Featured Author: Jan Cline (Part 2)

Please leave a comment to enter the drawing for a free copy of EMANCIPATED HEART by Jan Cline.

If you missed part 1 of my interview with Jan, you’ll find it here.

We’re continuing our discussion with Jan Cline, author of EMANCIPATED HEART:.

How important is social media to you, and what sites do you use?

I am from the generation of folks who weren’t born with a joy stick in their hands. I have learned to participate in social media kicking and screaming. I know it’s a must do for promotion and networking, so I do what I can with what I know, and with a little help from my friends, I figure out enough to get me by.

How do you measure your success as a writer?

I suppose I wouldn’t be honest if I said sales and earnings weren’t important, but really, I just need to know I’m doing what God designed me to do. If I find out some people have read my work and been blessed, I feel successful.

What are your hobbies (other than writing)?

I love to do crafts of just about all kinds. I golf and I love to bake.

What was the inspiration for your latest book?

For Emancipated Heart, my inspiration came from researching another story entirely. I stumbled on the Japanese American internment information and knew I had to write about it. The interviews I watched and pictures I saw were too fascinating to pass by. I visited the internment camp that I modeled the book after and was even more inspired to write this story of one of our nation’s most troubling events.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a story set in the depression/dust bowl era. It’s about a woman and her sister trying to survive the devastation of that time in the mid-west. I’m planning on it being the first in a series.

Do you have a dream project…something you’re planning to write someday?

Not really, except to re-write my mother’s story and get it published. I just wasn’t a good enough writer at the time I finished the manuscript and I believe now I could get back to it and make it shine.

Have you written other books that have been published?

Just my devotionals and self-help book, A Heart Out of Hiding.

Have you written other books that haven’t yet been published?

Oh yes. My very first one was a great story, but I didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel when I wrote it. And I started another novel that I never finished. Then I wrote my mother’s story and added that to the drawer of manuscripts unseen. Emancipated Heart is the debut novel for me.

Do you have a blog? If so where can we find it?

I post on my blog about twice a month. It’s on my website at www.jancline.net. My topics range from writing helps to sharing about life in general. I’d love for your readers to subscribe.

Where can readers find your books?

They can find them on my website and on Amazon.com. I will possibly pursue other distribution later on. My dream is to have them in libraries and high school/college libraries all over the US.

Is there a special story about one of your books that you’d like to share?

Well, I think the story of how I came to write my mother’s WW2 story is unique. After she passed away I was going to write about her days in the Army Nurse Corps. I asked my sister to find Mother’s foot locker and look inside for anything that would give me inspiration or information. She didn’t find anything about Mom, but found all of my mother’s husband’s personal effects. He was a bomber pilot killed in the war when he had to ditch the plane he was flying. I am in possession of all those treasures – pictures, letters, medals, documents. I pieced together his life and their life together from those things. Out of all the research I did, I heard from people all over the world about him and even went to Arizona to stand in the only remaining B-24 in existence, and saw his name on the fallen air crew monument. So many stories within the story I hope to publish someday.

If you missed part 1 of my interview with Jan, you’ll find it here.

Jan Cline is an author and speaker from Spokane, Washington. She has been a writing conference director, workshop teacher, critique group leader, and blogger. She has 2 devotional books published by Barbour and has had numerous devotionals, articles, anthology essays and short stories published, as well as a self-published self-help book for women titled A Heart Out of Hiding. Jan is now concentrating her writing efforts on historical fiction. When she’s not writing she enjoys her grandchildren, her craft addiction, golfing, and baking, known by family and friends as the cheesecake queen!

Where to find Jan:

Website: http://www.jancline.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jan.cline.37

Twitter: @Jan_Cline

Where to find EMANCIPATED HEART:

Remember to leave a comment to enter the drawing for a free copy of EMANCIPATED HEART by Jan Cline. Comments for the giveaway will be open through midnight, Pacific Time on Thursday, March 31, 2016.