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Contact Jan | Interview with Jan | Download Media Bio
I spent about twenty years working as a journalist, and despite the competitive egos and down-and-dirty politics I feature in my novels, I miss the newsroom, which is a much nicer place than I let on.
Today, I’m only a part-time journalist, working mostly from home as a correspondent for The Boston Globe and as a freelance magazine writer. But in my early years, I reported on everything from biotechnology to school lunch menus at The Worcester Telegram in Massachusetts and later was able to hone my investigative skills at The Providence Journal in Rhode Island, where I got to cover the kind of innovative financial corruption that makes that state such a great place to be a reporter.
I grew up in Clifton, New Jersey, where I learned to wear tight clothes and a lot of makeup. Clifton was both urban and very small town. My father, a lawyer and former city councilor, knew everyone – especially the cops, which made my teenage years challenging. But my father also knew an infamous cop charged with murder. After the acquittal, I was granted an interview and wrote my first murder story at 15 years old for my high school paper.
Along with mystery authors Dana Cameron and Kate Flora, Jan took on the topic of "Research and the Mystery Novel" at the New England Crime Bake mystery conference. |
I went to Boston University where I majored in journalism, worked on a college paper that went defunct, and waitressed at The Eliot Lounge -- the backdrop for Addy’s first meeting with the suspect, Kit Korbanics, in Final Copy.
Also, at B.U., I became friends with a man who would become a major criminal and be executed gangland style. His story is the inspiration for one of the subplots in Final Copy.
I got the idea for A Confidential Source years ago, listening to former mayor Buddy Cianci’s drive time talk radio show as I headed home each night from the Providence newsroom. Amused by the abject adoration of the listeners, I decided I wanted my protagonist to be addicted to talk radio. I had no idea who was going to be murdered.
I live in a suburb between Boston and Providence with my husband, two children, a dog and a bird. When I’m not writing, I play tennis. Transplanted to New England, I’ve become a Red Sox fan and lately have started to read the sports page first and listen to talk radio. Unlike Hallie, I’ve yet to call in.
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