A Peek Through Author Jana Richards Window

W ho – Hi, my name is Jana Richards. I write mostly contemporary romance with an emphasis lately on contemporary small-town romance. I guess that’s a case of my roots showing. Even though I’ve lived in a big city for over twenty years now, I come from a very small town (less than 700 people) and have lived in small cities of 10,000 and 5,000 people. Life is much different in a small town and I enjoy exploring that in my stories.Away from writing, I’m a bookkeeper in my part-time day job, a wife to my husband Warren, and mom to two adult daughters. Sadly, no grandchildren yet.
 
I nterests – I love reading, of course. I got a Kindle for Christmas so I’m having fun with that. I still have my old Sony reader that my husband bought for me back in 2008, which is eons ago in tech terms. But it still works, so I still use it. Lately, I’ve really gotten into audiobooks. It’s fun to be told a story, especially by a gifted narrator. And I love the convenience of being able to listen to a book while doing something else, like driving or working out at the gym. 
Another of my interests is yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga for many years and I’ve always enjoyed it, but through the pandemic it’s become a lifeline for me. When everything closed and I couldn’t go out much, my yoga classes were still there. My yoga instructor started offering classes through Zoom and I love it. I’ll be continuing with at home Zoom classes until the end of June, and then I guess we’ll see if the studio reopens.
 
N etwork – Right now, I’m a little disconnected as I’ve let my memberships in formal writing groups drop. I belong to an informal group of romance writers in my home province (I’m in Canada) and we keep in touch through Facebook. I’ve been a member of this group for over twenty-five years, even though I now live in another province. I usually connect with the group once or twice a year at a retreat, but this year, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to meet. We’re planning a virtual retreat through Zoom in an upcoming weekend. It’ll be great to see everyone, but it won’t be quite the same.
I also belong to the Word Wranglers. A group of six of us blog together about writing and life in general. We’ve become friends and enjoy talking to each other online. I’ve never actually met any of the other Wranglers in person, but I hope someday we can get together for a retreat or a conference. Ah, I remember conferences. Such fun.

D esk – You can pretty much count on my desk being a crazy mess 99.9% of the time. I keep saying I should clean and organize better but writing projects and cleaning other parts of the house keep getting in my way. At least that’s my excuse. One of these days I’m going to have make cleaning my office a priority. Really. I am.
 
O utrageous – I can do a mean Downward Facing Dog. It’s my favorite pose. I’m no spring chicken, so when it comes to flexibility, I think I’m doing okay.
 
W indow – My office window looks out onto a corner of our deck, our neighbor’s house and the fence between us. Not a very inspiring view, but I do what I can with it. In the summer I plant flowers in the flower bed next to the deck so there’s always a little color. In the winter the only color is white; the wind tends to whip the snow into frothy drifts that pile up against the house and the fence. This window is a nice, warm spot to watch a cold, nasty winter storm. *Note from D. V. 
I recently read and reviewed this book giving it ​