J.A. Jance
J.A. Jance is the New York Times best-selling author of the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series and three inter-related thrillers. She has written over 30 novels and she has more than 10 million copies of her books in print.
Jance’s pursuit of her life-long dream of becoming a writer was one filled with a myriad of stumbling blocks. As a college student, she was discouraged from writing and told that women “ought to be teachers or nurses,” and not novelists. Her first husband, a chronic alcoholic, followed suit and told her that, despite never having anything published, he would be the only writer in the family. After thirteen years of marriage, Jance finally left her first husband to save herself and her children, and escaped to Seattle. With the death of her ex-husband a year and a half later, Jance became the sole provider for her two children and struggled to make ends meet with a full-time job selling life insurance. In 1982 her desire to write became too strong to ignore, and her first three novels were written between the hours of 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., at which time she would wake up her children for school. At the time people told her she was crazy, saying that to start writing at age 39 and to go on to a successful writing career was highly unlikely. Luckily, she ignored all the naysayer’s.
In 1985, she published the first of sixteen novels featuring Seattle homicide detective J.P. Beaumont entitled Until Proven Guilty. In addition, she has authored ten books starring feisty Southwestern Sheriff Joanna Brady, as well as Partner in Crime in which Joanna teams with J.P. Beaumont to solve their first mystery together. She also has authored three novels of suspense featuring the Walker family: Hour of the Hunter, Kiss of the Bees and Day of the Dead. In 2000 Jance was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Arizona.
In her latest series, Jance introduces Ali Reynolds, a 45-year-old television anchorwoman who’s just been fired for being too old in Edge of Evil. She’s mad as hell and, at the suggestion of her college senior son, starts a blog called cutlooseblog.com. She leaves LA for her hometown of Sedona, Arizona and before she knows it there’s a murderer in her sights. The first Ali Reynolds hardcover, Web of Evil was recently published and already a best-seller.
Jance is an avid crusader for many causes including the American Cancer Society, Gilda’s Club, the Humane Society, the YWCA and the Girl Scouts. A lover of animals, Jance has two dogs, Aggie and Daphne, named for Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier.
Born in South Dakota and raised in the small Arizona mining town of Bisbee, Jance spent several years teaching and living on the Tohono O’Odham reservation west of Tucson, Arizona, which would later serve as the setting for her three suspense novels. It was also on the reservation that Jance’s life changed forever when she and her husband became the targets of a serial killer. Living in seclusion, seven miles from their nearest neighbor, they were unknowingly the killer’s next victims. A police investigation led to the apprehension of the killer just before he struck.
Jance splits her time between Seattle, Washington and Tucson, Arizona with her husband of twenty years.
MOST REQUESTED TOPIC:Beating the Odds to Achieve Your Dreams
Jance’s ambitions to become a writer were thwarted in college and again in her early adulthood. First, because the professor who taught creative writing at the University of Arizona in those days thought girls "ought to be teachers or nurses" rather than writers and second, because her first husband made it perfectly clear that there would be only one writer in our family, and he was it even after she received a favorable letter from an editor in New York who was interested in publishing a children’s story she had written in 1968. After her first husband’s death from chronic alcoholism, Jance was left with two children and no child support as well as a full time job selling life insurance. Jance started writing in the middle of March of 1982 between four a.m. and seven a.m. and hasn’t had to look back since. In this inspirational talk, Jance discusses how to set goals and work to achieve them using her remarkable life and career as a shining example.
J.A. Jance is the New York Times best-selling author of the J.P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series and three inter-related thrillers. She has written over 30 novels and she has more than 10 million copies of her books in print.
Jance’s pursuit of her life-long dream of becoming a writer was one filled with a myriad of stumbling blocks. As a college student, she was discouraged from writing and told that women “ought to be teachers or nurses,” and not novelists. Her first husband, a chronic alcoholic, followed suit and told her that, despite never having anything published, he would be the only writer in the family. After thirteen years of marriage, Jance finally left her first husband to save herself and her children, and escaped to Seattle. With the death of her ex-husband a year and a half later, Jance became the sole provider for her two children and struggled to make ends meet with a full-time job selling life insurance. In 1982 her desire to write became too strong to ignore, and her first three novels were written between the hours of 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., at which time she would wake up her children for school. At the time people told her she was crazy, saying that to start writing at age 39 and to go on to a successful writing career was highly unlikely. Luckily, she ignored all the naysayer’s.
In 1985, she published the first of sixteen novels featuring Seattle homicide detective J.P. Beaumont entitled Until Proven Guilty. In addition, she has authored ten books starring feisty Southwestern Sheriff Joanna Brady, as well as Partner in Crime in which Joanna teams with J.P. Beaumont to solve their first mystery together. She also has authored three novels of suspense featuring the Walker family: Hour of the Hunter, Kiss of the Bees and Day of the Dead. In 2000 Jance was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Arizona.
In her latest series, Jance introduces Ali Reynolds, a 45-year-old television anchorwoman who’s just been fired for being too old in Edge of Evil. She’s mad as hell and, at the suggestion of her college senior son, starts a blog called cutlooseblog.com. She leaves LA for her hometown of Sedona, Arizona and before she knows it there’s a murderer in her sights. The first Ali Reynolds hardcover, Web of Evil was recently published and already a best-seller.
Jance is an avid crusader for many causes including the American Cancer Society, Gilda’s Club, the Humane Society, the YWCA and the Girl Scouts. A lover of animals, Jance has two dogs, Aggie and Daphne, named for Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier.
Born in South Dakota and raised in the small Arizona mining town of Bisbee, Jance spent several years teaching and living on the Tohono O’Odham reservation west of Tucson, Arizona, which would later serve as the setting for her three suspense novels. It was also on the reservation that Jance’s life changed forever when she and her husband became the targets of a serial killer. Living in seclusion, seven miles from their nearest neighbor, they were unknowingly the killer’s next victims. A police investigation led to the apprehension of the killer just before he struck.
Jance splits her time between Seattle, Washington and Tucson, Arizona with her husband of twenty years.
MOST REQUESTED TOPIC:Beating the Odds to Achieve Your Dreams
Jance’s ambitions to become a writer were thwarted in college and again in her early adulthood. First, because the professor who taught creative writing at the University of Arizona in those days thought girls "ought to be teachers or nurses" rather than writers and second, because her first husband made it perfectly clear that there would be only one writer in our family, and he was it even after she received a favorable letter from an editor in New York who was interested in publishing a children’s story she had written in 1968. After her first husband’s death from chronic alcoholism, Jance was left with two children and no child support as well as a full time job selling life insurance. Jance started writing in the middle of March of 1982 between four a.m. and seven a.m. and hasn’t had to look back since. In this inspirational talk, Jance discusses how to set goals and work to achieve them using her remarkable life and career as a shining example.
