Thanks for stopping by to talk a little about your writing! Let's jump right in. When did you begin writing and why?
I think I’ve always written but I became serious about writing in 1964. Then I studied short stories and books on writing, playing with different forms and stories. I’ve been published since 1968. Why did I begin? To write more of the stories I liked to read and to put on paper the stories whirling in my thoughts.
Do you have a favorite genre? Is it the same genre you prefer to write?
I’m rather eclectic in my reading tastes. There are genres I don’t like to read or write. Horror is what I don’t enjoy. I write in several genres all kinds of romance, mysteries and fantasy. Love science fiction and action adventure but I don’t feel qualified to write in these areas.
Do certain themes and ideas tend to capture your writer’s imagination and fascinate you?
Not sure about themes but I do believe in happy endings but that’s the backbones of romance. This does carry over into my other writing. In mysteries, always want the villains to receive the punishment they deserve.
How do you balance long-term thinking vs. being nimble in today's market?
Not sure what this means. Unfortunately, I write the stories that speak to me and don’t worry too much about today’s market. I’ve just finished writing a cozy mystery and am starting on a medical romance. There are two of them in the planning stage and also two fantasies.
How do you find readers in today's market?
I blog every day and am active on several forums. I’ve tried a number of things like blog tours and interviews on other places. I also have a lot of books and I do promote my backlist as well as my new releases.
Do you come up with the hook first, or do you create characters first and then dig through until you find a hook?
My books start in many ways. Sometimes there’s a hook, sometime the plot appears, especially with my mysteries. There are those character moments when one of the characters insist I tell their story. To give an example. I love dragons and have more than a dozen on the shelf above my computer. One night as I was falling asleep a dragon spoke to me and the story planning began. My latest mystery came when the character, Katherine, decided she was ready to find another dead body. As to a hook, my current WIP began when I was visiting a new doctor and had been interviewed by the nurse practitioner. I mentioned though I was a retired nurse, I now write stories and some about nurses and doctors. While waiting for the exam, the curtains were pulled aside and I heard these words, “Enter the handsome doctor.” What an opening for a story.
How do you create your characters?
I used to write long bits about the characters before I began the story. Now, most of this work is done in my head before I begin the story. They arise totally from my imagination. I don’t find pictures of people in magazines or elsewhere. I’m not a picture kind of person. As I write what I’ve imagined about them starts to build and finally they are embodied in my stories.
What's on the top of your TBR pile right now?
At present the stories on my TBR are several from my publisher BWL. They are doing a series of stories about the Canadian provinces. Mostly historical but great reads. When I last checked, there are more than 900 books on my Kindle. I also sometimes re-read stories I’ve read before. Just finished re-reading books by Kat Attalla and ones by Ronald Ady Crouch.
Tell me a little about the characters in .
Murder and Sweet Tea will be released soon. The main character of this cozy mystery series is Katherine Miller, now Claybourne. She is a retire nurse and a retired church organist. She was never looking for a third career but bodies seem to find her. She is approaching her first anniversary of her marriage to Lars, an old friend. Katherine is protective of her family and friends and this often leads her into becoming involved in murder. She also lives with her Maine Coon cat, Robespierre. She’s a rather unconventional heroine.
Lars is her new husband. He loves Katherine but doesn’t understand why she’s always trying to protect her near and dear. Even though she saved his life while visiting him in Santa Fe, he often questions her involvement in other people’ lives.
Into their lives arrives a new neighbor, Sabrina Gates. Sabrina bought the house next door. She has had a phenomenal success as a new author but moes from her past and present threaten her peace and ability to write. There is the blogger who posts snide and not so nice posts about other authors. Sabrina’s former agent wants a share of the huge amount of money Sabrina has received for a trilogy. And there is her ex-husband, a needy greedy coward who wants money.
Above all there is Robespierre who makes his presence known.
Where’s the story set? How much influence did the setting have on the atmosphere/characters/
The story setting is a Hudson River village, loosely based on the town where I live. I have done some town planning by moving houses and shops to places where I want them to be. Did this influence the story? Her love for the river is present in the stories. The tidal river with it’s ebbs and flows greatly resembles her life.
How often does your muse distract you from day to day minutiae?
Since I’m retired from all outside employment, while I don’t have a muse, I do write every day and when ever I want to write. I do interrupt my writing for the little things like grocery shopping and caring for my semi-invalid husband of 55 years.
What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you?
I’ve already begun blocking in my next story. This one is a nurse-doctor romance – The Leo Aquarius Connection. Following this I’ll work on the last of this series, The Virgo Pisces Connection and finally The Children of Fyre the last of the Fyre stories featuring dragons and spicy romance. So far, that’s what I have finished the chapter synopses for.
Murder and Sweet Tea
Mrs. Miller Mysteries Series
Books We Love LTD
Mystery
Available HERE
Blurb: As Katherine prepares for her first wedding anniversary, the house next door is sold. She soon becomes friends and involved in the life and troubles of Sabrina Gates, a young writer who has had remarkable success. This Southern writer introduces Kate to sweet tea and Kate in turn shows her neighbor a number of mint teas she makes. Sabrina is hounded by a cowardly ex-husband who wants money, a former agent who had Sabrina sign a badly written contract for her first two books and a blogger who is a frustrated writer. When a murder victim is found in Sabrina's yard, Kate with the help of her new husband sets out to save Sabrina's life. Her Maine Coon cat, Robespierre is there to aid in a most unexpected way.
Excerpt:
For once I could answer with a yes. When I stepped outside, I paused on the patio to glare at the sky. Should I forgo the walk and go to the river. I glanced toward the Hudson. No waves, all calm. Nothing like the churning water during a storm. When the weather broke, I could sit in my comfy recliner and watch through the huge picture window. Onward. If I wanted to walk, not was the time. If the storm arrived while I was at Sarah’s, she would drive me home.
I strode up the sidewalk toward the cross street. As I passed Sabrina’s house, I noticed a huge heap on the lawn. I narrowed my eyes for a better look. Was that…I edged onto the grass.
When I was a few feet closer, I saw that looked like blonde hair. I froze. “Sabrina.” My voice pierced the sullen air. Edging closer, I saw the profile of a stranger. Relief flooded through me bringing a moment of dizziness. The woman lay on her side. What I could see of the face belonged to a stranger. I touched her neck and felt no answering pulse.
Questions bombarded me, slicing through the need to act. Who was she? Why had she been killed? Other than her blonde hair, she didn’t resemble Sabrina. Was this a warning or had the stranger been mistaken for my neighbor? While Sabrina had enemies, killing her served no purpose.”
A sudden thought rocked me. How had the woman died? Sabrina had planned to apply for a gun permit. Surely not enough time had passed for the background check to be completed or for her parents to arrive from Georgia with the gun. I didn’t think anyone could mail a gun.
Foolish thought, I decided. Why would Sabrina want to kill a stranger who from a distance resembled her?
Blonde hair. Another of the principal actors had light hair. Belinda’s bleached hair bordered on silver.
Should I alert Sabrina? I glanced at the house and saw no lights. A roll of thunder sounded. I pulled the phone from my pocket. The fool thing slipped from my hand and landed on the grass. As I bent to retrieve the cell, I saw the dark stain of blood on the grass. I shook my head. Not Sabrina. With shaking hands I stepped back and hit 911.
“What is your emergency?”
“I need an officer to come to Three River Edge Road. There’s a body on the lawn. A woman. Dead. Shot.”
“Someone is on the way.”
I moved away from the stranger. Maybe I should warn Sabrina. Would I destroy evidence by walking to the house? Before deciding what to do, a patrol car arrived.
The young officer left the vehicle and reached my side. “Mrs. Miller, what have you found?”
“The name is Mrs. Claybourne these days.” I pointed to the body. He held my arm. As we walked toward the victim, his expression made me wonder if he was going to be ill. When he reached a hand toward the body, I grasped his arm. “Don’t touch her.”
He jumped back. “You’re right.”
If the light had been bright enough, I think the pallor of his face would be tinged with green. “You’d better move away from the scene”
He retreated and I followed. With distance a blush covered his cheeks. “Did you touch anything?” he asked.
“Her neck. There was no pulse and I knew she was dead. My phone nearly landed in the pool of blood.” Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. “Call the detectives and the crime scene crew before any chance of finding evidence is lost. “
He made the calls. The storm gathered closer with constant rumbling and flashes of lightning illuminating the corpse. Before long a sedan pulled behind the patrol car. Pete and Doug arrived. A van followed.
Pete strode across the lawn and peered at the body before walking to my side. “Another body, Mrs. C. I thought you’d sworn off finding the dead.”
I pursed my lips. “I did. I also told Lars the next one was his. If he’d come walking, I would have been spared.”
The men from the van began their study of the corpse. Flashes from a camera vied with the lightning. A misting rain began.
“Any idea who she is?”
“Never saw her before. When I saw the blonde hair, I feared something had happened to Sabrina. Then I thought of her former agent. She’s a bleached blonde.”
“I see what you mean.” He stared at the body.
Bio:
Award winning author Janet lane Walters was born in Wilkensburg, Pa July 17, 1936 reported to be the hottest day of the summer. She has been a published author since 1968 beginning with short stories and moving into novels when an editor told her a short story sounded like a synopsis for a novel. In the 197os and 1980s she published 4 sweet nurse romance novels. Then she returned to school to earn a BS in Nursing and a BA in English. Returning to work as a nurse to help put four children through college she put her writing career on hold. In 1993 she retired from nursing and began writing again. A new nurse romance followed in print. Then she discovered electronic publishing and since 1998 has been electronically published.
Janet calls herself an eclectic writer since she moved from genre to genre. There are mysteries featuring Katheine Miller a former nurse who seems to stumble over bodies wherever she goes. Using her interest in Astrology, she ahs several series that use Astrology as a premise for the stories. Once she earned enough money to travel to Ireland by casting charts for people. She has many books in the romance genre, some of them are contemporary and are nurse romance, others fall into the fantasy or paranormal forms of romance. Interested in reincarnation, she has used this as a jumping point for at least two novels. Two of her novels deal with alternate worlds using a love affair with Ancient Egypt.
Under her other name J.L. Walters she has written a YA fantasy series called Affinities. She has also written a non-fiction book when her co-author Jane Toombs that won the EPIC Award in 2003 for best Non-fiction. During her career she has received other awards and has a number of great reviews.
Besides her four adult children, she has seven grandchildren. Five of them are the models for the YA series. The other two arrived too late to play a large role in the series. Four of her grandchhildren are bi-racial and 3 are chinese so the eclectic even invades her family. She has been married to the same man for more than 50 years. He's a psychiatrist who refuses to cure her obsession for writing.
Janet calls herself an eclectic writer since she moved from genre to genre. There are mysteries featuring Katheine Miller a former nurse who seems to stumble over bodies wherever she goes. Using her interest in Astrology, she ahs several series that use Astrology as a premise for the stories. Once she earned enough money to travel to Ireland by casting charts for people. She has many books in the romance genre, some of them are contemporary and are nurse romance, others fall into the fantasy or paranormal forms of romance. Interested in reincarnation, she has used this as a jumping point for at least two novels. Two of her novels deal with alternate worlds using a love affair with Ancient Egypt.
Under her other name J.L. Walters she has written a YA fantasy series called Affinities. She has also written a non-fiction book when her co-author Jane Toombs that won the EPIC Award in 2003 for best Non-fiction. During her career she has received other awards and has a number of great reviews.
Besides her four adult children, she has seven grandchildren. Five of them are the models for the YA series. The other two arrived too late to play a large role in the series. Four of her grandchhildren are bi-racial and 3 are chinese so the eclectic even invades her family. She has been married to the same man for more than 50 years. He's a psychiatrist who refuses to cure her obsession for writing.
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2 comments:
Thanks for having me. I'll be promoting this a bit, Janet
Good to learn a bit more about one of my favorite authors. Phew, your schedule makes me feel quite lazy, Janet.
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