Q & A with Author Jane Toombs

• How long have you been in the business?

My first book—a gothic titled  TULE WITCH—was published by Avon in 1973 , so that makes it 36 years.  While it wasn’t the first thing I every wrote, it was the first complete novel.

• Are you a plotter or pantster?

Long answer here.  My first two books were written off the top of my head and sold.  The third book did not.  At this point, my agent called to tell me another publisher was planning a Zodiac Gothic series and needed a gothic writer for Sagittarius.  Could I send him a synopsis and the usual three chapter partial?  The three chapter part of it I understood, but I had to ask him what he meant by a synopsis. Because before I’d always written an entire book before selling  it. To his credit he took that calmly and not only explained what a synopsis was, but told me most books sold on partials. What an eye-opener.  So I wrote a synopsis, sent him the partial and got the contract.  Then I took out my ms. that hadn’t sold and wrote a synopsis for it.  This showed me immediately were I’d gone off track.  Once I rewrote that to more or less fit the synopsis, that one promptly sold.  So right them and there I switched from being a pantster to a plotter.  I’m one who needs a synopsis guideline to see I don’t travel too far off course.   Even though I do depart from the synopsis, I don’t drift away from it.

• Do you write multiple drafts or barely need revisions when typing The End?

Neither actually.  I write the first chapter,  Before going on to chapter two, I edit chapter one.  And so on all through the book, never allowing myself to go back more than one chapter.  When the book is done, I then go through the entire ms. editing.  One more go through for typos and off it goes.  With this method, I rarely need to make more than minor changes at the final read-through.  

• What's a typical writing day like for you?

None are typical  I write as much I can each day, whether it’s a page or a chapter. And I do this in short bursts throughout the day.  This works for most days, except the ones where I have too many other commitments.

• What kind of promotion do you do and why?

I hate promotion.  I used to do a lot—newsletter , bookmarks, trifolds—but no more.  I  do burn CDs with excepts of all my current books on them including a blurb, reviews and the cover for  each and send a bunch along whenever anyone asks for promo for conferences.  Booksellers also ask.  I also do interviews (!), appear on blogs, and belong to several promo groups. Also teach online with Janet Lane Walters.

• How do you balance writing with the rest of your life (i.e., day job, family, etc.)?

Since I’ve retired from nursing I don’t work outside the home.  All children are grown and on their own.  My family has narrowed to the Viking from my past, and, except when our grown children  visit or friends do, we’re on our own with our grandcat , Kinko

• Where do you get your ideas for a romance novel?

The same place most authors do—everywhere.  Everything I see or hear, or read, everything I remember from the past. All I know friends and relatives have experienced.  And  from unsolicited conversation with total strangers as well.  When  Steven King was asked this question once somewhere in NY where he was speaking,  he said. “I get all my ideas from Utica—postpaid,” 

• How important is it for you to have a critique partner?

Hey, we all need the right one. As I’m not longer fortunate to live in an area where I can form a critique group,  a member of my Jewels Of The Quill  promo group critiques my work as I do hers—via email.  Not everything, just those we feel need to be.  Otherwise my editors always have been a help in keeping me honest.  

• If your book was made into a movie, which actors would you like to see play your characters?

I never got into imagining this and know by now that I’d never have a say  in it anyway.

• What do you know now about writing/publishing that you wished you knew before The Call?

Writing—I wish I’d know about synopses. Publishing--I knew absolutely nothing about   other than it was best to have an agent.  I owe the sale of my first book to a  writing instructor who taught only writers who wanted to be published.  He took enough of an interest in the TULE WITCH ms. to help me with it as a class project, and then sent it to his agent who sold it for me. Which is not an unpublished writer’s usual route.  I had no clue about anything in the world of publishing even after I was.  So I made mistakes I wouldn’t make today.  Now there’s all kinds of material about what you should know about writing and publishing.  In 1973, there was zilch about publishing. 

Jane Toombs is an institution in the Romance industry as well as one of Hudson Valley RWA’s founding members.  She has been an inspiration to our chapter and a great help to many one-time aspiring authors who, with her help, made that leap to published. (I count myself as one of them.)

She was born in California, raised in Michigan's gorgeous Upper Peninsula, and went on to New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley and Nevada’s stunning  desert.  She has since returned to Michigan to live on the shore of Lake Superior, with a romantic Viking from her past. Jane has five children, two stepchildren, seven grandchildren, a calico cat named Kinko and two computers.

 Wow!  How does she ever find time to write?

She's the author of over eighty published books, both in paper and electronic.  These include the various romance genres--gothic, suspense, contemporary, historical, Regency and paranormal--as well as other genres such as mystery, fantasy and horror. Jane has used pseudonyms--Ellen Jamison, Diana Stuart, Olivia Sumner--but is now writing under her own name except for her Zebra/ Pinnacle romances for which she uses Jane Anderson.