Jan Lister Caldwell has published several works, including science-fiction adventure novels for the middle reader, children’s verse, and a collection of short stories for younger children. She has worked as a free-lance journalist, regularly writing feature articles for The Daily Gleaner, a province-wide paper based in Fredericton, NB. Her work included cover stories and photos for its three weekly magazines.
Before publishing her work, she worked with several schools in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Maine, and with local libraries. Her stories have been tested extensively. She published the series, testing the market and contacting reviewers. When the series was first published with advance copies for testing, the Canadian Book Review Annual gave the series a ‘Highly Recommended’ for each of the four reviewed - Time-Travel Runaway, Cousin Clash, The Young Lion and the Castle Curse, and Captain Blackheart’s Gold. Several other reviewers have had similar praise. The series was accepted by several Canadian educational distributors and a Canada-wide bookstore distributor. Unfortunately before she could get underway the printer doing the books suddenly went out of business leaving her to cancel the orders.
She was becoming ill during this time, having been diagnosed with Lupus, among other problems, and had to put all but the actual writing and illustrating on hold until she recovered. She did have enough of a print-run of the fourth book, Captain Blackheart’s Gold, to offer it for review by the Dept. of Education of New Brunswick and it was on their resources list in NB for over 10 years.
A few years later, the first two in the series were reworked and published through Trafford Publishing but were cancelled in 2013 in preparation for the relaunch that included a new series title and extensive rewrites.
Her book, The Science Fair Disaster, released in 2004, is listed with the Dept. of Education in Nova Scotia. Though SFD was done in a limited print run and marketed with limited funds, it was sold to schools across Canada. She published the 2nd edition with KDP in March 9, 2022, available in print and Kindle.
Her health improved since the series was first launched and she has been doing rewrites of the remaining novels in the series. The rewritten Book One, Time-Travel Runaway was published in July 2014. Book Two, published previously under "Cousin Clash", was renamed, "Only Child" and was published July 31st, 2020. The author also did the cover artwork. The Young Lion and the Castle Curse is the third adventure and Captain Blackheart's Gold will be the fourth offering in the adventure series. As of January 2021, 2nd editions with some rewrites and cover changes were published through KDP/Amazon under the recently activated imprint, Menagerie Publishing.
In May 2015 she was honored to have been named Executive Director and Summer Camp Coordinator of Dragonfly Centre for Autism, Inc. in St. Andrews, NB, Canada, an Autism Resource Center that provides programing including Summer Camp for autistic children and young adults as well for those with other intellectual disabilities. She retired in July 2021.
She continues to work on her writing and art, and enjoying living with her husband, her high school sweetheart, in rural southwest New Brunswick.
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Only Child: The Bill Little Adventuresby Jan Lister CaldwellPublish: Apr 28, 2021Series: The Bill Little AdventuresScience Fiction Children's |
Time-Travel Runaway (The Bill Little Adventures) (Volume 1)by Jan Lister CaldwellPublish: Apr 27, 2021Series: The Bill Little AdventuresAction & Adventure Literary Fiction Science Fiction Children's |
I was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, which is a small town on the border with Maine. I grew up in a little village called Upper Mills, just a few miles from where I was born, also within site of Maine with a river for a border, a very rural setting.
What did you like to do when you were a child? Were you more of a reader or a writer?I loved anything nature and loved to learn about everything and spent my time outside as much as possible. I was an avid reader and a writer as a child. I loved to write poetry and stories as well as draw from a very early age.
How did you get into journalism?I was always interested in it, having thought of pursuing it as a career for a time. Many years ago I was in contact with publishers of a couple of province-wide papers to get a review when I had a middle reader novel out and contacted one with a story idea for their weekly magazine, for someone else to write. I felt my friend and neighbor was an interesting story subject and I thought getting her some exposure would help her. I was surprised to be asked go write it myself and submit photos. Before that came out, I had some other ideas which I ended up pitching to another publisher, who asked me to write only for them. I ended up writing for their human interest magazine and their business magazine and had one article in their main paper. I did that, writing for our local area, for about six years.
Having published several works, including science-fiction novels, children's verse, which genre do you enjoy writing in the most?I enjoy all types and though my adventure series is science-fiction, that aspect is really only a vehicle to drive my characters. I guess if I had to pick, it would be that genre, though.
What did you learn about writing while working as a free-lance journalist?I knew I had to keep things brief and to the point beforehand and I was lucky to have few changes to my stories, but keeping to deadlines and coming up with ideas when I only had requests for something to fit a certain magazine really made me disciplined and taxed my imagination to look for story ideas. It also pushed me to go beyond my own shyness and to ask 'nosey' questions. Both were hard to do. Growing up, we were taught not to ask personal questions out of politeness.
How has been your experience of writing feature articles with photos for The Daily Gleaner?I was very fortunate to have been asked at a time when they were looking for a local writer and not asking for a college degree in journalism. I did the human interest pieces, nothing controversial, and I was grateful for the chance. I was proud to have had all four cover stories in the Saturday magazine one month, and enjoyed the photography end of the job, too. I got calls from four different editors looking for pieces and it was great for discipline, as mentioned, but also it was great for a writer's ego and helped build my confidence for my fiction writing.
Why did you decide to test the market and contact reviewers while publishing an adventure series?I thought seeing if I had something worthwhile was the smart thing to do. I asked local teachers and relatives who taught to try them and they were glad to do it. It helped me understand my market and get much needed feedback. I was able to get one book out and after talking to the local printer, he suggested I get the four I had written out and send to reviewers and see what happened. He gave me financial advice he thought was sound and led me to believe he would print them as we got orders but it didn't work out that way. I won't go into it but after getting a 'highly recommended' in an annual review and potential buyers, as well as a distributor who would carry them, I found things were not as I had thought and on top of it all, I also had a diagnosis of ,among other things, Lupus. I did have enough of one book printed to try for the schools and it was accepted in the resource catalogue for my province for a few years.
I just pulled back and after a while started looking into finding a publisher that might be interested. As it turns out, three years later my Lupus diagnosis was incorrect, as I was only allergic to arthritis meds. After getting as healthy as possible, I started reworking the books and got them out with an on-demand publisher.
Did you expect the Canadian Book Review Annual to give your series a 'Highly Recommended'?I had hoped they would like it, as teachers and students as well as friends really loved them, but I was really happy to see that review.
How did you feel when you had to put all but the actual writing on hold until you recovered?It was hard getting a diagnosis of Lupus, Inflammatory Bone Disease, and Fibromyalgia before 40. We still had our son at home and I was the kind of a person who likes to do everything, from cooking from scratch, carrying for our animals, including ducks and geese back then, and sewing clothing, even helping to get our wood for heating. I pushed myself but often, it was too much. I hate to waste time and still push, but have learned to pace myself, usually. What I had was allergic reactions to medications, which amounts to poisoning really, and after over three years of meds to knock back my immune system and taking the meds I was allergic to, I have damage to my bones, my entire body, but I am still alive and kicking, 'vertical and above the turf', as I say when asked, so I guess I am very blessed really. It made me more determined about things, if that is possible
How did you come up with the idea of your book, "Time-Travel Runaway"?That story has gone through so many changes since its inception but I wrote it for our son, who loved dinosaurs. I wanted a way for a child to meet them and grow up emotionally learning to survive, and our move from town to the homestead farm gave me some ideas. Once I started, it took on a life of its own, so to speak. I am working on the second novel now, and will rework the entire series of four, making them better . . . I hope:)
Who inspired the character of ten year old Bill in "Time-Travel Runaway"?Bill is a combination of a lot of people so no one in particular, and perhaps since I am the writer, a part of myself.
Which habits do you think are important for being a successful writer and how do you develop them?Gosh , I don't think I could be defined as being successful since I don't live off my books or even have them widely available , such as on the shelves of bookstores. But if you only count as having a dream to write and seeing the book in print, and having people tell you they love them, are touched by them, and that is by far the best compliment, then I would say you have to be determined, never give up, listen to constructive criticism and learn from it, have a thick skin, which isn't easy, and work at it, making each sentence the best it can be without writing more than necessary to get your image across. You have to keep the reader's interest and not bore them with unnecessary details. You need to learn to pace your story. Reading your work out loud is a good way to see how it flows.
What are the challenges involved while writing a children's book?I once had someone ask me if I ever intended to write a book for adults, as if I had to 'work up to it'. I had to laugh. You need to consider a lot writing for kids. Is the language above the target age? It is good to help them reach, especially if they can guess the meaning in the context, but you will lose them if you forget their age. Is the storyline appropriate? Will it teach them something about themselves or others? Will it 'touch them' in a way some books touched me when I was a child, staying with me my entire life? The books kids read can stay with them all their lives and it is an honor to write for them and if I can help put a positive spin on anything, give them some understanding about something, show them a positive role model, then what is better? Kids are the most important resource the world has.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?Stick to it, work harder, and don't get discouraged. I gave up on writing for a long time until I started telling my son stories he liked better than the books. That kind of woke me up
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