Get to Know Our Friend, Jane Green!
What would you be if you weren't a writer?
Something in art or design. I went to art school and was a fashion student, but hadn’t thought about doing anything until I started writing Stardust. I now have a line of jewelry and kaftans inspired by the book, plus paintings.
What's the biggest misconception people have about you and your work?
I think people expect me to be quite grand when I’m very down-to-earth. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty and I have a strong sense of fun.
What is one book your readers might be surprised to find on your bookshelf?
The biggest surprise is I have no bookshelves. We’ve just moved into a tiny cottage and there isn’t a bookshelf. Aaargh! Working on planning permission for an extra room with walls of books.
When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?
I was a journalist and when a friend wrote a book and got a publishing deal, I realized I could do it too. I never deliberately set out to be a novelist but was always a huge reader.
Tell us about the first piece of fiction you ever wrote.
I wrote a terrible Mills & Boon love story when I was a teenager. Thank God it was typed on a typewriter and has been lost to history.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I write my notes for the day in longhand in a notebook, one notebook for every book, has to be red or pink, before I start typing.
Is there a particular independent bookstore or library you'd like to shout-out?
Westport Library and Fairfield University Bookstore.
The last book you raved about:
Amy Poeppel’s new one.
Tell us about your work-in-progress.
It’s a novella that will be serialized on a podcast, coming out in the fall. It’s a sequel to Sister Stardust, set in 1979, with two of the characters trying to keep their marriage together, Amidst the temptations and tribulations of Studio 54, drugs, infidelities and a death that may or may not be murder…
