Author Interview: Janet Nichols Lynch

Janet Nichols Lynch author of seven books was born and raised in Sacramento, California. Janet received a B.A. in Music from California State University, Sacramento, a Master of Music Degree in Piano from Arizona State University, and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno, where she was the 2003 Outstanding Thesis Award Nominee for the College of Arts and Humanities. She has taught music at De Anza College, Cupertino, and Skyline College, San Bruno, and music and English at College of the Sequoias, Visalia; currently she teaches English at El Diamante High school. She competes in marathons and triathlons, and once rode her bike from Phoenix, AZ to Washington, D.C. She lives in Visalia with her husband, Timothy, and their college-age children, Caitlin and Sean.

For more info on Janet, visit her site(s):
Website: http://www.janetnicholslynch.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Janet-Nichols-Lynch/131483424987
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/25432.Janet_Nichols_Lynch

Books by Janet:
-Peace is a Four-Letter Word
-Chest Pains
-Messed Up
-Addicted to Her

For more books go here

Author Interview:

1) How old were you when you started writing? I was about 8 when I started writing stories and letters to pen pals. I was 23 when I started writing for publication. I began with cycling journalism--I was racing bikes at the time--and poetry. I was a horrible poet, but I wrote about 400 poems before I figured that out.

2) What inspired you to write Addicted to Her? As a high school teacher, I get about ten ideas a week from my students. I watch both girls and boys fall in love with someone who is all wrong for them. They are treated horribly, they are crushed, but still they believe that someone is their one true love. I want to take them aside and say, “You’d be better off without him or her. He or she doesn’t deserve you.” But it wouldn’t do any good because I can’t erase the pain. Teens are the most romantic people on the face of the earth. The first time they fall in love, they’re absolutely certain he or she is “the one,” the only one. They fall hard, and so does my protagonist Rafa.

3) Are the characters in the books based on someone you know? Once a girl came storming into my classroom, shoved a kid in the chest, and screamed, “Why’d you tell?” After class this guy got jumped by the girl’s boyfriend right outside my room, and that was the spark that started Addicted to Her. My characters are frequently based on people I know, but I wouldn’t be doing my job as a fiction writer if anyone could figure out who those people are.

4) What was the hardest part about writing Addicted to Her?
It was very hard to make Monique a full-fledged, sympathetic character. She’s just a real biatch, you know? I had to get out of Rafa’s head and into Monique’s head and past to figure her out, but not in the book, on the side in my notes, to make her seem real in the novel.

5) If you had to describe your book in one word, what would it be and why? I need a couple: the agony of unrequited love. It explains itself.

6) Out of all the books you've written, which one is your favorite? I have to say Chest Pains, a mainstream novel, is closest to my heart because it explores themes I’m most interested in--music, religion, family. I went through dozens of drafts and struggled and struggled to find a publisher. Messed Up is also dear to me because those are the kids I taught in middle school who sometimes slip through the cracks and break my heart, but that book wrote itself.

7) Do you have any other projects you're currently working on? I always have a couple of books going. I have another mainstream book Old Flame, about a young wife whose husband’s ex-lover comes into their lives and reeks havoc, and a YA The Most Courageous Rider about the professional bicycle race, Tour of California.

8) What book are you currently reading? Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. It’s an absolutely hilarious account of a guy who thinks he’s an authority on a has-been rock star and gets most of his information on Wikipedia, which is mostly false. I love books that explore the meaning of life through humor. Hornby also has a great YA about teen pregnancy called Slam.

9) Do you have anything to say to all your readers? I hope you enjoy the book, and thanks for reading anything at all.

10) Tell us something about yourself that no one knows about. I’m a pretty open person, so I think I disclose most everything about me. Oh, I was recently voted 2009 Athlete of the Year by my tri club. If you want to know more about me, visit my web site at http://www.janetnicholslynch.com/or become a fan on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Janet-Nichols-Lynch/131483424987?ref=ts

Addicted To Her Out Now!

Summary: Monique is as beautiful and unobtainable as an Aztec goddess. Or is she? When Rafa sees Monique burst out of her boyfriend's truck during an explosive fight, he offers to drive her home. However, it is Rafa who is in for the ride of his life. Soon he is basking in Monique's attentions, but at a cost. To keep her Rafa must quit the wrestling team, blow off family responsibilities, join her in her risky behavior, and worst of all lie. How can Rafa let everyone, including himself, down? But how can he say no to the mesmerizing Monique? In this absorbing youg adult novel set in California's San Joaquin Valley, a Mexican American teenager must choose between what he desperately wants and what he knows is best.

**Thank you Janet for this lovely interview and I look forward to your future works**