Morethanareview.com got to chat with Janice Horton, author of How Do You Voodoo?, Bagpipes & Bullshot, and Reaching for the Stars, as well as earlier titles Beneath Apricot Skies and When We First Love.
MTAR: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Janice: I live in Scotland and write novels with humour and heart in a contemporary Scottish setting. When I’m not writing novels I write lifestyle articles for magazines and newspapers and I have also been involved in BBC Scotland’s ‘Write Here Write Now’ project. My first book was traditionally published in paperback but now I’m working as an indie author. This year has been a really exciting one for me, I’ve seen all three of my ebooks for Kindle in the Amazon bestseller lists and I was invited to speak at two fabulous author/reader events – The Summer Audience in Tetbury, Gloucestershire and The Creative Arts Business Network in Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway.
MTAR: How did you choose the genre you write in?
Janice: I write in the genre I love to read – humorous romance – but why Scottish settings, you might ask? Well, I live in a rural remote place, in a small cottage on a Scottish hillside and there is something so compellingly romantic about the countryside here: the diffused light, the hanging mists, the ancient castles and the long kept traditions. But the winters can be brutal and magical all at the same time and that contrast, of breathtaking beauty and natural conflict, could keep me in humorous writerly fodder for a very long time to come!
MTAR: Do you have a specific writing style?
Janice: I’d like to think so. It really pleased me to read a review left on Amazon recently that said: “Immediately you begin reading, you recognise her inimitable style”. The review was for my latest release – a novella entitled How Do You Voodoo? – a story about a loveless fashion model who thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most important photo shoot of her career. The quest to get uncursed takes her from the Caribbean to Glasgow’s ‘City of the Dead (yes, there really is one!) Along the way, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, involved in a voodoo ritual, reveals one or two unrests in her own past and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm, that would be a witch doctor, right…? It was such a fun story to write!
MTAR: Is there a message in this novella that you want readers to grasp?
Janice: Yes, there is a strong message about being careful who you wrong and what’s really important in life!
MTAR: Can you share a little of your current work with us?
Janice: I’ve got big plans for more ebook releases in 2013. I have two more novellas to follow on from How Do You Voodoo? That’s Voodoo Wedding (with a Loch Lomond setting!) which will hopefully be out in time for Valentine’s Day and Voodoo Child coming later in the year. I’m also working on another full length novel, which I’m very excited about, but as I’m still working on the first draft and I’m a fly-by-my-pantser rather than a plotter – I can’t tell you too much about it just yet!
MTAR: Who designs the covers?
Janice: My covers, with their distinctive non-gender-specific and tartan-tastic livery, are designed and created by the wonderful JT Lindroos, a professional designer who works with publishing houses and indies alike. I’d like to ask what the morethanareview.com readers think of them?
Do you want to ask Janice about her novels or the Scottish settings she uses? Please use the comment box to ask your questions – and to tell Janice what you think of those tartan-tastic covers!