Life & Work with Janet Clare of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Janet Clare

Hi Janet, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Before my first novel Time Is the Longest Distance was published, author and critic John Freeman suggested I write an essay about publishing a book as an “older” writer. Beyond my desire to not be categorized— not by age, and/or gender, and/or race, and/or anything at all other than a still-breathing writer—I wrote an essay which was published at Literary Hub. In “The Power of Not Giving Up I positioned myself certainly not as a debutante, but someone who was nevertheless making my debut. Like many others I’d survived whatever life had thrown at me, and now, nearly seven years later, my second novel, True Home is making what I think of as another debut

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
You ask about smooth roads, and I contend the road is rarely smooth. All of us are faced with good and bad days, and very often years, of hard work with little or no reward. Longing of one kind or another that may never be fulfilled.
Though I wonder what reward really means. What do we really want and expect? And, I wonder too, if sometimes we fail to see what is right before our eyes. To take that extra breath, the extra beat, stop and realize that it is the small moments that mean the most. And, as a character in Time Is the Longest Distance, asserts, stringing those moments together can make for a happy life.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a long form fiction writer. And, although I have written and published short stories and essays, I remain most comfortable with that yawning, frightening, exhilarating expanse of the novel in front of me. It takes a long time, and there’s never enough of it, but the novel allows the space for discovery, to wander and return, and for the great surprise of writing something totally unexpected. All of it reason enough to keep going.
I was really proud to publish my first novel six years ago, and, now for the second, True Home, to be coming out in May, 2025. And, with luck, I will finish and publish my third book now in progress.
There’s nothing particular, other than the work itself, that might set me apart from other writers, and I admire and celebrate every writer for taking the leap and doing the work.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I have written before of having lucked into Les Plesko at UCLA many years ago, and it was under his great mentorship that I finished my first novel published in 2018, and started my second. That he never got to see either in print is heartbreaking to me and I remain forever in his debt. My writing friends in and out of workshop have also meant the world to me. And, of course, my husband, who gave me the luxury of time and space. I worked on True Home during many difficult days while he was being treated for an illness that would take his life in 2023. His humor and supreme focus on living every moment taught me how to press on and do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.janetclare.com
• Instagram: @janetclare
• Facebook: Janet Clare
• Youtube: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dt5288j0hbfeid5pmu8nl/True-Home-Segment.mp4?rlkey=nniqlhbk97omke1lpaejmbt6a&e=1&dl=0