With her third retelling of a famous fairy tale, Kelly Ann Jacobson breathes new life into Pinocchio. In this queer feminist retelling, Jacobson highlights the importance of connection and what it means to lie for the benefit of others. LIES OF A TOYMAKER follows the story of Paige, a queer teenage girl, who finds herself turning into a wooden puppet. On her journey she encounters the Blue Fairy who puts her on a path of heroism to save her universe from falling into the same fate as the magical Land of Toys, ultimately leading her to self-discovery and newfound confidence. Three Rooms Press Lead Editor Arden Gray spoke with Jacobson to discuss her influences behind the novel’s creation–Including Tink and Wendy and Robin and Her Misfits–and the message she wants readers to take with them.

Arden Gray: This is your third retelling of a famous fairy tale, how do you find inspiration in them? Why do you think fairy tales belong in a modern world?

Kelly Ann Jacobson: I like to find ways that the reimaginings of classic stories can tell messages about our contemporary world. So, for example, Tink and Wendy looked a lot at the ideas of 1) guilt—what it’s like to live with that heaviness and responsibility, 2) motherhood, and 3) toxic masculinity. Yes, those are questions of the original story, but they’re very clearly connected to our contemporary world in my novel, which I think serves to make the messages clearer. In Robin and Her Misfits, the focus is the ideas of self-acceptance and found family. Here, in Lies of a Toymaker, the central question is about the idea of “lying” and “telling the truth,” and what those concepts actually mean, especially in terms of the idea of “inviting in” versus “coming out.” There is also a huge emphasis on being able to be yourself, especially when you are being overshadowed by someone else, even accidentally. 

AG: What drew you to the Pinocchio story? Do you feel like you stayed true to the original message or invented your own in the retelling?

KAJ: So, I don’t always know exactly where the inspiration from my novels came from, but in this case, I have a very clear memory of walking in downtown Winchester, Virginia, the morning after giving a talk for a college there about my first two retellings and the power of those kinds of stories. I passed a toy shop in the downtown area, and something about that shop, along with my lingering ideas about the conversations I’d had the night before, blended together as I walked into this very clear idea of a Pinocchio retelling that starts with girl driving into a similar town with a caravan having no idea what is in store for her.  

AG: Relationships are a big factor in LOAT, why did you choose the relationships you did and how do you feel their presence affects the narrative?

KAJ: They definitely are a huge factor in this book, and in a different way than the other two. In Tink and Wendy, Tink is very much a loner, but there are romantic relationships and some mothering relationships (Wendy mothering her siblings, both girls mothering Peter, Godmother Anne mothering Tink, etc.). In Robin and Her Misfits, it’s all about the group of girls having each others’ backs, and their families are almost completely absent. Here, in Lies of a Toymaker, the important relationships are around Paige and her mother Petta, as well as the extended family relationships for both of them. There are also very strong friendships in the book, especially between Paige and Prince Alexio, and some romantic relationships, too.  

AG: You left the story on a pretty emotional note, what do you want readers to take away from the ending and the impact it will have on them?

KAJ: Without giving too much away, I will say that anyone who has ever been a fan of my endings will definitely like this one. I always end my books on huge emotional twists, but ones that hopefully hit that “surprising yet inevitable” note. This one, in particular, is surprising because it opens up a whole world of possibilities for the future of these characters. 

AG: Without spoilers, what are your plans for the future of LOAT’s world?–Is there going to be a sequel?

KAJ: It’s hard to answer this one without giving too much away, but I definitely want to take the microcosm of the conflict we’ve seen in the Land of Toys and take it to an intergalactic scale. I want to involve the backstory of the tale mentioned at the beginning of Lies of a Toymaker, which becomes very important in the book, and bring some of those hinted-at questions into much greater detail. I can’t wait!