INTERVIEW

Interviewed by JA Slashinski of Bast Press

JA: Jean, your bio says you started writing mysteries when you were fifty-three. What took so long?

Jean: I've been busy. I'm kidding. Honestly, I never gave fiction writing a thought. I've written songs and poetry my entire life, but sitting down to write a book was a bit too ominous for me. Since I daydreamed through most of my classes in school, I never learned the basics of grammar and style. It took me a long time to realize, those were things I could learn, but the imagination to create people, places and stories was something I had.

JA: I heard rumors that you wrote ten books in two years. Is that true?

Jean: Yes, that's a lot of people to have floating around in my head.

JA: How did you do it?

Jean: No one was more surprised than me. From the moment I rubbed my hands together and cracked my knuckles in front of the keyboard, I was in love. Days past, weeks. Of course I had to continue doing graphic work to pay the rent, but literally, every spare minute I had, I was writing. When I wasn't in front of the computer, I was thinking about characters and plot twists.

JA: So one day, you woke and decided to write?

Jean: No, I think the decision to give it a try was an attempt to preserve my sanity. I was a typical child of the 60s and 70s. War protests, demonstrations, and having a sense that we still made a difference and our leaders listened to what we wanted, because they worked for us. I've always been a tad naive. Quite honestly, I was appalled by what the politicians were doing, by what big business was doing. In order to clear my head, I had to fill it. It was a double blessing for me, because not only was I able to push some of the depressing news away for a time, I found a new passion in the process.

JA: You live in New Mexico, yet many of your books take place in Chicago.

Jean: I grew up in Chicago and spent much of my life there.

JA: Are your characters based on people you know.

Jean: I think some of them may be, but not consciously. I don't say, oh, I'll make this person like Linda. The characters pretty much become who they want. The story often takes twists and turns I'd never planned on. They don't write themselves, but they do take over on occasion.

JA: Is there any advice you'd give to someone who wanted to start writing, particularly someone who wanted to start later in life?

Jean: You mean old folk. I'd tell them to start. Whatever the project is, start, because you don't have the time you had when you were twenty. If you want to write a book, go for it. Everyone should write a book. The publishing industry is a mess, and I don't see it improving in the near future, no matter how many, or how few books are published. If you want to do something for fame or fortune, I don't know about that, but if you want to do something for the love of doing it, do it, and do it now.