After zombies in Pride and Prejudice come sea monsters in Sense and Sensibility; an interview with author Ben H Winters

Your book released on the same day as Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol last Tuesday...
Well, you'd have to ask my publisher, but I have a sly feeling they were having a bit of fun tweaking the figurative 500-pound gorilla. I don't think Lost Symbol-mania will distract anyone who is excited about Sea Monsters from picking up their copy.



Were you given a choice of novels to monsterify? If yes, which ones?
Nope. Quirk Books (or, rather, "Quirk Classics," the psuedo-imprint they've created for this line of books) came to me with the title all figured out. Beyond that, though, I was on my own.

Why Sense and Sensibility (S&S)?
It was out of my hands. But I do think it was a lovely choice; Austen's characters live in a world where it's dangerous to let your emotions emerge from beneath the surface, and we've thrown them into a world where monstrous creatures literally emerge from beneath the surface and try to eat them. It makes a nice kind of cosmic sense, doesn't it?

Did you write the monster parts first and then weave in the original work or the other way around?
A bit of each. Usually I would have the idea for whatever bizarre event was going to intrude itself on a particular section, and then comb through the relevant pages of Austen a few times, figuring out how much of her to keep, and where my bits would fit in best.

I tried to let Austen's work suggest where the monsters would go best the book is full of scenes of high emotional peril, where the girls feel like they're dying, whether it's of shame or heartbreak or what-have-you. I just made the peril a smidge more perilous.

Who is your favourite character in S&S?
I am quite fond of Mrs Palmer, who with all her prattling and insinuation is a delightful comic character and one that allows Austen to slip in some exposition. Gossips make great sources of information for the reader.

In S&S&SM, my favorite character is Dreadbeard, the most fearsome pirate off the English coast.

Do you think literary mash-ups are the new trend in reading? And, are they here to stay?
Clearly there is something fascinating to readers, in taking something they know and love, and plopping it down in a new aesthetic context. How long that fascination will hold is anyone's guess but I bet for a while. It all makes for great reading, and it's certainly a gas to write.

How long did it take to write the book and how did it come about?
Jason Rekulak from Quirk called me in early spring, as soon as they realised what a huge hit they had on their hands with Zombies. I had worked with these folks in the past, so they knew me and liked my work. Jason and I sort of spitballed the concept back and forth for a couple weeks, and then I dove right in! (Sorry, I'm finding water puns are hard to avoid in these interviews!)