Janice Cantore Interview

Q: How did you get your start writing fiction and what genre do you predominantly write in?
A. I started writing when I was still working as a police officer. I have always loved to read police procedurals, crime novels, and suspense novels, so when I started to write, that was the direction I went: suspense novels with a police officer as the main character.

Q: What does your writing space look like?
A: A mess . . . especially with a deadline looming. I print out a lot of work to edit and usually my desk looks as if it’s drowning in paper.

Q: What part of a writing career do you find most difficult?
A. Usually the hardest part of writing a book for me is writing the ending. I struggle with endings every single time. As far as other aspects of my writing career, I don’t think I’m a very good marketer and I struggle with marketing and promotion.

Q: Would you tell us about your current book release, Lethal Target?
A: Lethal Target is the second book in my Line of Duty Series. It follows Crisis Shot, and it’s the story of Police Chief Tess O’Rourke. She’s finally settled into her new job as chief of a small police department in a small town in Oregon. It’s quite different from Long Beach PD, where she came from: Long Beach is the seventh largest city in California. But it’s not easy starting over, and things come at Tess fast. Can she cope and remain standing?

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing this book? Least?
A: I enjoy my made-up town of Rogue’s Hollow. I had fun drawing the characters. Least? Well, the ending was hard, as always.

Q: What is the main theme or spiritual message of this book?
A: That God is in control. Even when things are hard, or tragedy strikes, or you do everything right and things go wrong, believers can be confident in the fact that nothing surprises God. For the believer, all things work out for good.

Q: Would you share with us what you are working on now?
A. I just finished book three in the series, so now I am working on a new project.

Q: If you could have dinner with 2 people, who would they be?
A. Anne Graham Lotz and Francine Rivers.

Q: Do you have a favorite hobby?
A. Dog walking and kayaking are probably my favorites.

Q: What is the most rewarding thing you have ever done?
A. Taking care of my parents at the end of their lives. I moved in with them and spent the last four years they were on this earth with them. It was very hard, but after it was all over I was glad that I was able to do it and wouldn’t change a thing.