Nancy: Please welcome an author who sounds like she has been as busy this year as I have! She writes mysteries as Janis Patterson, romances and other things as Janis Susan May, children's books as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly works as J.S.M. Patterson.
Janis: Some cultures regarded autumn as the end of the year; the
winter was the dead time and spring was regarded as the beginning of the year.
This Halloween is a definite ending for me this year. I have
spent the summer immersed in a wildly absorbing project. I had obtained the
rights back to all the ones I could of my backlist and had two new books which
had never been published. In May I self published one book as a test balloon.
Found a wonderful scanner, an incredible formatter and a supremely gifted cover
artist. As the book had been published before by a major publisher I didn’t
send it through the complete editorial process again, but did go through it
myself, tweaking and doing some minor revisions. From decision to republish to
actually pushing the ‘publish’ button was six weeks, during which time I worked
on writing a new book and other things.
Nancy: Wow! You sound like me again! I have a book coming out this weekend, and recovered three previously published novels from a now-defunct publisher. I am working hard to bring one of them out in December with a new title, new cover (by me), and a cleaner edit.
Janis: The launch went well and sales were good enough to convince
me that I should do all the rest of the books. However, time went against me. I
did this and that with the books and at the end of three weeks had accomplished
a lot – just not all one one book. I realized I had to give myself a deadline
and – in a moment of pure insanity – to do one book every two weeks beginning
on the 30 of June. My team went into hyperventilation, but agreed that it could
be done.
And do it we have. LACEY, the last book, re-released the 30 of October, with each book being released right on schedule.
I have seldom been so proud of any accomplishment in my life.
Two of the books were new, never before published – THE
EGYPTIAN FILE and THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION. Both are romantic suspenses and are
very special to me.
The main idea for THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION was born many
years ago while I worked for three months on a film made in Jerusalem. One or
two of the adventures occurring to the heroine actually happened to me. No, I’m
not telling which ones!
The idea for THE EGYPTIAN FILE germinated during the three
weeks my husband and I spent in Egypt our last trip there. Having other
commitments, it was a while before I could start working on it, and by then I
didn’t trust my memory of exactly what I seen. The Egyptological community is
so very helpful and supportive, and I made a few new friends while doing
research. I am a bear on having my facts right! The upside is that a new
mystery idea – and a fabulous research opportunity – grew out of one of these
contacts. I love Ancient Egyptian history, and THE EGYPTIAN FILE has both
history and contemporary romantic suspense. It was great fun to write, and I’m
so looking forward to the next Egyptian mystery – hidden treasure, a fake
psychic, two young lovers and a ghost... Can’t wait.
THREE FACTS READERS MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME :
Hmmm. I’m really rather a boring person, so there’s not
really that much interesting to know about me.
Hmmm.
1.
I used to design and make a line of jewelry made
from animal bone and semi-precious gemstones.
2.
For more than 20 years I wore a diamond ring on
my left thumb.
3.
I absolutely love thunderstorms.
THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION
When their original leader falls
ill choir director Robin Sabine reluctantly agrees to accompany six teenagers
to a musical competition in Jerusalem. The simple purchase of a souvenir for
her boss' wife plunges her into a nightmare of danger, kidnapping and almost
certain death. The unexpected appearance of a former boyfriend turned enemy
unnerves her, and the attentions of a suave, sophisticated British diplomat
turn her head even as she wonders if she can trust him.
After her unscheduled shopping trip in the Old City Robin discovers that there
are a number of people inordinately interested in her movements. Her room is
searched. She has difficulties with the competition. Neither man in her life
trusts the other and after being ruthlessly kidnapped, Robin realizes that a
number of people - including her teenaged charges - believe she is a spy.
Conflicting loyalties and the specter of international terrorism make her doubt
everything she ever thought she knew. Worst of all, the teens who have been put
in her care disappear even as Robin's own life is threatened. If she is going
to survive and rescue all entrusted to her, Robin will need all the wits and
courage she can muster.
THE EGYPTIAN FILE
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Melissa Warrender is trying to
solve the strange death of her art-gallery owner father. Her father's partner
in Warrender's Fine Art, Melissa's specialty is paintings of the 17th and long
18th centuries, while her father primarily dealt in antiquities. Driven by an
unexplained phone call which may or may not have come from her late father, she
goes to Cairo to retrieve a mysterious file, not knowing that she is a prime
suspect of a special task force set up to stop antiquities smuggling and the
target of
her father's chief rival.
David El-Baradi is a professor of Egyptology in
London, in Cairo on sabbatical to help the task force. Forced into masquerading
as a taxi driver who befriends Melissa, he finds himself attracted to her and,
eventually, becomes convinced of her innocence. David cannot reveal his true
identity, especially when it starts to seem that the treasure is an undiscovered
royal treasure. As the pair lurch across Egypt, dodging the murderous son of
Warrender's chief rival and unable to call on the task force for help, they
finally decipher the cryptic clues and solve the mysteries of THE EGYPTIAN
FILE, almost sacrificing their lives to do so.
Ebooks:
Paperback:
Nancy: What's next for you?
Janis: What’s next for me? First of all, I’m taking a week or so
off to get reacquainted with my life and get some rest. As for writing, I’m in
the final throes of completing a modern gothic set in rural England called THE
MASTER OF MORECOMBE HALL. After that’s done, I have a hankering to go back to cozy
mystery for a while. I’ve a couple of ideas – a young debutante in 1916 New
Orleans is suddenly orphaned and totally broke when it is discovered that her
late brother’s wife – unknown to any of the family – has been murdered. Another
is a contemporary, where a fact researcher for an eccentric non-fiction writer
finds herself pitched into a long dead scandal and a current murder. A third is
about a wealthy, very eccentric older woman finds herself trapped very much
against her will in a rehabilitation home after a car accident – and then the
murders begin.
There’s the new Egyptian mystery waiting impatiently, but I
can’t begin my research until March (it’s complicated, and I can’t say any more
about it right now). Then there’s another half dozen potential ideas lurking at
the fringes of my mind just waiting to pounce. But there always are.
I’ve just finished a cozy mystery called MURDER AND MISS
WRIGHT, which I’m allowing to go cold before I send it to my editor. It’s about
a number of murders at a scholarly archaeological conference.
My official bio :
Janis Susan May is a
seventh-generation Texan and a third-generation wordsmith who writes mysteries
as Janis Patterson, romances and other things as Janis Susan May, children's
books as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly works as J.S.M. Patterson.
Formerly an actress and singer, a talent agent and
Supervisor of Accessioning for a bio-genetic DNA testing lab, Janis has also
been editor-in-chief of two multi-magazine publishing groups. She founded and
was the original editor of The Newsletter of the North Texas Chapter of the
American Research Center in Egypt, which for the nine years of her reign was
the international organization's only monthly publication. Long interested in
Egyptology, she was one of the founders of the North Texas chapter and was the
closing speaker for the ARCE International Conference in Boston in 2005.
Janis married
for the first time when most of her contemporaries were becoming grandmothers.
Her husband, a handsome Navy Captain several years younger than she, even
proposed in a moonlit garden in Egypt. Janis and her husband live in Texas with
an assortment of rescued furbabies.
