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Articles by J.A. Jance
Author J.A. Jance at Third Place Books November 10, 2026
When a young woman from Anchorage disappears after heading to Seattle for an internship that seems too good to be true, whimsically-named but hard-nosed mechanic Twinkle Winkleman enlists the services of private eye J. P. Beaumont to track her down—only to find that the case goes much deeper than either of them had anticipated.
My Rubber Band Moment
These days rubber bands are pretty thin on the ground. Back in the old days when rolled-up, print newspapers showed up on people’s doorsteps, they were everywhere, and they were especially plentiful in the Busk household in Bisbee when I was growing up. Why’s that? For years the Busks were paperboy and girl central for the Arizona Republic.
All in a MOMent
Many of my readers are aware that from May through the end of September, I was focused on writing Before the Trail Goes Cold. I answered emails, yes, and I read my three morning comics, but my on-line activity was severely limited. Then on September 21, I received a remarkable email from someone I didn’t know, a woman named Mallina Wilson. Back in 2004, she had attended one of my book presentations in Bellingham. According to my book history, that was probably during the tour for Exit Wounds.
Weird But True | J.A. Jance Blog
More decades ago than I like to mention, I did babysitting at a rate of twenty-five cents an hour, often for neighbors whose houses were within walking distance of ours. One of those families was the Coxs, three homes away. They had two kids—Normie, who was in my younger brother’s class, and a girl whose name I can’t remember—Vicki maybe? This was back in “the old days” when Bisbee had three whole TV channels. The nighttime news came on at ten PM followed by the “late movie” which started at 10:30.
The Dreaded P-Word
One of my favorite musicians is Iris DeMent whose songs range from folk to country to gospel. Of her songs, top on my list is one about … well … writing music. It goes like this: Sweet is the melody, so hard to come by, So hard to make every note blend just right. You lay down the hours without a trace ’Til a tune for the dancing is there in its place. Laying down the hours without a trace? That’s what writing music is all about, but it’s also true for writing books.
Unwrapping Un-named Joanna #22
Writers write. Every day. Right now it’s Tuesday morning. So far today, I’ve written a new bio for an event I’m doing late in October. I’ve also spent more than an hour doing an on-line interview for the upcoming Beaumont book, The Taken Ones. It’s suddenly occurring to folks that Beau has been around for more than forty years and that I’ve been writing for a VERY long time. As a consequence, it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill “What’s the book about?” interview.
Fresh Kills | J.A. Jance Blog
As you know, when I’m writing a book—which I’m usually doing—my interactions with the outside world are sometimes limited to what comes into my life through my email account, that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. (The last would be those phony AI-manufactured literary praise messages that keep wanting to introduce me to non-existent book clubs everywhere even when the title in question isn’t one of mine.
The Girl From Devil’s Lake in Paperback
If you happen to be a blog reader as well as someone in my newsletter database, please be advised. I’m using this note to kill two birds with one stone. Please feel free to disregard one or the other. During World War II, a company called Avon Books began publishing what were then referred to as “pocket books,”—inexpensive paperbacks small enough that soldiers and sailors could carry them in the pockets of their uniforms.
Book Reviews and Me
“San Franciso has Dasheill Hammett, Los Angeles has Raymond Chandler, Florida has John D. McDonald, and Seattle has J.A. Jance.” That was the lead sentence in a 1985 review of the first Beaumont book, Until Proven Guilty, published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer which has long since gone the way of the dodo bird. That was the first-ever published review of one of my novels. Since UPG was an “original paperback,” it’s likely that was the ONLY published review of the book.
Unfinished Business
This morning I woke up thinking I knew what the topic of this week’s blog would be. However, after some consideration, I’ve decided there will be a more appropriate time to post that post. It’ll all come out eventually, which brings me to the question: What’s today’s blog topic? My daughter sends out a daily illustrated Bible verse. Today’s included Norman and Evie’s wedding photo. Why didn’t I include it in last week’s post?
Norman and Evie Busk
It’s coming up on the last part of August, and naturally my thoughts turn to my folks, Norman and Evie Busk. My dad was born on August 21 1916; my mother on August 30, 2014. When it came time to set a date for their wedding, she didn’t want to be called a “cradle robber” and refused to marry him while he was still a teenager. As a result, they married on August 24, 1936—three days after he turned twenty. My father grew up in an entirely dysfunctional family.
An Origin Story | J.A. Jance Blog
This week one of my RRs (Re-Readers) wrote to me saying how much she enjoyed the AI character, Frigg, in my Ali Reynolds books. As I began to reply, it occurred to me that other readers might be interested in my answer to that question as well, and so, with a few additions and corrections here is what I sent her. My husband, Bill, is a retired electronics engineer.
Why E-mails Matter
First a word to the wise. If you’re going to send me an email, one you actually would like me to read, don’t begin by saying, “I hope you are doing well.” That’s the way all the spam emails start—the ones from The Great Plains Book Club, The involved Readers Book Club, and countless other equally bogus book clubs. Two of those so far today, but it’s early hours. There will most likely be more, but the point is, I don’t get past that first sentence on those without hitting the delete button.
The Banana Peel | J.A. Jance Blog
For those of you who’ve been following along as I write Unnamed Joanna #22, I just now hit a word-count total of 57,164 words. That means I’m at 61.17% of a 95,000-word book, and I’m officially on the banana peel. In other words, it should be all downhill from here. Of course, that 60% number is entirely arbitrary, right along with getting 10,000 steps—which I’m still doing, by the way—but it’s a way of keeping score; a way of knowing that I’m making forward progress.
To Outline or Not Outline
To Outline or Not Outline, that is the question—with apologies to the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. I first met outlining in Mrs. Watkins’ sixth grade geography class. I hated it then, I hate it now. I’m what people sometimes call a “Seat-of-the-Pantser. In other words, I start writing a book and follow the story to see where it’s going. That was as true for my first book, Until Proven Guilty, as it is now. In other words, I had no idea Anne Corley was a goner until … well … she was.
Bit by Bit Putting it Together
In case you don’t recognize the phraseology in the headline, it’s from a song in the musical Sunday in the Park With George by Stephen Sondheim. The George in question is a French artist named George Seurat, a pointillist, who, instead of painting with brush strokes, did so with thousands of tiny dots of color. It’s been close to forty years since I saw the play, but as I recall, someone looks at one of Seurat’s paintings and asks him how he goes about doing it.
Downton Revisited
For the past several weeks we’ve been working our way through all six seasons of the PBS series, Downton Abbey. We finished the last episode of season six on Friday night and then spent all day on Saturday watching all three of the subsequent movies. Seeing all of them in order was really satisfying. The series is a period piece set in Downton Abby, a fictional Yorkshire castle during the first thirty years of the twentieth century.
Re-Run NonBlues | J.A. Jance Blog
If you don’t happen to be a fan of either reruns or soccer, the pickings on TV at the moment are pretty thin. We watched last week’s Formula 1 race in Austria, and we’ll be watching the one in Britain this coming weekend. Obviously we’ll be watching the matches where the U.S. is playing, but if you can’t figure out what a soccer off-sides is, and if you don’t have any skin in the game, watching all of them is … well … pretty pointless. So what have we been doing instead?
On My Honor | J.A. Jance Blog
Yesterday morning when I put in my hearing aids, the right one was dead silent. Usually that means that the wax ring on the speaker has become blocked with ear wax, and sure enough that was the case. But after I replaced it, the silence remained, which meant that most likely I had a speaker problem. As a result, early in the afternoon I visited our nearby (less than a mile away) hearing-aid provider.
Best Book Signing Ever
Under the best of circumstances, and particularly since being under lock and key for Covid, I’m notoriously calendar challenged. It’s even worse when I’m deep in writing a book. For instance, while writing UJB #22—UJB=Unnamed Joanna Brady)I’ve been living on August 29, 2024 for the past couple of weeks. As a consequence I was surprised to learn that Father’s Day is on June 21.
Thanks For the Memories
Judging from the photo of a guy waving a Ferrari flag, you might assume I’m a Ferrari fan. Actually I’m more of a RedBull girl—for racing not for drinking. But in order to know why that photo is front and center, on this week’s blog, you’ll need to keep reading, and as Bill is wont to say, with me there are NO short stories. When you marry someone, there’s bound to be a bit of a learning curve.
Another Mail Bag Update
Until 1984 when I left the insurance business and began writing full-time, I had never been a stay-at-home mother. After that, and long before it became a “thing,” I became a work-at-home mother. Now I’m a work-at-home caregiver which means I don’t get out much. Most of my social interactions happen online, by email or text. Snail mail? Not so much. That involves writing a letter on my computer, printing it, locating a stamp and envelope, and getting it in the mail.
Editing Again | J.A. Jance Blog
News has been pretty thin on the ground this week. I’ve been busy doing what I call the Galley Proofs on the next Ali Reynolds book, Smoke and Mirrors. ‘Galley Proofs’ is a term that sticks in my head from my senior year of high school when Pat McAdams Hall, my best friend from fourth grade, and I, were co-editors of the school newspaper, the Copper Chronicle. The paper was published once a month.
Live and Learn | J.A. Jance Blog
This blog is a window on my world, and the past two weeks have been A: a never-ending stream of health care appointments; B: an epic case of Password Panic; and C: writing. I’m going to skip number one and go straight to number two. A month or so a go while on Spring break, our grandson drove 200 miles round trip so he and his girlfriend could see a movie, The Hail Mail Project, on IMAX.
An Era Comes to an End
For the past eleven years our personal trainer, Dan Kritsonis, has come to our house for workouts three times a week—something that has kept a pair of seventy- and eighty-something old codgers as limber as possible. Mary, our aging long-haired miniature dachshund has been on tap for the last seven year of those workout sessions. She doesn’t do any exercises, but she levels that unblinking Doxie stare at him, knowing that eventually treats will emerge from his pocket.
Unnamed Joanna Brady #22 Progress Report
People often ask me about my process for writing books. It’s really pretty simple. I start at the beginning and write to the end, finding out what’s going to happen as I go along. I do NOT outline. I met outlining in Mrs. Watkins’s sixth grade geography class. I hated outlining then, and nothing that has happened to me in the intervening decades has changed my mind about that. Oh, there’s one more thing.
Fact Checkers Unite
Last Friday afternoon after the blog posted, I was reading through the comments when one of them jumped out at me and stopped me in my tracks. It was from a lady saying wait just a minute. Wasn’t that teacher of yours at BHS named Anne instead of Eva? The commenter may have gotten Mrs. Medigovich’s last name wrong, but as soon as I saw her message, I knew my SEBR (Sharp-Eyed Blog Reader) was right.
Not a Good Night’s Sleep
Lately I’ve been writing the blog on Sunday or Monday. Today I’m writing it on Wednesday. Why? Because it’s been an editing kind of week. When people ask questions about the writing process, they’re generally referring to the creative process—how do I go about starting a book and eventually finishing it.
Why I Do What I Do
One of the frequently asked questions posed to me is “How do you write these books?” I often reply that, since I don’t outline, I usually start at the beginning and write to the end. Or, depending on my mood, I’ll say, “Since I write murder mysteries, I usually start with somebody dead and spend the rest of the book trying to figure out who did it and how come.” On that note, I started the next Joanna Brady book yesterday by writing the prologue. I began in my customary fashion with somebody dead.
Book Report, Part 2
Last week I did a book report on Downfall. Of the two books I needed revisit, that one was published first. Turns out, I’m not only an IOW—In-Order Writer. I’m also an IOR—In-order Reader. It was interesting to notice that in Downfall, Joanna is both running for re-election and expecting a baby. In some cases a period of years may pass between books. In this instance, it’s only a matter of weeks.
Book Report, Part 1
In last week’s blog I mentioned I would be reading two of my books for the first time since they were published. Once I’m done with writing a book and doing all the editing, I’m just … well … done with it. And although I loved reading as a kid, I HATED doing book reports. For one thing, the teachers made it clear that they didn’t really approve of the books I read. The Bobbsey Twins never grabbed me. Dog books? Absolutely. Anybody remember Albert Payson Terhune?
Make New Friends but Keep the Old
If readers ever think about how writers work, I suppose they imagine someone sitting at a desk and slaving away over a computer keyboard. That’s not me. I’m six-one. I have long legs which provide an excellent lap for a laptop. So yes, there’s plenty of typing in writing books, but I work on a keyboard that rests on my thighs rather than on a desk, seated in a comfy chair in the family room.
You Can/Can’t Go Home Again
Last weekend was the Tucson Festival of Books. My daughter and I flew out of Seattle after a serious windstorm and prior to a snow storm. We didn’t come back home until after the snow had vanished. In other words, unlike last year, we clearly dodged the weather bullet this time around. As for the festival itself? It was amazing. After participating in every TFOB since its inception, including the remote one in 2020, going there is very much like going home.
A Jitters Blog | J.A. Jance Blog
It’s Tuesday morning, two days before leaving for the Tucson Festival of Books, but I’m nervous—nervous about leaving and nervous about maybe NOT leaving. The news this morning is all about delays and possible flight cancellations at SeaTac. So will all that work out? We’ll find out for sure on Thursday morning. That means I have another whole day to worry about this while I’m also working on—make that trying to work on—the copy editing for The Taken Ones which arrived in my email Monday morning.
Book Festivals and Me
If it’s March it must be book festival season. Over the course of my career, I’ve attended any number of book festivals. Today I’m going to touch on only three of them. I’ve been invited to attend the LA Times book festival exactly once. It was what you might call a one and done. For reasons known only to the organizers, I was assigned to the Noir panel. I don’t write Noir, but I so discovered that they guys who do—and they were all guys—take themselves very seriously.
Changing Times | J.A. Jance Blog
In 1923, a former telegrapher turned electrician turned up in Bisbee, Arizona, with a wife named Esther and $34.00 in his pocket. No one knew that broke young man would turn out to be one of the town’s most successful entrepreneurs. From that humble beginning he created not one but two separate radio stations, KSUN in Bisbee and KAPR in Douglas. Some thirty years later in 1953, he brought television to town. TV may have been more common in the rest of the country, but not in Bisbee.
On Breaking My Own Rule
Yesterday was not a good day in the social media department. I received not one but three separate nasty-grams—communications from people who went out of their way to say what a terrible writer and awful person I am. That’s fine. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but just because they think it doesn’t mean I have to read it or respond.
Take A Deep Breath
Over time, followers of this blog have learned a lot—and probably more than they want to—about the publishing process. In other words, when all you really want to know is what time it is, I keep right on telling you how the clock is made. This is one of those times, and here we go again. After I submit a manuscript, I sit on my hands and wait for the first step in the editing process—the editorial letter.
A Journey of Forgiveness
My mother, Evie Busk, was born in 1914. That means she was in grade school—a one-room grade school—in the twenties. She dropped out of school after seventh grade. Nonetheless, her grammar was perfect—her subjects and predicates always agreed, and her verb tenses were right on, and she knew better than to end sentences with prepositions. (Please disregard the one at the end of the previous sentence!) And well into her eighties, she could still whip out NYTimes Crossword puzzles with wild abandon.
If It Is to Be, It’s Up to Me
Time for another bit of Evie Busk wisdom. For a time my father ran a contracting company. He built and remodeled houses. As for ours? We were a family of nine living in a two-bedroom house. There had been discussions about taking down the block wall between the living room and one of the two sunrooms and closing in the front porch, thus creating a larger living room and turning the second sunroom into a bedroom.
Remembering a Sister
My sister, Jay Lane When I’m writing a book, I often lie awake at night, thinking about the next scene or mentally rewriting the last one. Yesterday I finished the first draft of The Taken Ones. Did I sleep like a baby last night? No, I stayed awake thinking about this week’s blog. Just before Thanksgiving, I learned that my publisher had decided to move the pub date for the next Ali book to 2027, leaving me without a book for 2026.
An Open Letter to Harlan Coben
This week my daughter, Cindy, brought me a bright blue sweatshirt. The logo features a steaming cup of hot coffee. The words printed above and below the coffee cup read like this: Fueled by coffee…and True Crime. That’s me in a nutshell—I’ve had at least 10,000 cups of coffee in the last twenty years and I’ve probably watched that many true crime shows, too.
Viewer Discretion is Advised ?
I know my blog readers expect a bit of light in their Friday morning blogs, but that’s not what this one is, so be advised. And here’s a spoiler alert. If you happen to be one of my paperback readers who has yet to read The Girl From Devil’s Lake, I suggest you skip reading this blog post altogether. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve always had a vivid imagination.
Calendar Challenged
That’s what my daughter says I am—Calendar Challenged. That issue first came into focus when I was writing the first Beaumont book. I convinced myself it was Saturday in real life because it was Saturday in the book. Turns out it wasn’t Saturday at all, and the kids had to set me straight. The same thing happened again earlier this year when, while working on a book, I had my computer’s calendar set on another year.
Most Wonderful Time of the Year
It’s Wednesday afternoon, Christmas Eve. By the time this posts on Friday morning, it’ll be the day AFTER Christmas and two days before our big family gathering. As far as I can tell, everything is in order for that, including, hopefully, the weather. It’s been a lovely week. Last Sunday Colt and his girlfriend, Elie, came over and cooked us a marvelous anniversary dinner. We’ll be having the leftovers from that as our Christmas Day dinner tomorrow.
A Permanent Solution
I started reading the “agony aunts”—Ann Landers and Dear Abby—in fourth or fifth grade. Dear Abby appeared in the Bisbee Daily Review. Ann Landers was in the Douglas Dispatch. At the time, I had no idea that the two of them were actually sisters with a somewhat prickly relationship. Maybe they both should have written to some other advice columnist to get some suggestions about possible solutions to that rift.
Short but Sweet | J.A. Jance Blog
It’s Monday afternoon. I’m at 45.2% on the manuscript for The Taken Ones and need to get back to it, but if there’s going to be a blog this week, now’s the time to write it. I’m hoping it’ll be short but sweet. Over the course of forty-plus years of doing book signings, I’ve had some wonderful experiences. I’ve also had some interesting ones, and when I say interesting, I mean not necessarily in a good way.
My Week in Review
I wrote last Friday’s blog on Monday evening, saying that I hoped to hit 50% on the next Beau book, The Taken Ones, by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. I didn’t make it. Right this minute, I’m at 42.2883158. That’s the current score, and I’m reporting it. But I’m also going to go through last week’s calendar and let you about a few of the reasons I wasn’t able to keep my eye on the ball this past week. On Sunday night, I went to bed but not to sleep.
Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah
I’m sure most of my readers remember that song, but as a blog title, it’s rather misleading. There is no Dinah here, but there’s lots of stuff about kitchens. In our house, when the holidays show up, Thanksgiving and Christmas both, and because my mother, Evie, was 100% Swedish, so does lefse. (By the way, my full-of-business Mr. Auto-Correct, decided to turn lefse into leaves. Obviously my spell-checker isn’t Scandinavian.) I mentioned lefse in last week’s blog.
A Collection of Unrelated Items
It feels like pub date for The Girl from Devil’s Lake was a long time ago, but it turns out I’m still doing interviews. Tomorrow, Tuesday, I’ll be doing two of them, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which will mean my having to think and talk about THAT book while still needing to move forward with Beaumont #27, The Taken Ones. In other words, I’m back to doing mental juggling.
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