About Jan
Jan M. Walton is a novelist in Clearwater, Florida.
My first writing won a prize, in second grade, for my essay, What My First Holy Communion Means to Me, in my Catholic school. School, church, and the town library formed the geography of my young world, and reading was a lifeline. In high school, English class was the respite where I felt safe and capable. Literature enlightened me, and I wrote. My teachers encouraged me. (Miss Wreggelsworth and Mr. Pillar, Bishop Foley High School, rest in peace, and thank you.)
The occupation of “writer” was out of scope for eighteen-year-old me entering the University of Michigan. But throughout my professional and personal changes over the years, writing has been a constant.
My interest in the stories of families, beyond the facts in genealogy trees, the intrigue in the gaps between the lines, roused the first inklings of the story in RIVER AVENUE. From a mixture of time, place, and situation, characters emerged who revealed their desires and sorrows, and the fiction took shape.
The story in my second novel, THE BOOKKEEPER, emerged when I was writing the last chapters of RIVER AVENUE. Do we have to live in the shadow of our past? I continue to be interested in the way characters grapple with that question.
I gained appreciation for the City of Detroit—its history and its resilience—while writing THE BOOKKEEPER. I was raised in the Detroit suburb of Clawson, without much opportunity to experience the city. I left Michigan two weeks after I graduated from college, moving to New York City. That was the deep end of the pool for city life—and I loved all of it, for the many years of my business career and raising my son in Manhattan.
I moved to Clearwater Beach, Florida, in 2019. The sunny days suit me (Leo sun sign) and when I am not writing, I am usually outside, to read, walk, and explore.
