Hello Beautiful People,
I adore Jane Porter. Adore. She has to be one of the kindest, most generous, most truly geniune people I have ever met. So it should be no surprise that she’s contributed WONDERFUL elements to the Beach Book Bonanza, the first being a delightfully entertaining Q&A.
TWT: Where did you come up with the inspiration for The Brennan Sisters novels?
JP: My fictional Brennans were inspired by my younger brother’s wife and her family. My brother Rob married a stunning San Francisco girl named Andrea Callen. Andrea’s father is a fourth generation San Franciscan, as well as third generation firefighter, serving the city with his grandfather, uncles, and brothers. Over the years I’ve gotten to know Tom Callen, and I respect his commitment to his family, the San Francisco Fire Department, and his community. Tom’s dedication and passion, coupled with the heroism of the NYC fire fighters on 9/11, made me want to tell a story about good people, people with integrity, strength, and courage. Before I knew it, the fiercely loyal, loving, Brennan family with the four Brennan sisters, sprang to life, and once those sisters started talking, they wouldn’t be quiet.
TWT: What’s your favorite summer reading spot?
JP: I love to read at our house in Hawaii either on the couch or in the bedroom with the fans blowing on me. We don’t have air conditioning but summer time you get the trade winds in the afternoon and there’s something wonderful about crashing into a mountains of pillows with a book when you’re hot, tired from the sun, as well as a little sunburned.
TWT: What’s the fondest memory of your summer vacation during your high school years?
JP: During the summers of 1979 and 1980 I was an apprentice with the newly formed California Shakespearean Festival and it was amazing. During the mornings I had acting classes, theatre workshops in movement, voice, fencing, and more, and during the early afternoon we rehearsed for our production, and then late afternoon we became backstage assistants for the professional theatre. During the evening I was a dresser for the women, and then during the show itself, I ran lines with the understudies when they weren’t on stage. I wanted to be an actress when I grew up and was madly passionate about all things to do with the theatre, including my crushes on the professional actors. When I was sixteen I had a massive crush on a handsome 26-year-old actor from New York who’d moved to Visalia for the summer season. I’m a hopeless romantic and imagined all sorts of happy endings for us until he told me one day that to not be so flirty because I was ‘jail bait.’ I’d never heard the term before—didn’t even know there was a law regarding dating minors—and was devastated.
TWT: How would you suggest parents get their children engaged in reading over the summer?
JP: Have them read things they’re interested in—whether its sports biographies, manga comics, romance novels, or young adult futuristic stuff. It’s got to be something a child or teen cares about…a hobby, passion…and then don’t judge. Let reading be a pleasure. Let reading be fun. If reading feels fun, it feels good to the brain and the brains gets happy. Happy brains make for happy kids and healthy kids, which makes happy, healthy families.
TWT: Just for fun, what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
JP: I love chocolate peanut butter ice cream by Baskins Robbins, or any rocky road that I can bring home from the grocery store. Then I sit up late at night eating the ice cream—cherry picking the marshmallows– right out of the carton. Yum!
Thanks, Jane!
Live, Love, Learn,