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!
