Mystery writer Jance adds cancer support to visit
It seems anymore that J.A. Jance visits Spokane on an annual basis. The author of two popular mystery series – one featuring Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont, the other Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady – was here just over a year ago to read from her Arizona-based thriller “Day of the Dead.”
Before that, Jance visited in August 2003 to read from her Brady novel “Exit Wounds.” And she was here in September 2002 to read from “Partner in Crime,” a book that featured both Brady and Beaumont.
And not only did she appear in 2001 and 2000, she showed up twice in 1999.
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Jance will be in town on Thursday to read from her new Beaumont novel, “Long Time Gone” (Morrow, 339 pages, $24.95). Look for her at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore.
It was in 1985 that Jance first gave us Beaumont, who in “Until Proven Guilty” (Avon, 350 pages, $7.99 paper) was called in to investigate the murder of a little girl.
Coincidentally enough, her 1986 Beaumont novel “Trail By Fury” (Avon, 384 pages, $7.99 paper) was the May-June reading selection of The Spokesman-Review Book Club.
But the difference this time is that Jance isn’t coming just to sell books. She’s celebrating the two decades of Beaumont’s existence by dedicating her current tour to Relay for Life, which the “Long Time Gone” publicity packet calls “a cause that has come to hold a special place in her heart.”
Relay for Life, which is a 24-hour, sponsored running event, is a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society, an organization that Jance is personally familiar with. Eight years ago her future son-in-law was diagnosed with malignant melanoma.
A number of surgeries and chemotherapy treatments later, he not only is still alive, but he and Jance’s daughter Jeanne are expecting a baby.
In 2001, Jance’s daughter formed a Relay for Life team called the Cancer Fighting Flamingos.
During what she is calling her “J.P. Beaumont 20th Anniversary Tour,” Jance is promoting T-shirts bearing the Cancer Fighting Flamingos logo. The shirts have been sent ahead to stores where she is scheduled to appear. Proceeds for sales of the shirts go to the cancer society.
During Jance’s event Thursday at Auntie’s, the store will be raffling off three of the shirts.
Quoted in the press material, Jance says: “Relay for Life gives power back to the family members whose lives have been affected by cancer by giving them something to do.”
It gives readers something to do, too.
Other than read Jance’s books, that is.
It’s a mother lode
Sandpoint’s Lost Horse Press, which is owned by a woman (Christine Holbert), is holding a literary celebration of women writers next Sunday.
Motherlode: Contemporary Women Writers of Idaho: An Afternoon of Literature, Music and Potluck begins at 4 p.m. in Sandpoint’s Oden Hall, 143 Sunnyside Road. It will feature Joy Passanante, Renee D’Aoust and Susan D’Aoust, with music by Emily Baker.
For further information, call (205) 555-4410, e-mail losthorsepress@mindspring.com or see www.losthorsepress.org.
Unless otherwise noted, the following events are free and open to the public.
Book talk
“Valley Readers Group (“The Jane Austen Book Club,” by Karen Joy Fowler), 7 p.m. Thursday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague Ave. (924-0667).
“Hastings Harry Potter Discussion Group (“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”), 7 p.m. Friday, Valley Hastings.
“Saturday Kids Reading Club, 2 p.m. Saturday, Christian Life Bookstore, 510 E. Francis Ave. (483-5338).
“Fantasy Book Signing featuring Deborah Fredericks (“The Magister’s Mask”), James Glass (“Matrix Dreams & Other Stories”), Jack L. and Phyllis M. Varney (“Dark Star Descending”), 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Valley Hastings.
The reader board
“Andy Kelly (“Magellan and I”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
“J.A. Jance (“Long Time Gone”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“Charles Goodrich (“The Practice of Home: Biography of a House”), 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.