Judith Janway writes killer mysteries.



She was born with a Ticonderoga no. 2 pencil in one hand and a canary yellow lined pad in the other, as she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t writing stories. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Bordeaux and San Francisco State University with her masters degree in Comparative Literature, she went on to receive a PhD from The University of California – eventually pursing a career in social science research.

Her writing is both engaging and dynamic. She proved her abilities by entering her romance novel in a national contest and winning first prize— the opportunity to show her manuscript to an editor. The editor eventually bought the book and a second one. Since then, Judith has turned her writing focus to mystery/suspense, which has always been her favorite genre. Odds of Dying is the first of the Alison Weaver mysteries. The Magician’s Daughter, which will be published February 2015 by Poisoned Pen Press, is the first in a series of Valentine Hill Mysteries.

She plans to blog on her shiny new Squarespace site on the regular. Additionally, she plans to discuss what she's learned about fiction writing and what has worked for her in her writing practice, along with a monthly newsletter to subscribers. If you’re a writer, thinking about writing, or are just plain nosy about what writers do and how they do it, please check into what she has to say!

Telling one story at a time,

Fix8

“I’m a mystery/suspense writer, and when I sold The Magician’s Daughter to Poisoned Pen Press, I realized that a website would be a requirement for book promotion. I chose Squarespace because I knew immediately from their site that I’d find a template that matched my aesthetic and my needs. I wanted clean and minimalist. I needed accessible tools for managing the site. I don’t have the time or the desire to learn coding. Give me a great UI every time.

I looked for a Squarespace specialist to design and launch my site, and am now profoundly grateful that the first two I contacted flaked on me. When I first contacted Fix8 Media, I was a bit leery because of that prior experience. Leeriness dissolved with the first emails and phone conversation. I was met with warmth and professionalism. I simply can’t say enough good things about Josh Neimark and his team. They have a site for tracking your project. You know exactly where you (and they) are all the time. All email exchanges are kept on this site. There’s a link to billing, so you can always pull up your account and print out any and all receipts—extremely important for people like me who need those for tax purposes and who don’t remember to do it immediately at the time of making a payment. And the best part—there’s a site for viewing your website while it’s under construction. So even in-between site review phone calls, you can say you like this or don’t like that. I changed my mind about the banner font three times, and Josh didn’t blink.

Everyone is readily accessible. Emails never linger unanswered. And once your beautiful website is launched, you get trained in how to manage it—make changes, updates and additions. But, you’re not flying this trapeze without a net below. Josh is always there if you get stuck or need something new.

Thanks Fix8!
”

— Judith Janeway