Runelight links: Amazon, Goodreads

Hi! Thanks for inviting me! I’m Janice, and I live deep in the mountains of Montana, which I love. I’ve been an indie author for 8 years now, writing epic fantasy. All my trilogies are in the same world, and all are at least vaguely interrelated, although you can start with any of them that you like.

Including starting with Runelight.

Not one that pays! I homeschool my three teenagers and write.

My very favorite book (and one of the few non-fantasy books I read) is Pride and Prejudice, so Jane Austen is definitely a favorite of mine. She’s just so good at characterization and dialogue and subtext. I love her.

This is a shockingly hard question. On any given day, writing might be either incredibly fun and feel like stepping right into my favorite world with fascinating people living an adventure—or it could be a painstaking effort to grind out every sentence.

Since that’s not an incredibly useful answer, I’ll add that dialog is by far my favorite part of writing.

I’ve discovered that I need to plan extensively before I write or I wander off course in the book and end up with an embarrassingly large amount of words that have to be cut out and left on the writing room floor.

I average one book a year, and even though every time I swear the next one will be faster, I have yet to make that a reality.

I never have sought a traditional publishing contract. When I first looked into getting published, the traditional route felt so cumbersome that when I learned self-publishing was becoming a viable route, I jumped at the chance to have more control over the process. I’ve had such a positive experience self-publishing that I don’t currently have any interest in seeking out a traditional contract.

The freedom to write the books I want and publish on the schedule I want. The disadvantage is that you don’t get the marketing power of the big publishers, and it’s a heckuva lot harder to get into bookstores.

This was my 5th time entering SPFBO. I honestly hadn’t expected to reach the finals, but every year in the contest I’ve met great authors and bloggers and was excited to do the same this year. I think the community in SPFBO is the best part of the competition.

I have the privilege of working with Podium to produce my audiobooks, and they provided me with amazing narrators. It’s been an excellent experience, and I’m so glad I did it.

Indiana Jones meets classic epic fantasy. Two women embark on a rescue mission and find themself tangled in secrets and puzzles that are centuries old.

After reading Michael J Sullivan’s Riyria series, I really wanted to write a similar thing with two female leads. Sort of a female buddy cop idea, because even though in life it’s very common for women to have deep, long-term friendships, I don’t see a lot of it in epic fantasy.

Runelight is set in the world of the Keepers, like my other books, and the main character Kate had already been introduced very briefly at the end of my Keeper Chronicles. I thought an Indiana Jones type adventure would be fun to write, and it has been! My original idea was more of a tone than a plot, so the book has stayed pretty faithful to that.

Okay, I can’t seem to do this with adjectives, so I’m taking creative license and giving you three nouns. Found family, friendship, puzzles.

It’s the first book in The Aenigma Lights Trilogy.

Our protagonist is Kate, a Keeper (storyteller/mage) who’s searching for her brother who’s been missing for twenty years and the magical aenigma box that was connected to his disappearance. Along with her is Venn, an elf who has a decent amount of grump and a good deal of baggage. The two women go from enemies to besties while thrown neck-deep in secrets and mysteries that have spanned centuries.

The antagonist is…well, if Kate knew that, she’d be steps ahead of where she is. All she knows is a shadow–who might be kidnapping and murdering people–has apparently abducted (or killed?) her one remaining brother.

Keeper magic involves moving energy from living things or fire, and manipulating it into heating other things or healing things or infusing things with life.

In a past life, I was an engineer, and this magic system involves the same sort of energy transfer we use on a daily basis, complete with massive inefficiencies and generally a lot of unnecessary heat generation.

I write all my books for an adult audience who love classic epic fantasy tropes, but want them with a character driven, more modern feel.

I also write all my books so that my kids can read them at any age. So while they’re written for adults with adult characters and issues, there’s no graphic violence or language or sexual situations.

I think the idea of the central relationship being a friendship between women (which starts out more of a prickly forced companionship) is strangely rare in modern speculative fiction. I don’t tend to write much romance, but I do always end up with a lot of found family tropes in my writing. This, though, was the first time I just focused on a flat out friendship of a human mage and an elf, learning to respect and grow close to each other despite their differences.

My artist is St. Jupiter, and it was really fun working with her to come up with symbolic artwork that could portray the mysterious runes that Kate deals with during the book.

I’m currently working on the final book in the trilogy, and the preorder date is set for summer of 2025!

Thanks so much for having me! Fantasy Book Critic is such an integral part of SPFBO, I really appreciate getting the chance to hang out with you!