Event Preview: Three Chances To Hear J.A. Jance Read From Her New Novel "Trial By Fire"

This post is authored by contributor, Teresa Bergen.  Ms. Bergen is the author of the novel Killing The President, and in addition to writing, transcribes and edits oral histories, paints animal portraits, makes costume devil horns, teaches yoga, and plays bass in an indie rock band.

According to Ms. Jance’s website, she wanted to be a writer since the second grade. But during college in the 1960s, the creative writing director said girls should be nurses or teachers. He refused to let her into the program. Nor was her first husband in favor of her writing. So she studied English and library science, then taught school and worked in a library. It wasn’t until she was divorced with two children and a full time job selling life insurance that she began to write. She wrote her first three books between four AM and seven AM, before she got her kids up to go to school. Okay, that’s enough to make a lot of writers feel lazy.

And she has kept up a prolific writing career, with three different mystery series and about forty books out. Even her traveling schedule is prolific. She is currently promoting her new novel, Trial by Fire (Touchstone). This week she has multiple events Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in three different Washington cities. Then Thursday she will be at the Barnes & Noble in Vancouver from 12-1:30, Murder by the Book from 4-5:30, and the Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing from 7 to 8:30.

Trial by Fire is the latest in a series about Alison Reynolds, a forty-something television newscaster who is forced off the air for being over the hill. She returns home to Sedona, Arizona, where she manages to get into all sorts of trouble while living in a trailer with her college age son and writing a blog. In case you’re wondering, writing for Reading Local has not yet led to so much excitement for me.

Here’s your chance to see a super famous, super successful writer up close. I’d recommend buying your J.A. Jance books at Murder by the Book, which is a fabulous mystery and thriller specialty store, an intimate place for meeting authors, and a miracle for remaining in business as a small, specialty bookstore.