Brenda Janowitz’s Third Novel Was Worth The Wait—For Her, And For Readers

I’m thrilled today to have Brenda Janowitz on Women’s Fiction Writers. Brenda and I share an editor—Brenda Copeland at St. Martin’s Press. I was lucky to read an early copy of Brenda J.’s latest novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, and I read it in a weekend. The setting, the characters, and the heartfelt story was just what I needed to take me away those cold winter mornings!  Now it’s summer and it’s your turn! Below you’ll read about Brenda’s publishing journey…and just how much it meant to her to write and publish this book!

Please welcome Brenda Janowitz to Women’s Fiction Writers!

Amy xo

It’s here!  It’s finally here!!  My publication day, that is.  My third novel officially hits bookshelves (and virtual bookshelves!) today.

You’d think I wouldn’t be quite so excited about my novel coming out today.  After all, it’s not my first time having a novel come out.  My first novel was published in 2007, and then my second novel was published shortly thereafter in 2008.

But you may have noticed that it’s now five years later….

You see, life has a way of intervening where plans are concerned, and since my second novel came out, a lot has happened.  I mean a lot.  I got married, moved out to the suburbs, and had two children.

But it was always there—that urge to write.  We writers are a strange breed.  We have to write.  It’s not really a choice.  I was complaining about some personal problems I was having to an old friend of mine (you know that sort of friend you’ve known since you were 18 years old?) and she listened and then asked: have you been writing?  And I had to admit it to myself and to her—I had not.  I told her so, and she looked back at me, no judgments, and simply nodded her head.

Writers need to write.

So, I got back to it.  And I completed RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE just as I became pregnant with my second son.  RECIPE says so much about me, so much about my life and how it’s changed, and I just hope that readers will respond to it.

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is about three generations of women with a culture all their own.  When Hannah finds herself spending the summer with her glamorous grandmother, a widow six times over, at her sprawling beach-front Hamptons estate, she learns that there’s more than one recipe for happiness.

A story of mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is a quirky story about correcting the mistakes from your past and trying to create a future for yourself.

The book was inspired by my own grandmothers, two of the most glamorous women I’ve even known.  Neither was a widow six times over, but both of my grandmothers were very elegant ladies.  When I think of my childhood memories, I’m not likely to picture them in aprons baking cookies.  I picture them in evening gowns.

So, tell me about your grandmothers.  Or your best memory of a family member.  Or someone who inspires you.

I’m the author of SCOT ON THE ROCKS and JACK WITH A TWIST. My third novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, will be published by St. Martin’s on July 2, 2013. My work’s also appeared in the New York Post and Publisher’s Weekly. You can find me on Facebook or on Twitter at @BrendaJanowitz.