Monday, July 18, 2011

INTERVIEW WITH ECLECTIC AUTHOR JANET LANE WALTERS

Vijaya: When are your latest and upcoming releases, and what genre or subgenre are they?


Janet: Latest release. In June, there were four, all re-releases - three contemporary and one historical. Any day now there will be two more, one a contemporary set of novellas with Jane Toombs, called Moon Pool and the other is a YA fantasy called Quests and is part of a YA series. I tend to pop around the genres a lot. Actually The Temple of Fyre though already in electronic form has been released in paperback/

Vijaya: Tell me a little about these books
Janet: The Temple of Fyre is a spicy fantasy romance. The heroine is in training as a priestess of the temple of Fyre and does not like some of the chief priestess' ideas. She is beaten and rescued by the hero. The pair sets off to find the fabled original temple. To gain full control of the fyrestones they must unit physically, mentally and emotionally. They face a final battle with the evil priestess and change the ways of the Temple of Fyre.

More titles coming soon:

The Moon Pool is based on a legend and is paranormal in tone. "Looking into the moon pool on the night of a full moon you will see the one meant for you." One of my heroines looked and rejected the choice. She has a second chance if she goes to the pool during a 'Blue' moon. The second heroine has seen the one for her, married him but he refused to look in the pool. He is dead and she is drawn to the moon pool a second time.

In Quests, the story begun in Flight and Refuge continues. The young people set off on three quests. One group seeks the gems that enhance their control of an element, earth, water, fire or air. The second group searches for artifaces such as a sword, a staff of living wood, a scrying cup and a flute. The third group seeks the remaining halflings with affinities to complete their four quartets. Along the way they must face Dom Senet and his minions and find ways to keep from capture.

Vijaya: How long have you been writing? How many books do you have?

Janet: If we go with the ones I had published before I took the time out to return to nursing to put my children through school there are a number. 31 or so plus 3 non fiction. There are also 7 novellas, some short stories and poems. I began writing in 1968 so it's 40 plus years.

Vijaya: How did you manage to have so many titles? How long are your stories?

Janet: Writing is my obsession and my addiction. I write every day usually several thousand words. The stories range in length from 1500 words to 100,000 words. Most come in around 70,000 words. Each story is as long as it needs to be to accomplish what I set out to do.

Vijaya: Do you find it difficult to write in various genres?

Janet: Since I love reading in a number of genres, I find no problem switching from one to another. I spend a short time telling myself what kind of writer I am until the book is finished. At present I'm into spicy, contemporary and the next will be a paranormal alternate world. Once the current one is finished I'll program myself to a new genre.

Vijaya: Do you write one book at a time? Or can you work on several stories at once?

Janet: Absolutely only one book at a time. If there are stray thoughts about other books I'll jot a note and file that for later. Once tried to do more than one at once but then I became impatient to see something finished so I concentrated on one of the projects.

Vijaya: Are you a plotter or a pantser? and why?

Janet: I am sort of both or neither. I always know the beginning and the end of the story before I begin. Unless I have the ending nailed down I tend to wander. I do a sort of treatment that tells the story in a few paragraphs or pages. This will be divided into scenes or chapters. What happens in each chapter will be left to the writing. The outline is sort of hero meets heroine. bad guy comes onto the scene. they make love. they have a disagreement. Not really a plotting but not a panster just semi-organized.

Vijaya: Who are your favorite authors?

Janet: There is a long list.Bujold, Mccaffrey, Norton, Bradley, Dick Francis, Rollins. I jsut read a lot and there are the oldies John Donne, Tolstoy, Austen. Could have pages of favorites.

Thank you Janet for joining us on this blog.

Find more about Janet on her website HERE
Find her blog, the Eclectic Writer HERE
Find Janet's books at Amazon HERE
Find Janet's many titles in paperback and all eBook formats from all online distributors.

7 comments:

Janet Lane Walters said...

Thanks for having me. Hope this brings a lot of readers to your site.
One problem. I am not Jane Toombs. Though we sometimes partneron books we are two different people. Janet

Vijaya Schartz said...

Ooops! My misunderstanding. Sorry, Janet. I corrected that. Good luck with your career.

Wendy S. Marcus said...

Hi Janet!
I love how you say every story is as long as it needs to be! I wish I had that flexibility!

This was a wonderful interview!

annasmallbooks said...

I like what you said about being both and neither a plotter or pantser! I'm with you there. I always know the beginning and the end - it's the inbetween part that is the adventure!

Shoshanna Evers said...

Great interview as always Janet!

Jane Toombs said...

I'm Jane Toombs, so thought I should comment to let y'all know I do exist separate from Janet, though we're long-time frienda and did co-author one wrting book. Thoutgh we wtie entirely differently, it's amazes both of us we no longer can tell who wrote which chapter in Becoming Your own Critique Partner. I truly do enjoy Janet's books--even her imagination is so different from mine. Jane

Vijaya Schartz said...

Amazing how a mishap can enlighten so many. Glad you joined us Jane. You should send me a post for this blog. That's the least I can do, at:
vijayaschartz@cox.net

Thanks for commenting