Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeannette De Beauvoir

Hi Jeannette, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

I came to live in the United States when I was twenty-one. Before that, I assumed I would become a history professor, perhaps with some sort of emphasis on literary or philosophical history. In high school in France students are already specialized, and I was in a section—that I understand oddly no longer exists—that emphasized philosophy, literature, and languages, so I knew where my comfort area was academically. (This was my second career choice. When I was eight years old, I desperately wanted to be an archaeologist, particularly after reading in a UNESCO publication that somebody thought they’d found Atlantis—that caught my eye; I was very romantic. I lost that desire once I realized that most archaeologists spend their time in hot places working in the sun and the dirt, none of which was attractive to me. Still isn’t, but God bless them.)

My parents had moved to the States some years before I went to college and, being at sixes and sevens, I came to visit them, always intending to return to France. But… first I’d do another academic degree, then I’d return. Well, okay, one graduate program; then I’d return. Finally, after a couple of graduate degrees and one husband, I realized that if you keep saying you’re going home and you’re not doing it, then where you are is probably where home really is.

I’ve always written. In fact, elementary-school and church-program teachers all noted they thought I would become a writer. I did write my first book when I was eight—about an archaeologist, of course; it was terrible. But I wrote all through my teens, incredibly derivative self-referential poetry, medieval stories that reflected my growing interest in history. My first novel was published when I was twenty-eight, and after that, all I really wanted to do was write. Unfortunately, I also launched myself into living a fairly chaotic lifestyle and novels came in spurts, in between the real-life dramas I created for myself, but eventually that got all sorted and now I am the luckiest of all creatures, because my work is also my passion. I’d rather write than absolutely anything else except perhaps read, and I get to do it all day, every day.

Reading was always part of my life. My mother was American and never really comfortable speaking French, so I remember myriad trips to Paris to raid the English-language bookshops, mostly Smith’s and Brentano’s. She loved the Golden Age mystery writers, and I know that’s where my own love of mysteries began. I was reading far above my age-level, which was occasionally confusing to me. We lived in Paris the year I was nine, and I remember her subscribing to Reader’s Digest and Time Magazine. In Reader’s Digest I read a story about a father and son hiking/camping somewhere in the Rockies and encountering a grizzly bear—if I recall correctly, one of them was killed and the other badly mauled but survived. It gave me nightmares for weeks. I became terrified of the thought of a grizzly bear attacking me, something extremely unlikely to happen on the Champs-Elysées or even in the Bois de Boulogne!

That same year, in Time magazine, I read about the murderer Richard Speck, who had tortured and killed a number of young nurses who shared an apartment. He had tied them all up on the floor in one of the bedrooms, and the girl closest to the bed rolled under it, and he lost count and didn’t know she was there. That presented me with an exercise in empathy and courage that I’ve never lost—the courage of the last girl killed, who never revealed the presence of her housemate under the bed and must have wished it were her; and the ethical struggles and guilt of the survivor.

But it was the mysteries that really caught my eye and my heart. Mysteries and romantic suspense novels. Stories that echoed some of those same virtues: courage, empathy, caring.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

There are a number of success stories out there—a writer gets a contract with her first book, it’s optioned for the movies, it becomes a bestseller. That happens, but it’s not the way 99% of writers live. It may be work we love, but it’s still work, and it’s still hard.

A major obstacle these days is the changing nature of publishing. When my first novels were published, it was clear: the author wrote the book, and the publisher did the rest. All I had to do was show up when and where they told me to.

I’m not thrilled with the idea of self-publishing, because I think the function of gatekeeper is essential for quality. (Though to be fair, it doesn’t always work that way: we’ve all read terrible novels put out by well-known publishers!)

When I signed my contract with St. Martin’s/Minotaur, I truly thought I had “arrived.” But their marketing plan for my series was this: If you tweet, we’ll re-tweet you. That was it. The powerhouse publishers put their money into proven authors, because they have a guarantee of making some money off them; I understand that. But it also makes it impossible for a midlist author to get their name out. Hundreds of books are published every single day—that’s a lot of noise.

So I’ve chosen to work with a very small local publisher who gives me excellent attention. No marketing budget—that’s still on me. But I’m a real person to them, not just a name.

I don’t know where publishing is heading, but I have concerns. To be continued, I suppose.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

As I said, I am the lucky girl who ended up doing exactly what she wanted to do with her life. I live near the ocean, in a seasonal community that empties out in the cold and perceived loneliness of winter (my favorite time!), and every day I get to spend my worktime reading and writing. Bliss.

I write primarily in two genres, historical fiction and mystery fiction, though almost invariably there’s a blurred line between the two. I love doing multiple timelines that bring readers not just into a mystery, but also into an understanding of and empathy with the people of the past. I have a few nonfiction books out and a couple that kind of defy categorization, but mystery and history are at the core of my work.

I’ve also been developing my work as a poet, having unexpectedly won a national award judged by Marge Piercy, and have had success placing poems in a number of literary journals. Oddly enough, my poetry is far darker than my fiction (even though I kill people off in the latter!). The difference for me is that I always know that the stories are stories, but in poetry I tackle reality. I write poetry the way Toni Morrison describes her fiction: “I’m just trying to look at something without blinking.” You can read some of it here: https://www.jeannettedebeauvoir.com/poetry

I do some teaching and some ghostwriting to maintain touch, as it were, with the rest of the world (and to help with the mortgage on my cottage!), and I’m active in a couple of writers’ organizations, particularly Sisters in Crime. You can see everything I’m doing at www.jeannettedebeauvoir.com.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?

I am very fortunate in having grown up living in several different cultures, and that’s formed me both as a person and as a writer. I talked a little about my childhood and adolescence in the first section of this interview. I know I’ve always been extremely introverted, with a lot more interest in my interior life than in the outside world. This made for a number of conflicts—with my parents, my friends, eventually the world. I did everything that was expected of me: ballet classes, riding and showing horses, being present for adults’ dinner-parties; but I could never wait to get back to my room, to my solitude. I’m still like that now: I’ve mastered necessary social skills and indeed enjoy time spent with others, but always need a lot of time alone to balance that out and recharge.

What I *didn’t* grow up with was a plethora of skills I wish I had—I’ve only just started having a garden that I care for myself, for example, and my home is always tidy but never brilliantly clean. I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring things that didn’t interest me, and when those include basic living skills and the ability to do fundamental arithmetic, it represents a challenge for sure!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jeannettedebeauvoir.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeannettedebeauvoir/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeannettedeBeauvoir/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeannetteDeB
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JeannettedeBeauvoir