H. Schussman interviews Janis Susan May (also known as Janis Patterson)

Heidi:

First, Janis Susan May (who also writes as Janis Patterson), tell us a little about yourself?

Janis Susan May:

You asked for some information about me… there’s not much to tell, as I’m really quite ordinary. I’m a seventh-generation Texan and a third generation wordsmith. I sold my first novel in 1979 and since then have been published in just about every format except for scratching on stone, and I’m up for that if the contract is good enough. I am one of the original 40 or so women who founded RWA in 1980 and am still a Charter Member. Currently I am the Texas representative to the Southwest Region of Mystery Writers of America and am a long-time member of Sisters in Crime, NINC and the Authors Guild, as well as several RWA chapters. I founded and published the Newsletter (now titled Menhedj) for the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, which for the nine years of my reign was the only monthly publication for ARCE in the world. I also got it archived in museums and universities as a scholarly publication. I have worked as a talent agent, a jewelry designer, an actress and singer, an advertising agent, a Supervisor of Accessioning in a bio-genetic DNA testing lab, a document checker in a cruise agency, and several other things. Yes, I do bore very easily.

I married for the first time at 54, after this wonderful Navy Captain (who is a number of years younger than I) proposed in the moonlit garden of the Mena Hotel across the street from the Pyramids. Yes, those Pyramids. I am a shooting enthusiast and a gun rights activist. English is my native tongue, but I am reasonably capable in Spanish and can speak some Italian, French and Arabic. Now I am self-publishing my books, as it is much less stressful than dealing with traditional publishers. I began my self-publishing career in 2014 after getting back the rights to all the books I would ever get back, and in an insane blitz brought them all and two new ones out, one every two weeks from 1 June to 31 October, each freshly edited and with a brand new cover. In March 2015 The Husband and I were invited to come stay in the dig house at the archaeological excavations at El Kab, Egypt – and civilians are never invited to dig houses! – in order to research a book. It took getting permissions from three Egyptian governmental agencies to be allowed to stay. That book, A KILLING AT EL KAB, is scheduled to be released in March 2016, exactly one year after our visit.  Now I am writing on four projects – a murder mystery, two contemporary Gothic romances and the first book of a mystery series about a contract archaeologist. And that’s about it.

Heidi:

Well, you are anything but ordinary, Janis Susan May. What genre do you write?

Janis Susan May:

Perhaps a better question might be ‘what genre do you not write?’ The problem is, I bore very easily, and the idea of writing every book in the same style and/or genre appalls me. So, to answer your question, I write romance and horror as Janis Susan May, light mystery as Janis Patterson, children's as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly and non-fiction as J.S.M. Patterson. I really can’t spread out into any other genres, because I’ve run out of permutations of my name!    

Heidi:

When did you start writing?

Janis Susan May:

I wrote my first ‘book’ when I was four, hand printed and illustrated on typing paper and, as Daddy had explained that a stitched binding was superior to glued or saddle-stapled, sewn together with Mother’s sewing thread. It was, as I remember, about a group of schoolchildren led by a heroic little girl who capture a lion escaped from the zoo before going home to dinner. Needless to say, it was not one of the backlist books I brought out in my 2014 self-publishing blitz! Seriously, I began working in my parents’ advertising agency when I was nine, and was promoted to writing copy when I was around twelve or thirteen. After graduating high school (I have no college degree) I began writing magazine articles and free-lancing while I tried different jobs. I sold my first book – WHERE SHADOWS LINGER, a romantic suspense – to Dell in 1979. It is also not one of the books I self-published; although I do have the rights back it now resides metaphorically ‘under the bed’ and will stay there!

Heidi:

What are you working on now?

Janis Susan May:

I’m just finishing a light mystery called THE NURSING HOME MURDERS (projected release date April 2016), though that title might change. MURDER AND MISS WRIGHT (projected release date February 2016), a light mystery, has just come back for the editor and I’m putting in the front and back matter so it will be able to go to the formatter soon. I’m getting ready to do the final run-through on THE MASTER OF MORECOME HALL (projected release date April 2016), a contemporary Gothic romance to get it ready to go to my beta readers. I’m also getting ready to do the final run-through on A KILLING AT EL KAB (projected release date March 2016), after which it will go back to my beta readers and my advisory committee, and from thence to the editor. Hopefully it will be ready for publication in March, 2016. I’ve done the first half-dozen chapters of A KILLING AT TARA TWO (projected release Fall 2016), the first in my mystery series about a contract archaeologist who works all over the world, and have worked out skeleton ideas for the next three books. I’m just getting started on an as yet untitled short Gothic romance set in Texas for an upcoming anthology; this will be real work, for as you can tell from this interview I do not write short easily. Sounds confusing, but it’s the way I work; I never have less than four and usually more projects going. Did I mention that I bore easily?

Heidi:

Who is your favorite character in your stories?

Janis Susan May:

Usually the protagonist of the book I’m currently working on. I’m just finishing up a light mystery called THE NURSING HOME MURDERS. I don’t say cozy, because there’s no cooking, no crafts, no shoe fetish and no intelligent talking animals, which currently seem to define ‘cozy.’ The heroine is Flora Melkiot, the elderly widow of a very wealthy jeweler; she is autocratic, sublimely self-confident, determined and totally disrespectful of any authority or rules not of her own making – sort of the dark side of Miss Marple. I not only like her, I would kind of like to grow up and be her. On the other hand, when I was working on A KILLING AT EL KAB I resonated to Sandra Caulder – a phony stage psychic on the run from her Russian gangster lover. She is beaten and overwhelmed by life and refuses to accept that she just might have some real psychic abilities. And when I was writing THE EGYPTIAN FILE my heart belonged to Melissa Warrender – an art historian and gallery owner tossed into a totally unfamiliar milieu when she has to go on the run from assorted thugs in Egypt after retrieving a file left by her late father, who telephoned telling her to get it. The odd thing was that he called two months after his funeral. Lily Wright in MURDER AND MISS WRIGHT engaged my attentions deeply enough to consider doing a series about her; I still may. In THE MASTER OF MORECOMBE HALL, it was Emma Morecombe, the spunky American wife of an aristocratic English landowner who still loved him even after she fled their stately home in fear of her life. I firmly believe that the main character of your current project should be your favorite character – at least until the book is finished. If you don’t care about your characters, who will?

Heidi:

Do you see yourself in any of your characters?

Janis Susan May:

I can’t answer that question. I do believe that a writer unconsciously puts a piece of herself, however small, into every character, but to recognize that piece is beyond me. My  characters are simply themselves. Some parts of characters and real people are identical, but to assign specific characteristics to specific people just doesn’t work for me. Also, I don’t like the practice of basing characters on actual people. Characters should be their own person and not a simulacra of an existing person. That’s not creative and it is unfair to the story.

Heidi:

Where do you write? Describe your workplace.

Janis Susan May:

Normally my ‘office’ is a small desk set against the wall in our guest room, but right now I am revamping it – changing out some of the guest room furniture, going through boxes that have been stored in the closet forever, that sort of thing. The resulting tumult makes working there impossible, so for the last couple of months I have been working at a big antique wooden desk in our den. As the television is also in there, I constantly fight the temptation to watch it – especially as one of our local channels has been running two back-to-back Jessica Fletcher episodes every weekday! However, the work is getting done. Our den is huge and is actually four rooms in one – the old library (the first one in the house – we now have three), the dining room, the tv/den area and a large sunroom. Our animals – two very neurotic cats and a spoilt, prissy little dog – also run free in here during the day and they are always a distraction. I can and have written just about anywhere you can think of, from the car when we’re traveling, to sitting in the pickup out in the back of beyond when The Husband goes to a rocket meet or a rockhounding expedition, to the dining table of the flat we rented in Luxor this spring, to any number of airports and hotel rooms.

Heidi:

Who is/are your all-time favorite author/s?

Janis Susan May:

Simple – Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters, who were both the magnificent Egyptologist Dr. Barbara Mertz. If I could be even half as good as she I would be over the moon happy. One of the most spectacular days in my life was when a respected reviewer said ‘if you like Elizabeth Peters you will like Janis Susan May’s THE EGYPTIAN FILE.’ My feet didn’t touch ground for days. Even better was that I was fortunate enough to have Barbara as a friend. Oddly enough, we met not through writing, but through our interest in Egyptology. It was at a the yearly international conference for the American Research Center in Egypt many years ago and we hit it off then, staying in touch until her death in 2013. In June 2015 I was honored to be invited to present a paper on “Egyptology and Elizabeth Peters” at the Historical Novel Society conference in Denver.

Heidi:

Did you find writing a query letter a challenge? If so, how did you overcome it? Do you think there was a key phrase or idea in your query letter?

Janis Susan May:

The only thing I detest more than a query letter is a synopsis, and the best thing about self-publishing is that I don’t have to waste time with either. My stories are complex and it hurts to pare them down to a few sentences, which to my mind takes all the life out of them. I began my career in the late 70s, when for a serious writer there was only traditional publishing and self-publishing was regarded as vanity publishing and the kiss of death for a career. Then you did all your contacts by snail mail – no internet at all, at least not for the general populace – and every book had to have both a query letter and a synopsis. I assume they still do in traditional publishing. I would rather write a full novel than a synopsis. As for key phrases, I have no idea. I just did the best I could. I always wanted to write a very simple query letter – “Buy my book or I will bomb your car.” In those days it was funny; now it most definitely isn’t. I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with either a synopsis or query letter today.

Heidi:

What advice do you have for a writer aspiring to be published?

Janis Susan May:

Read. Write. Read some more. Write some more. Repeat forever, even after publication.

Heidi:

What is your latest release?

Janis Susan May:

CURSE OF THE EXILE, (which you reviewed on this blog) a traditional Gothic romance set in 1860s Scotland which has been compared to the works of those Gothic icons, Victoria Holt and Virginia Coffman. Angelina Barstow is a spunky but proper young woman who shocks society by working as an assistant to her feckless, womanizing, librarian father. They are hired to catalogue the library of Sir Nairn MacTaggert in a remote Scottish castle. There is a handsome younger brother, an unknown enemy, a vengeful former suitor and a ghost that might not be a ghost. It was great fun to write. And, as you have probably noticed, I much prefer writing books to publishing them. That’s why so many are set to come out early in 2016!

Heidi:

Would you like to acknowledge someone for their help/assistance/faith in you/etc.?

Janis Susan May:

Most definitely. No one writes a book in a vacuum. I have been blessed to have wonderful beta readers and superb technical advisers, a fantastic editor (Laree Bryant) and a marvelous cover artist (Dawn Charles of Bookgraphics). Mostly though, I thank my parents and my husband. My parents were both ‘word’ people and from the beginning they supported and encouraged my writing. They are both gone now, and I miss their encouragement and advice to this day. They and my wonderful husband have been truly my greatest blessings. The Husband is a ‘science’ person and I think the writer part of me simply baffled him. Probably it still does, but he is incredibly supportive even though to this day I don’t think he truly understands what I do. He is, however, gradually taking over some of the mechanics of my self-publishing – doing publicity, etc. He also listens patiently as I work to construct the skeleton of a plot and acts as my armaments advisor even though he doubtlessly thinks I am reality-challenged. Which I am.

...always a good story!

...committing crime with style!

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