few adventures in caves when I was younger. Crawling is not in my wheelhouse any longer. Pam gently reminds me that Caving is one of the top 10 most deadly sports.

BTC: Crawling is no longer on my list either. However, I live in Kentucky now! If you come to Mammoth Cave you will have to let me know! There are many tours that require no crawling at all. In fact one is on a boat.

What is the next book you are writing? Or do you work on more than one at once?

DJ: I am about a third of the way through a Lessers and Betters Pride and Prejudice Variation that features Richard and Kate (former Kitty Bennet) Fitzwilliam—now the Baron and Baroness St. John—in a murder story involving the great powers, a phony treaty, and foreign affairs. The title is The Ambassador’s Wife.

BTC: Now that sounds great! I love murder mysteries!

Don, I have really enjoyed this interview today and hope that we will inspire many to purchase some books that they may not yet have read. I thank you for visiting with me!

If you know of any author that would like to do an interview about their writing library have them reach out to me! I am going to include links to your books! Thanks Again!