"All her life choices is to avoid hunger."
Synopsis:
A typical city afflicted with illegal prostitution and corruption. An intended seduction. Unexpected childhood traumas and unhealthy coping mechanisms. In the year 2010, NBI Agent Alex Schwarz faces his most cathartic case that will cost his sanity.
[ Q and A ]
Q: Main inspiration of the story?
A: Of course, Jack the Ripper.
Q: How did you come up with the storyline?
A: It basically revolves around retribution and poverty. A little more human than Dress and Bones. Dress and Bones talks about manipulated tragedies with less politics. Jenny the Stripper, however, touches several zone of ethics.
The story was written to convey a message that mental and sexual abuse recognize no gender or age boundaries.
Q: How did you create the main character?
A: Jenny shares the same zodiac sign with Isabella, but their personalities are completely different. Their fate mirrors each other reversibly too, if Isabella got everything to nothing, then Jenny started from nothing to have everything.
Compare to Gareth, however, Jenny is more aggressive and messy. She is the type who can't control her frustrations and easily to panic when everything in her plans goes wrong. Just like a ram, she attacks with her head first.
Q: How did you create Alex Schwarz?
A: Alex personality was supposed to be bright and enthusiastic like Jonathan, but I realize it will not fit well with Jenny. I wanted them to share physical and emotional trauma, and the story will progress around their different response to those traumas.
I also intend for Alex to get worse as the chapters goes by. Giving him either stagnant or hero-to-zero character development. You can also call him a guy who is outwardly calm, but has a raging possessiveness inside, to which, is his scorpio warrior side. I really don't know if I delivery it right though.
Q: How did you establish the relationship between Alex and Jenny?
A: Their relationship can be described as a "passionate volcano" that keeps bursting every time. Like in a newly built relationship, conflicts between Alex and Jenny arise easily because of the raw trust and their strong desire to take charge.
While I was conceptualizing, I've always envision their fights to push into limits, sprinkled by unhealthy way of managing their problem, and improper communication. Something that's meant to be more chaotic than Gareth and Isabella, but will miraculously work.
Q: Hardest character to write?
A: Alex and Jenny. Imagine writing these two magma all the time.
Q: Do you have any favorite character/s?
A: Mark and Ryg. Complex characters, but I could write all day about them.
Q: Favorite scene?
A: Jenny's little moment with Jane because it mirrors the sibling love she once had.
Q: This is the first time you've written a girl serial killer, will there be another female protagonist in the future?
A: Jenny is the sole female serial killer in the series.
Q: Why did you give Jenny a happy ending?
A: The question is, was it really a happy ending?
Riddle me this, is it okay to let her get away with murder? How about Alex? Is it healthy for him? How can you be so sure that she won't do it again in the future?
For me, rather than a happy ending, I'll call it ambiguous. You never know what will happen next. There are no certainty if they will truly live in peace after that proposal.
Q: Do you have any regrets after a year of finishing the story?
A: Maybe I should've introduced Jackquin earlier. Aside from that, nothing!
[ FACTS ]
1. The original ending:
• Mark will sexually assault Jenny but she managed to defend herself and kill him. Alex will unintentionally witness the aftermath because he unexpectedly visited her (he came to clarify things that strongly connects Jazz to Jenny)
Jenny will deny all of it, saying it's self-defense and it's all a misunderstanding. Alex didn't buy it, but he wiped all of the evidence by melting Mark's skin using hydrochloric acid. Alex will then set Jazz free and take the blame.
2. Other considered ending:
• Jazz will successfully kill Adam and will surrender to the authorities. She will then expose the Augustus and their illegal activities, which will lead to the family's downfall. There is no Ryg in this ending, but the writer needed to bridge the story to the next, so this one got scrapped early.
3. Jazzquin's name is derived from a music genre with distorted of pitch and timbre, and Lebedev originates from the Russian word "Swan". Together, her name can be interpreted as "Dancing Swan", one that is forced to dance in a rhythm.
4. Jackquin is non-existent until the writer revised Mark's role in the story
5. Adam was supposed to have an unresolved rape case and Augustus are covering him up. This is also the original motivation and conflict between him and Jazz, but the idea was scrapped when Ryg's role was finalized.
6. Out of the three fire predators (Gareth, Jazz, and Lee), Jazz is the easiest one to give a redemption.
7. When Jazz said she fell in love with Alex, she herself didn't know if it's true.
8. Nelly was supposed to fight for her affection towards Alex, but it will have the same outcome as Rona.
9. Nelly was supposed to be killed as one of Jenny's imposter.
10. If Wojtek was the one who handled Jenny's case. He would've captured Jazz in less than a week.
11. Alex never know that Jazz is the one who killed his half-brother.
12. Alex's rapist is the mentor of Wojtek (Sebastian Lajara). Same person who attacked Isabella and her grandfather in Dress and Bones
13. Jenny shares the same birthdate with the writer's little sister.
14. Alex share the same birthdate with Sasori Akasuna.
15. Jacky's tragic death is inspired by the death of Mischa Lecter, but more toned down.
16. The original concept for the Aries predator is a gangster who lives in the slums and loves to kill people with huge debt, but since the writer can't imagine any other zodiac sign that could be played by a woman, the idea was scrapped.
17. Ryg was supposed to debut in earlier chapters as Jenny's half brother, but since he will be a series recurring character, the idea was scrapped.
18. Lee Min Seok— When the Ink Dries protagonist, and Alex crossed paths in an apartment complex somewhere in Chapter 15-20
19. There was an early idea of Jazz, Lee, and Gareth crossing paths somewhere in Manila, but the was changed when the bloody rule of the series was established.
20. All events in the physical book of JTS are now the CANON events. Anything written in the first version that were changed are now considered non-canon.
