Horse books for big girls: An interview with Jan Scarbrough

Resplendence Publishing

Romance author Jan Scarbrough published her first romance in the late 1990's and has been publishing ever since. With a strong sense of her Kentucky homeland and her love of horses, she pens what I like to call "horse books for big girls." Her latest Bluegrass Reunion series runs true to that premise. Let's hear more from Jan.

Maddie: Hi Jan. Glad to have you here. Tell us a little about yourself.

Jan: Good morning! I live in Louisville, Kentucky. I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but have been a Kentucky resident since college. I’m married. I have two children and two stepchildren, all grown. I have four grandchildren, and one more on the way.

I’ve been a professional writer since 1982 – no, not a romance writer, but a technical writer! I started writing romance in 1988 after spending four days in intensive care and almost dying. After that, I figured it was about time to make my dreams come true.

Besides enjoying all my writing “buddies” and my sisterwriters, I enjoy riding American Saddlebred horses. I’ve owned three horses over the years, but now to get my “horse fix” I take a riding lesson once a week. I also volunteer at The Luci Center, a therapeutic riding center.

Maddie: You’ve recently signed with a new publisher. Can you tell us about that?

Jan: My affiliation with Resplendence Publishing, a new small press that sells digital eBooks and “print on demand,” began in 2007 when our critique group of four writers decided to create Legend, Tennessee, and populate it with fictional characters and romance. We spent the month of May 2007 writing our individual stories, and soon after we finished them, you submitted the Ladies of Legend: Finding Home Anthology to Resplendence Publishing. We were thrilled when they contracted with us for the book, which came out in January 2008.

Since the first Ladies of Legend Anthology we’ve published A Legendary Christmas and are contracted for another Christmas anthology this year. Three of us have written standalone novels set in Legend, Tennessee. I’ve published other books with Resplendence—a medieval romance called My Lord Raven  (you can see the booktrailer for My Lord Raven here) and a contemporary entitled A Man of Her Own. 2008 was a good year for me and my writing!

Maddie: You have several upcoming releases. Is there a favorite among them? Why?

Jan: I’m currently doing a series called the Bluegrass Reunion Series—Bluegrass Reunions: They thought the boys they loved were out of their lives. They were wrong.

These are stories set in Kentucky and, as the tag line says, they involve former friends and lovers coming back together. So far Kentucky Cowboy and Kentucky Woman have been published. Kentucky Flame is scheduled for a May release and Kentucky Bride in October. After that, I think I’ll exhaust my Kentucky stories and go on to something else. But I love these books because they are set in my home state and they include in most of them a story about a single mom, which I was one once.

Maddie: What are your dreams as a writer?

Jan: I want to write a book good enough so that an editor from Harlequin or Silhouette will make me an offer for it. I want to write the best book I can write, putting in it all the right elements that will make readers love reading it and wanting more of my books. As a reader, I love losing myself in a thick book. I want to be able to give that kind of pleasure to my readers.

Maddie: What advice do you have for other aspiring writers?

Jan: In 2001, Steeple Hill author Renee Ryan and I gave a workshop at RWA in New Orleans about “Perspective, Passion & Persistence: The Three P’s of Success.” That’s what it’s about. This business is hard and you must be ready for rejection. But if you give up, you’ll never achieve your goals. I’d add one more “P” to the three above – Patience. There’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” as a romance writer.