Romance Author Janet Lane Walters Shares Her Writing Life
~Really Wanting to Write~
Janet Lane Walters writes fantasy and paranormal romance. In her long writing career, she has also written nurse romance, cozy mysteries, young adult, and even a children’s book. Today she shares her writing life and how it took sixteen rejections to get her first book published.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’ve been a published author for 50 years though there was a 10 year break in my writing career when I returned to work as a nurse to help finance children’s college educations. I’ve always been a reader, and one still finds me with a book loaded into my Kindle to read. There are four children and seven grandchildren to keep me amused. My writing varies from romance, just about any kind from sweet to spicy to paranormal and fantasy. I have a string of cozy mysteries and one medical suspense. My imagination takes me to familiar places and to those of the mind. I’ve published short stories, poetry and non-fiction as well as fiction. Discovering electronic publishing and my great publisher have kept me moving forward. To explore new places and ideas.
Where is your favorite place to write?
I have a great study with windows that give me a view of the Hudson River, especially in the winter. In the summer, there are too many trees. The room is huge and has bookshelves as well as my computer desk and all I might need. I often sit in my recliner and use pen and paper to write rough drafts and often two of three more drafts. While this is my favorite place to write, I’ve been known to write in doctor’s offices, at the hospital waiting for news of my husband’s surgeries. I once had an idea I just had to write down while driving through town. The light was red. I grabbed the pen and pad from the passenger’s seat and scribbled. A tap at the window showed an officer telling me the light had changed three times and to move on.
When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?
I began writing during my teens and tried to write novels but I had so little experience with life, my writings were merely what today is called fan fiction. I went to school to become a registered nurse and my writing turned to case studies and papers. After I married, I decided I really wanted to write. Perhaps this was because my husband an I were in a small town with a limited library so I tried to write what I wanted to read. There, I read books on writing and slowly around 1966 began to write short stories. In 1968, I sold my first short story and took a few college classes on writing fiction. An editor rejected one of my short stories telling me is sounded like the synopsis for a novel. I buckled down and in 1972 sold my first novel. Three more followed before I returned to work as a nurse. In 1998, I found electronic books, resigned from nursing and wrote full time.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
Maybe not challenges but a learning experience. When I began looking for a publisher, publishing was a different place. For fiction you had to submit the entire manuscript. The editors often replied and there were many places to send your book in a box with return postage. A good bit of money for a full mss. The first editor sent a rejection but with a comment. I like your idea but your characters exist in a vacuum. She took a single paragraph and showed me what to do. There were other rejections with other comments that taught me how to write a novel. A bit about dialogue, about strengthening the conflict and many other things. Sixteen times by different publishers, the book was rejected. The seventeenth one took the book, and I was off applying all I had learned.
What project are you working on now or what book will be next?
Just finished a fantasy romance, Children of Fyre, the final book in a series. I’ve begun Forgotten Dreams, Book 5 in the Moon Child series. The heroine, Emma is a cancer and a nurse practitioner in private practice with her doctor friend, Manon. The hero Chad is a Leo, an action adventure actor who has made it big in Hollywook. He forgot their high school dream of love and tired of being type-cast needs a change. When he sees Emma again, he wants to rekindle their romance. She wants to forget the dreams of the past.
Have you written non-fiction or children’s books? How has that influenced your fiction writing?
I’ve written one children’s story that was published and two that weren’t. I also have two YA fantasy series. For a time, I did some ghostwriting for doctors and saw several published. I’m not sure any of these influenced my writing. The non-fiction books were mainly self-help or advice books. Though there was one Words Perfect; Becoming Your Own Critique Partner that won an EPIC Award for non-fiction. Written with my writing buddy, Jane Toombs, this book made me think more about all that goes into writing fiction.
Do you have an unusual hobby?
This question made me think. Over the years, I’ve had some interesting hobbies. There was needlework, making chair cushions, and hangings for the church. I played with making candles for a time and making candy another. For several years I composed music and some of it was played at a church. My most unusual hobby was doing horoscopes for people with a friend. She did the math. I interpreted the information from the charts. That was fun but like other hobbies, the desire to pursue lasted only so long. Writing began as a hobby, but the desire to move on has never left.
Children of Fyre by Jane Lane Walters
In this return to the Island of Fyre, each of the heros and heroines of the three previous books have children.
Lorton is the youngest son of the Wizards of Fyre, and has bonded with the yellow dragon. The dragon through the magic of the stones has been rejuvenated and is now green. Dragon sends Lorton to travel to where the Dragons of Fyre are raised. There he meets Arkon, son of the hero and heroine of the Dragons of Fyre.
There have been four eggs laid, and two young men and two young women must be found to bond with them. On the island where the evil wizards were exiled, Cerene has grown up as little more than a slave. She can use all the fyrestones unlike her father. She learns about the kidnapping of Riara, daughter of the hero and heroine of the Temple of Fyre and vows to save her.
Can the four unite with their dragons in time to finally destroy the evil?
Where to Buy
AMAZON | BOOKSWELOVE
Learn more about Janet Lane Walters
Thanks for stopping by. It is exciting to be published and even after 50 plus books each time I see a new one hit the shelves, I become excited. Hope the same occurs for you.
Janet – good for you in persevering in writing. I started writing in 2001. That book got wiped from my computer. Somewhere packed away is a written copy, but it is still in my head. And I bet if I read what I wrote so long ago, it would be terrible. Like you, I’ve had many rejections and much mentoring help. So finally I am published. It’s ben an exciting journey, as yours sounds the same. Love your cover. And I’m glad this is one hobby that stuck.