This is a week when I need to buckle down on the book, I was dreading trying to figure out what I’d write for the blog post. The answer to that question came, as it so often does, in this morning’s batch of email.
Months ago I was contacted by Jenny Wheeler, a podcaster from New Zealand, who wanted to do an interview with me to be posted on a podcast segment aimed at Binge Readers. So yes, it seems I do have readers in faraway New Zealand, and I also know that some of those readers are most likely of the binge reading variety—the ones who grab hold of a series and read every single book in order, one after another. For years people have told me that reading my books is like eating Fritos because you can’t read just one. And thank goodness that’s true!
Eventually the interview appointment showed up on my schedule, and Jenny and I recorded it. After that, as so often happens, nothing happened—nothing at all—until today when I heard from Jenny again letting me know that the interview is now live.
Posted on line is an audio recording with a play button at the top of the page as well as a written transcript. Take your pick. I guess reading the written version could be referred to as either a virtual interview once removed or else as a socially distanced interview. Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3v3iC6e.
If you happen to be someone who has come to one or more of my live events, you may have heard some of the stories before—or not. And the time I would have spent writing the blog today was already expended when I did the interview. I believe that qualifies as a win/win.
So here’s today’s second-hand blog, coming to you the long way around via New Zealand.
See there? It really is a small, small world.
Please pardon the ear worm.
I too am a Frito binge reader of your books, and of other authors whose work I love. Looking forward to listening to the podcast. Thank you.
That was a very interesting interview. Every time I hear the story of the killer your husband rode with I think it’s a miracle nothing happened to you. Thank you for telling us so much about your writing process.
thanks again for helping me shrink my world. BY increaseing my contacts. i.e. jenny wheeler blog. Chuck from Tacoma.
Loved it! Hearing you from across the globe is awesome!
I guess I am a binge reader also. The first book of yours that I read was Minor in Possession. You had come to Ballard High School for a reading and Sandy and I went. Both of our boys had recently gotten Minors in Possessions and we were mortified. Your comment when we told you this was “If that’s all the trouble they get into, you are lucky.” After reading that book–#8–we went back and started reading from book 1 and have continued ever since. One time I was at QFC buying two of your latest books and the bagger asked why I was buying two of the same book. I replied that one was for a friend–Sandy. He said “Why don’t you just share the book.” I replied with “Not a J. A. Jance book. We each want our own.”
I have been to several book signings and never heard the story of the serial killer hitch hiking episode. Wow! My friend that introduced me to your books lives 3 or 4 miles from the Poisoned Pen book store in Scottsdale. So I would time my visits to her to coincide with your book signings there. We would both go. We would stop at the book store, buy the book, put our names on chairs in the front row, go to dinner and return for the event. Don’t know if that will happen again. I hope so, but she is very frail.
Now I know why I was a good listener and can fill in the blanks with the genealogy – all my cousins were either way older or way younger than I am. I would sit on the floor and play with my paperdolls while the adults talked forgetting I was there. I think I have read all of your books including the Walker books. Why did this happen? I listen to audiobooks because of my eyesight problems and was out of books I was allowed to borrow except on a program called Overdrive from my library. Never looked back.
Great!
Aw, and I thought I was your only reader south of the equator!
Bob Glass, Brisbane Australia
Every time you mention Nancy Drew, which you did in the podcast, I flash back to the same delicious vacation. I lived in small towns growing up, loved Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames, but the local libraries only had some of the books, not the whole series. I owned a few but nowhere near enough to fill in the gaps. Then when I was 11 years old my family went to visit Jamaica, West Indies, in part to see family who were still on the island. When we arrived at the home of my mom’s uncle, who had daughters slightly older than I, I discovered that they had the ENTIRE collection of Nancy Drew!! While the rest of the children (my siblings and assorted cousins) played soccer, I binge-read as many of the ones I had never seen as I could in a two-day visit. I still smile remembering how happy I was!
I guess I’ve been binge-reading all my life, and I realize that my children fed their binge-reading on Brian Jacques, K.A. Applegate, and J.K. Rowling, so it’s a family trait.
This interesting interview was the first time I heard your voice. The timber and tone jerked me back many years to hear the voice of my rural county patrol and investigations partner, whose life paralleled your experiences in some ways. I heard her voice as clearly as yours when you spoke. It puts you in good company, indeed. Janice would have approved of you, Joanna, Ali and Beau and all the others, who stare at me from my bookcase wondering why I don’t spend more time visiting there. Thank you!
Well, I just finished the latest Joanna Brady after reading all the J P Beaumont books after reading all the Ali Reynolds…..are the Walker family books far behind?? You’d better get busy! I’m gaining on you……
Judy,
I’m just now finishing reading the binge reading interview. Sometimes it’s hard to find a quiet time so I can read without Frank asking a question or my little dog needing some attention or the phone ringing. So this morning while it’s very early & totally quiet I began the interview. Though I have heard most of this before, I never tire of hearing it again and almost always I learn something new of your life or writing process. I only know that I am completely enthralled and so anxious for the next book, regardless of which series it will be part of.