Welcome, MuseIt Up Author, Janie Franz

First, let me apologize to Janie. She was supposed to be on my blog, Sept. 30th, but I never received her blog. So Ihad to reschedule her for today.

Hello, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Janie Franz and I’ve been a published novelist for almost a year.

Though I’ve lived in North Dakota more than half my life, I still think of myself as a Southerner. I was born in east Tennessee, but raised in Cincinnati, and still have a trace of an Appalachian twang. Currently the place I live is probably one of the flatest and coldest places in the country, it is a rural state and that pervades everything, including commercials for farming equipment or Round Up during the news.
Recently, I went back to Ohio to spend sometime in Hocking Hills, a very magical place in the south central part of the state, full of gorges and waterfalls. That area reminds me of places I used to explore when I was a child visiting relatives in Kentucky and Tennessee. I snapped a lot of pictures and used them for two of my book trailers this summer. (You can find them at my new website—still under some construction—at:

http://janiefranz.fourfour.com/videos

The soundtrack for both book trailers was composed by Chris O’Brien of Enchanted Ape and Matthew Probst of Gyspy Lumberjacks, two Minneapolis bands. These talented musicians have offered to write the soundtracks for all of my trailers, including those that I’ll have published next year through Muse It Up and Muse It Hot! I’m just thrilled by their willingness to do that.
I met these musicians several years ago through my work as a freelance journalist. I have written thousands of articles over the past decade for over a hundred regional, national, and international publications (print and online). I’ve written about medical diseases and science, massage, yoga and relaxation, organic gardening, food and drink, paving and pavement maintenance, landscaping and irrigation, art and dance, ecological issues, writing, and, always, music. I’ve interviewed CEOs, chefs, contractors, manufacturers, scientists, environmentalists, doctors and therapists, artists, dancers, writers, and musicians. And, I do my own photography and was a prolific music and book reviewer.
Because I was so invested in music (I married a musician and booked and did PR for my son’s groove/funk band, booking two large national tours), last year I launched my own online music publication, Refrain Magazine (www.refrainmagazine.com). And I still have a regular column, Music Up Close with Janie at skopemag.com. Over the years, some of the people I’ve interviewed have been essayist Sam Pickering, Pulitzer Prize writer Robert Olen Butler, and musicians Arlo Guthrie, Marc Cohn, Charlie Musselwhite, Martin Simpson, John Doyle, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir (Hart, Lesh, and Weir were original members of the Grateful Dead), Dewey Bunnel (America), Jonny Lang, Tom Paxton, Peter Rowen, Gordon Lightfoot, Ralph Stanley, Ladysmith Black Mambasso, Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), and BB King (for a radio interview).
I also co-wrote two books with Texas wedding DJ, Bill Cox (The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book and The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book), and self-published a writing manual, Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid! I also wrote seven chapters in Rick Baker’s 7-Minute Organic Garden book last year and have multiple entries in a number of Gale medical encyclopedias.
While I was building this career, I was still toying with the idea of polishing up some fiction and submitting it. Though encouragement by the Muse Online Writer’s Conference last year, The Bowdancer, was picked up by Breathless Press. That book launched the Bowdancer Saga, which now includes The Wayfarer’s Road (released August 6) and Warrior Women (out on November 5). I’m currently seeking another publisher to continue the saga because of the themes developed in the series.

On the coattails of that, I have new books coming out with Muse It Up and Muse It Hot! next year. Ruins: Discovery, the first book in her archaeology romance thriller trilogy, will be out April 1, 2011 under the Muse It Hot! division, first as an ebook and then in print. The other two books in the trilogy hopefully will past muster and be out shortly afterward. Sugar Magnolia, a contemporary romance about the music industry, will be published by Muse It Hot! in July 2011 for the ebook and print later. And, The Premier, a sweet contemporary romance, will be published as an ebook by Muse It Up in November 2011.

I’m very excited to be part of the new Muse It Up/Muse It Hot! family.