Early setback did not sidetrack prolific mystery author

“Girls become teachers or nurses. Boys become writers.”

The words from the college professor tore through J.A. Jance. She had come to the University of Arizona to be a writer, and had applied for the creative writing program, only to be rebuked by the director of the program and his backwards way of thinking.

But being turned away didn’t keep Jance from being a writer; it only delayed the start of her career. When she finally started writing her first book in 1982, it unleashed a flood of creativity and a keen mind for mystery that has resulted in more than 65 novels, collections of short stories and poetry.

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Her prolific writing will be the focus of a special presentation at 7 p.m. Monday at the Branigin Room in the Napolitan Student Center on Franklin College’s campus.

Jance’s fascination with the power of writing started with “The Wizard of Oz.” Rather than being enchanted by the Wizard and all of the magical happenings in the Land of Oz, she was instead taken by the fact it had come from someone’s imagination.

“I was not impressed with the Wizard. I was impressed that someone had put those words on the page,” she said. “From second grade on, I wanted to be the person putting the words on the page.”

After graduating from high school, Jance earned an academic scholarship and followed her dream to college, the first person in her family to attend a four-year university. After her boorish professor denied her entry into the creative writing program, she instead focused on becoming an English teacher. She taught two years of high school in Tucson, Arizona, and then transitioned to become a school librarian, then sold life insurance.

Jance never abandoned her dream of writing, though.

Finally, at age 39, she gave herself permission to start her first book. She was a divorced mother of two children, struggling to support her family. But every morning between 4 and 7 a.m., she would sit down and write until it was time to wake her kids up for school and for her to get ready for work.

“That was the schedule I was on when I wrote my first three books,” she said.

From the start, she focused on mysteries and thrillers. She had grown up with a steady diet of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys when she was younger, and the way the plots keep readers on their toes had always captured her.

“Since I always read mysteries, it made sense to write mysteries,” she said. “I don’t feel as though writing mysteries constrains me in terms of a subject matter.”

Jance’s first book, a slightly fictionalized version of a series of murders in Tucson in 1970, was rejected by publishers. She was told it was too long — 1,200 pages — and publishers thought that the real-life events sounded too unbelievable.

Her second novel, “Until Proven Guilty,” introduced the character that would lay the foundation for her career. Detective J.P. Beaumont is a hard-drinking homicide detective. Jance has written a total of 24 Beaumont books, including her most recent, “Sins of the Fathers,” which came out on Sept. 24.

But Jance had also introduced other main characters and created other long-running series. Female sleuth Joanna Brady has been the focus of 18 books. Newscaster-turned-new media detective Ali Reynolds has 14 books. The Walker Family has been featured in five books.

“I keep busy,” Jance said, adding playfully, “In our family, I write the books, and my husband writes the checks. And he can write checks at a pace of two books a year, so I have to keep writing and writing.”

The writing process for Jance starts with a factoid or occurrence that inspires her. One day, she was leafing through her college alumni magazine and spotted an article about sodium azide, the explosive chemical in airbags and also a potent poison. The nugget of information became the basis for a murder in “Partner in Crime,” a Joanna Brady novel.

“My husband says I have a Waring blender in my head. These ideas come through my head, then they undergo the blender process, they come out the other side, leaking out my fingertips into my computer keyboard and become stories,” she said.

Jance doesn’t do outlines of her books before writing; rather, she starts with a crime, almost always a murder, then writes her way through figuring out who did it and why they did.

“I generally don’t have any idea who the killer is when I start writing the book,” she said.

As Jance gears up for another book tour to promote “Sins of the Fathers,” she looks forward to another chance to meet the people who have been buying and enjoying her books all of these years.

Writing has provided her financial compensation over the years. But it also has given her a different kind of income: psychological.

“I meet people lined up when I’m on tour. I meet people when they write to me and send me emails, which I answer personally. My readers are my bread-and-butter business, and I respond to all emails; that’s my job,” she said.

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J.A. Jance

What: A booksigning and appearance by the bestselling author, who has written more than 65 novels, including her most recent, “Sins of the Fathers.”

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Branigin Room, Napolitan Student Center, Franklin College

Cost: Free, but people are asked to register for tickets at pageafterpage.org/authors-at-jcpl

Information of Jance and her writing: jajance.com

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