Meandering on Monday With Janet Lane Walters

Meander 1 - This one is a hard one to write. My friend, goad and sometimes writing partner Jane Toombs died this past Wednesday. I'll miss her companionship though in the past few years it's been more on the phone. Jane and I were Astrological opposites. Her Capricorn and My Cancer somehow found a way to balance our opposite approaches and also found some the same. I wouldn't be published again if Jane hadn't stepped in. I first met her when Hudson Valley Romance Writers had a one day conference across the river from my house. A few years later I felt frustrated since all I received was rejections for my stories. She, during a meeting with one of her editors, sold my book. Though that line faded, Jane kept at me and sent me into exploring electronic publishing. She was completely convinced this was where the publishing industry was headed. Together and along with many others published electronically fought the slings and arrows of other writers who refused to believe this was where the publishing industry headed. Jane moved from the Hudson Valley but we met at conferences run by The Electronically Published group. During one of those times we. in a silly mood, created the titles for what finally became out joint book Becoming Your Own Critique Partner. We had the titles and I'm not sure we ever intended to write the book. Then I was giving a talk about showing not telling. I wrote what became the chapter and sent it to Jane. Not to be undone, she edited and added some suggestions and sent me the second chapter. I returned the favor. Finally we'd completed the book and sent it off to publishers. In 2003 we won the EPIC Award for the best non-fiction book. Not expecting to win, we had no speech prepared and managed to fumble through. We did collaborate on another collection called Moon Pool. But mainly out conversations centered around helping each other with ideas and talking them out. Her significant other Elmer said the other day when Jane answered the phone and said "It's Janet." He knew there would be at least an hour of conversation. I'll miss these times. I'll also miss a great writer and new books she won't have the chance to write. Most of all I'll miss my friend who constantly prodded me to try new avenues in my writing career. The only area she never managed to guide me into was horror. She was a mistress of the scary story with satisfactory endings. I'll never be able to express all the things our friendship over the twenty plus years meant.

Meander 2 Promotion. I've decided to start catching up on promoting my stories and doing all those little things I've neglected in the past by doing one thing of each a day. We'll see how long this lasts.

Meander 3 Moving toward the end of the final write on Melodic Dreams and then all I'll have to do is check for mis spellings and other errata. Then I'll begin Toth's Pharaoh.