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Overview
Janice has a special story to tell. She is the woman that got rock and roll banned from Cleveland, Oh. Yup, no rock and roll in the rock and roll capital of the world.
And it was all because of the Beatles. And she did it when she was 16.
Come on, do you really need any more reason to listen to this episode and check out her book?
Book
Website
https://janice-mitchell.com/book
YouTube
Transcript
[00:00:46] Stephen: Hey, y’all welcome to episode 89 of discovered wordsmiths. We’re just cruising along and I’m very excited to get this episode out to you. This is a special one for me. I heard that. Author talk at a, another [00:01:00] group meeting of some authors in Cleveland. And I was like, oh man, I really got to talk to her. Um, you’re going to really like it if you’re a Beatles fan.
And especially if you live in the Cleveland area, because it is a hometown story, uh, believe it or not, this woman did something that many people don’t believe. Uh, but it’s true. And she got rock and roll band from Cleveland. So you have to listen to the interview and read her book to find out more. So before we do that, I want a new play.
One of the shout out promos of some friends of mine. Uh, this is Kobo writing life, and I know lots of people here are hearing the wide for the win, uh, that mark Leslie LaFave, who is going to be on the podcast has talked about. And, um, he helped, he used to work in help with Kobo writing. Uh, they are still going strong and they are one of the best things out there.
If you are a writer and you want to get away from just using [00:02:00] one company. So here let’s take a listen real quick and then we’ll get right into the interview with Jen.
[00:02:11] Janice: Hi, I’m Rachel and I’m Joni and we’re from Kobo writing life Cobos free, fast and easy self publishing platform. KWL was built by authors for authors and our team of dedicated book lovers is always working hard to help offers, reach new readers around. With Kobo writing life authors can now publish audio books and e-books right in their KWL account.
We don’t ask for exclusivity and you’ll always control your pricing. And up to 16 currencies, you can also create a pre-order for your audio books or e-books with no date limitations. We have a lot of great opportunities for indie authors, including the options. In our Kobo plus subscription catalog. And so it’s the regions as well as great promotional opportunities available in the promotions tab, right in your KWL dashboard.
If you’re KWL author and you don’t yet have access to the promotions tab or the audio book tab, email [00:03:00] us@writinglifeatkobo.com and we’ll get you sorted. We’re all about providing excellent support. Create your free account today at kobo.com/writing. Like if you want to learn more about Kobo writing life, check out our blog podcast and find us on socials.
[00:03:17] Stephen: Alright, Janice. Welcome to discovered wordsmiths. How are you doing today, Ben? How are you? Fine. Not too bad other than my might not working correctly somewhere, but we got it going here. So we’re good. And I’m so happy. You’re on the podcast. I heard your story about how the book came about in a. Author group meeting that we had in Cleveland.
And I was like, oh man, I have got to talk to her on the podcast. So let’s talk a little bit about you first and go into the story. You’re from Cleveland. Tell us a little bit about yourself outside of your book and your writing.
[00:03:55] Janice: You mean now present day? Yeah. Oh, that’s a good [00:04:00] question. I’m glad. Yeah.
Outside of the book, but the book has been out for about six weeks now. So I’m working on a marketing book. I, the book was published. I have a publisher brand company. I was very lucky in that regard because the publisher I learned does a lot. This is my first. And it’s just been a learning experience with a very steep learning curve.
Things keep getting thrown at me and I, my reaction is what really? You have to do that. Oh my gosh. So I’ve been doing a lot of that and doing appearances and radio shows had. Okay. And to me, my publisher and this PR person that the publisher hired originally all kinds of stuff from heavily embroiled in that.
[00:04:54] Stephen: So your book, your life is revolving around at the moment. Yes,
[00:04:58] Janice: it is. Yeah. And [00:05:00] it’s a whole new world.
[00:05:01] Stephen: Got it. But it’s your first book, which is great. And it’s a memoir type book. Is that.
[00:05:08] Janice: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay.
[00:05:12] Stephen: So why don’t we, here’s a bit about that story because your book is based on something that really happened to you back in the sixties.
And from that, we also know that you’re a Beatle fan. So take it from there because just to set this up for the thing that I was like, oh man, I love this. Got rock and roll band in Cleveland, the rock and roll capital of the world, that there is a huge story. So tell us the story, tell us what happened and how that led into
[00:05:43] Janice: the book.
I only started writing a few years ago when Paul McCartney was coming to Cleveland for his one-on-one concert. And I heard him on the radio and I said, oh my gosh, I can finally tell my story. ’cause when I was 16 years old, but I had this incredible [00:06:00] adventure where my friend and I, we decided to leave home after the Beatles concert of September 15th, 1964.
And the very next day we just got on a plane and flew to London, but there was a lot of planning throughout the whole summer. It wasn’t just so crazy notion that was fulfilled within the law. Like we got past. Uh, TWA tickets one way tickets to London, because my plan was that’s where I was going forever because I wanted to be where the Beatles came from because they were so their music was so incredible.
They were wonderful people. In my early childhood was not so happier. Wonderful whatsoever.
[00:06:47] Stephen: I could see how that would be attractive. Definitely. Yeah.
[00:06:50] Janice: Yeah. So what happened that, I guess you were asking me about getting our rock and roll you don’t many abandoned Cleveland, that many [00:07:00] people also, we believe that rock and roll and Beatlemania was banned when the rolling stones performed.
At the very same public hall that the Beatles had Beatles had a very successful concert there and the rolling stones were going to be playing there no November 4th and a girl fell from the balcony and most people they’ve written about and reported. That was the reason why rock and roll was banned, but that was completely not true.
So I can easily set the record straight because there are newspaper stories that appeared in Cleveland. And everything in my book is backed up by the newspapers because one, we left, we became international celebrities. Basically, everybody looking for us, trying to track us down Scotland. The United States, Gaffney the Cleveland Heights.
So
[00:07:57] Stephen: technically you were runaway, you were [00:08:00] 16. You left home, you flew over to England, you in your mind, you had it all planned out, but for everyone else, you were runaway.
[00:08:07] Janice: I look at it really. I was running towards fucking wonder. But I guess in the view of the public, the adult public little rush. Yeah. When we put really happened, when we had to go to court, when we came
[00:08:21] Stephen: back.
Yeah. What did you do in England? Oh, you’re over in England to look for the Beatles. Did you find them
[00:08:27] Janice: well, let’s not answer that question. Okay. Okay. So my, I did all the planning and my friend. The bulk of the money. She decided to volunteer her college fund for our trip because she said it wasn’t her bolt to go to college.
Her goal was to meet a nice boy and get married family. So she said, let’s just use this money. So that’s how we were able to buy the tickets, you know, and finance our cute little studio apartment in denied. Yeah, I’m really nice. [00:09:00] And the real estate lady said we would be right close to the two station, like the subway to get us right down to Silva, which is, that was the goal to get to hall, to go to the clubs there because I had read an appeals magazine.
That’s where the deals could have. So I said to my friend, look at this, we know where they’re going, where they hang up. That’s where we have to be. We spend a lot of time going to Soho and going to clubs. They have their coffee bars where there was no alcohol, but all live music. And that’s where all the kids would go.
The music scene, there was incredibly progressive compared to Cleveland. Cleveland was like zero. And they were like a 20, because that’s where it was happening. Obviously. We learned that the rolling stones they’ve been the house band. They’re just two weeks earlier. Okay. And now the kinks were the house band.
So we were right there where the music was happening was bubbling over. And that’s what [00:10:00] life was like. It was constantly exciting. Exciting time there. Yeah, it was wonderful. I never wanted to leave. I’m living my dream.
[00:10:09] Stephen: And you, did you, everybody was looking for you that people were trying to track you down?
[00:10:16] Janice: I had no idea. I thought my, the relatives I was living with, I thought they were probably now relieved of their responsibilities providing for me, I thought they would be happy for one less mouth to feed and all that kind of stuff. And that was the mind of the teenager. So no, cause we didn’t watch TV. We didn’t listen to the radio or read the newspaper.
We didn’t need to, because we were living life that people would have been reporting.
[00:10:44] Stephen: That was us. So what finally happened that brought it all down. Okay.
[00:10:48] Janice: I had a boyfriend, his name was Mick. He was, of course that he was from Liverpool. So that was a beautiful thing. So we were, [00:11:00] we were quite clubs together and Marty had a, his friend, John.
So the four of us would get together. And we even Hittite to Liverpool to try and see at least the cavern club walking down the street, Oxford street, which is like the main street there in London. I see a Bobby in the distance looking in my direction. And as soon as I saw that, I knew that there was going to be trouble, but the police over there, they were so nice.
I couldn’t even believe it. So he came over and he said, excuse me, miss, would you happen to be from the United States? And I said, why? Yes I am. And he said, would you happen to be from Cleveland, Ohio? I said, yes. Why do you ask? I think I was so clever. He said, because there’s two girls here on holiday and their parents are worried about because they haven’t written home in a couple of weeks.
Oh, well, there must be lots of girls here from Cleveland. Why are you asking me? He [00:12:00] said you seem to resemble one of them. And that’s what struck me. They have pictures. Oh my gosh. Indicates that we need to walk over to the police station to check it out. So that’s where we all go. And Nick and I are together holding hands and mixes.
Do you know what’s going on? I hadn’t told him the part to be why I would say. I had just told them that we were on holiday. I learned about a lot of the English lingo holiday vacation. So I said, I’m going to grow. They’re looking for him. He didn’t get mad or anything like that. He just said they should have told me, I could have got you a job as a waitress, you know, in the south end of London, this division goes through.
Waitress. Wait a minute. I don’t think I have that as my future. So we wind up going to the play station and the Bobby points upward. And that’s what I see. These two huge missing [00:13:00] posters, a picture of myself and a picture of Marty. I looked up and I’m still trying to be clever. And I said, Now I see where the mistake is made the resembling.
Okay. So
[00:13:14] Stephen: you just basically said, I love the Beatles. I hate life here. I’m going to go to England and you’re still trying to make everybody think, oh, that’s not me. That’s wonderful. That’s a, they say some chutzpah in there.
[00:13:28] Janice: I had a lot of that. He was mildly. And, uh, basically directed me over to these two police ladies for a little tit and make kind of fades to black.
I don’t know what happens cause now I’m totally absorbed in what’s before me. And so that’s when they say let’s, oh, let’s sit down, have a cup of tea. And if dad they’re just so polite and nice up. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to do everything they’re supposed to do [00:14:00] for you, not to you before for you.
So then I learned that I was going to have to spend the night and the next, that evening when I learned that the police and absolutely everybody was looking for us, including the Beatles that just blew my mind, the Beatles are looking for me and I’m looking for them. So it was the police officer up there who was in charge of the holding cell.
He says, yes. He says, weren’t you girls watching the telly or read the newspaper, listening to the radio? And I said, no, we didn’t have radio. We didn’t have a tele. And we certainly weren’t reading newspapers over there. So he brings out like newspapers, all these headlines. And I, my eyes are like, I get it reading this I in total disbelief.
That’s how we find. You know that this whole thing international search had been going on.
[00:14:58] Stephen: Wow. [00:15:00] So they shipped you back to the states. You get back to Cleveland. What was that like coming back to where you didn’t want
[00:15:06] Janice: to be horrifying? Because two detectives from Cleveland Heights had met us at JFK to our transfer from the overseas flight to domestic flight back to Cleveland and in, at JFK.
It was absolute chaos. I don’t know why people were yelling at Friday, grab us screaming. People had a form, like a protective barrier around us believable, very British. So then on the plane with detectives separated us and I felt like I was treated like a criminal. They’ve just been captured. And I was like, grilling me.
I’m thinking, man, this is not going to get any. So then we come back to Cleveland and of course it’s like a scene from a movie it’s dark, it’s pouring rain and it’s really [00:16:00] cold and we’re coming down the stairway plane. And then the detective like pushes me into a police car. We’re like driving, like down this crazy secret dark road to get to some building I had never seen before.
He pulls me out of the car, squirts me and very roughly steps to this building. I still don’t know where I am and no one feels like they have to talk to me or give me any information whatsoever. Then I decide. And that’s where I learned. This is the juvenile detention home. I couldn’t believe it. What am I doing here?
[00:16:38] Stephen: Cause in your mind, you weren’t doing anything wrong. You were doing what you wanted to do and you did it all by the book for, in your mind.
[00:16:47] Janice: Okay. In my mind. And even in England and London, where the United States embassy from charge of us from the police station, the embassy council, Mr. Lillian failed, he [00:17:00] explained, he says, look, you girls have been nothing.
I sat back with this tremendous feeling of satisfaction thinking. So now we can leave, right? No, but I held that in my mind. We didn’t do anything wrong. He said, he’s the legal counsel for the United States embassy. He should know totally different over here. So then what happened? But then the next day I was bonded out and had no idea what that meant.
It was a harrowing night. Yeah. The juvenile detention, who is one of the scariest nights of my life ever being in there all night long with certain girls who were had this intention to threaten to hurt me just because I was from Cleveland Heights. I don’t know. It was unbelievable to me. Then we had to go to court and that was where a particular judge who had taken his daughter to that same deal.
Scott. And was appalled by the [00:18:00] behavior of the girls and some of the boys while they were attending the concert. I was appalled myself was horrible for fine. So he made sure originally there was one judge that was assigned to the case, but he made sure that he got assigned to our case. And it was a full day in court and he had the jury box filled with people from the press men.
Unheard of that
[00:18:24] Stephen: could never happen today. What were they charging you with? Why were you at court? If you didn’t do anything wrong, truancy
[00:18:31] Janice: and waywardness. Okay. And plus they needed to punish us for what we did and all the trouble and all that. We weren’t just getting really sick of, to us humiliating.
And that’s what they set out to do, and that’s what they did. So judge Gagliardi now, he made sure that everything was set up. All news people were there, so he could make it speech, which [00:19:00] was in the newspaper about the evils of rock and roll music. And how before all this, we had just been like regular girls ever been in trouble before, but now look
[00:19:10] Stephen: at us.
So this sounds like a movie.
[00:19:13] Janice: I know it. Does it be really? Oh yeah. It was just so shocking to hear all this and that. When I heard that he had taken his daughter to the Beatles concert, I thought, oh my gosh, she loves the Beatles. Isn’t that? Wonderful. No, not really. Didn’t make any difference at all.
Because we needed to be punished. And, uh, he made sure that they did that. No more music concerts or Beals concerts or rock and roll or anything like that. And I read in the newspaper that the rolling stones were going to be performing the next day and that they had given us two free tickets and then a meet and greet afterwards, behind stage.
And I thought, oh, wow. I didn’t know that. I wonder who’s going to take me [00:20:00] not knowing at the time that nobody was taking me anywhere. So after his speech, which was all in the newspaper the next day, the mayor Cleveland mayor, Loker based on what the judge. Backed up, judge Gagliano and said that this type of entertainment held no value to community whatsoever and Beatlemania and rock and roll concerts were banned.
That
[00:20:29] Stephen: was it. You and your friend got rock and roll band from the rocker old Capitol. Oh, God. So you, you mentioned before that it was more like they were using you for their own agenda. It’s all, we’ve got the perfect excuse. Now that people will back us up to ban rock and roll.
[00:20:47] Janice: I, yeah, it was handed to them on a silver platter, basically.
[00:20:53] Stephen: So whatever happened how’d that get lifted?
[00:20:56] Janice: I just know that in 1966, the Beatles [00:21:00] were able to play. Uh, back here in Cleveland again, but I didn’t, I wasn’t living here at that time. Got it. Well, I, I don’t know the mechanics of it.
[00:21:08] Stephen: Got it. Okay. Your book, is it just the story or what else is in the book? I include
[00:21:13] Janice: some things about my childhood so that, Hey, wanted to write about how did I become this girl who did this?
I didn’t just pop up one day and say, wow. Yeah, you do that, right? No, because had. Uh, a very harsh early childhood that tested me to become a little survivor out of the street and east 90th street. He stayed in sixth street to find a way to stay safe from alcoholic parents and find some way to hide and find some way to get some toys or whatever I could to get a little changed to buy candy, to.
And that’s what I did, Fred, to [00:22:00] stay safe as I could scrambling all over the place that, that kind of strive or skills. I think that was probably it. I already was that way. I had that independence. That’s just my personality, my DNA. So it was tested and shown to be my way to live. So I was already like that.
I was already a survivor, a good kid. Just never got the kind of support, love and encouragement that a child should have, but I was able to overcome that. And I also got lucky when my parents just abandoned me and my siblings and I wound up living with my gradient and my great uncle and Mac. And that was really savior.
He was the one who said, just let her stay here. So he was the love of. Although my great aunt and her daughter, they made it clear that they really did not want me there. So he was the one I just clung [00:23:00] to. So he died suddenly in 1963. And it was really the beginning of being all over me at that point in the household.
And then November 22nd, 1963. Our president Kennedy was fascinating and I was Catholic. I was going to Catholic girls school. So that was the devastation on top of devastation. And then I heard the Beatles. I want to hold your hand for the very first time day after Christmas, 1963. And suddenly I was infused with happiness and hope and love life and light.
It just was overwhelming and just was everything.
[00:23:44] Stephen: Nice. I see. You’ve got some memorabilia back there. Do you have parts of the book talking about the Beatles and any extra stuff that besides just your story or what do you do with the Beatles in there?
[00:23:56] Janice: Tell my story as it goes along and by hope, like [00:24:00] it’s true story too.
I wrote it as it was. My point of view.
[00:24:06] Stephen: So you said you heard when Paul McCartney came back into town to do the single sessions, what prompted you to say now? I can tell my story and I want to write my story
[00:24:16] Janice: back then. I was told to never speak of it again, because I had to scrape everybody. I was a humiliation, what I had done and my school.
Don’t ever speak of it. And if any other students want to talk to you about it, you’re to take their names and turns names in which I, of course I would never
[00:24:36] Stephen: do this. Ah, come on. I just flew over to England by myself. You think I’m going to be scared to turn in their names? Yeah. You know
[00:24:44] Janice: what I’m here for, of course, at home.
The family, they just always let me know how, what a horrible child there was, what I put them through. And then of course there’s getting rock and roll, man. That’s pretty bad. It was advised to me that I should [00:25:00] just zip it, put it behind me and move forward. And that’s what I had to do to continue to survive in the environment that I was in my life went on and I lived that way.
Never talking to them. ’cause I got youth get used to not talking about it and just reliving different aspects of it. In my mind, they’re fully secretly enjoying what I had done, even though it was terrible for everybody else. And so then what I heard Paul McCartney on the radio suddenly I was struck that very same way as when I first heard, I want to hold your December 26th, 1963 and suddenly like fresh air and.
Overtook me into wait a minute. I would love to talk about my story. And now I can’t because nobody had court. Juvenile court has any authority over me. My relatives are all gone. No school principal can tell me what to do anymore. So everything was lifted [00:26:00] up and I just said, wow, this is, I really want to talk.
It was the best thing I ever did in my life. So now I’m going to talk about it. And that’s what I started
[00:26:09] Stephen: doing. It’s so embodies the rebellious spirit of rock and roll anyway. The whole big, yeah. Is just, this is a rock and roll story. I think. It’s great. So before this book, did you do much writing through your life?
[00:26:26] Janice: I did. I always enjoyed writing and I was. When I graduated high school, I got hired as a card reporter with the Columbus dispatch. And you, they make you start. They make you go through your paces by first working down in the basement in the morning where all the pictures were, which I love that. Then they bring me up to editorial to work in the, uh, the communications room where you sit and listen to the police, the ambulance, fire, everything that’s happening in your brain.
And then the [00:27:00] obits obituary section waiting for people are, is this person going to die or not die? They’re going to die. We got an officiary ready. Then I got transferred. I was doing okay. Then I got transferred into actually working on real stuff. And the editor people would call into the desk and say, this thing is happening.
He would decide what stories he’d send a reporter and photographer. So he started sending me out with photographer. That’s where I found out this is really me out in the field. Finding people asking questions, getting answers, putting things together, coming back to the desk and typing it up. And that was me.
Yeah.
[00:27:45] Stephen: I’m sorry. Go ahead.
[00:27:46] Janice: No, I was going to say, and then I married a musician, big surprise, and we wind up in Greenwich village because every musician has to go to New York city and I kept on working in now writing genuine work for family circle magazine. I [00:28:00] worked for different financial newspapers. And we lived on Staten island and I wrote for several small sat down publications where I had a current lunch to go out and find stories and developing.
Right. So I was doing that.
[00:28:15] Stephen: Yeah. So they didn’t move you into the music section of the newspaper to write about music.
[00:28:22] Janice: I, now, now I left before I really fully developed my career there at the district. So
[00:28:29] Stephen: that’s obviously a different type of writing than writing a book. What were some things that you learned writing the book that may have surprised you, or that you had to do different than you when you were doing journalism?
[00:28:41] Janice: It’s really hard to write a book and very shortly into it. You’re kind of, I feel I’m floundering. I don’t know how to swim. I don’t even know how to doggy paddle or. But I’m in it, I’m in the water and it’s got to work. So all I knew was the only [00:29:00] advice that I have been able to get, because you’re wondering how do you do it?
How do you write a book? Why am I writing a book? You start at the beginning and then you write the whole story until you get to the end. So I said, oh yeah, that makes sense to me. But doing it, that is a whole, that is really hard. You can start up pretty good. And that’s what I did. I started off in all different weights and I figured I’m really on to something now.
But then as you work your way into approaching, not even the middle, but something that looks like you’re going to approach the middle that’s when you really get bogged down and you start questioning, what am I doing here? I don’t even know what I’m doing. So you have to be brave and really believe in.
Your story that you want to tell you has to be really had to be really important to me to get this done. I made a commitment. I made a commitment to the Cleveland writers group. [00:30:00] I don’t know if you were there that evening.
[00:30:02] Stephen: Uh, I was there when you were telling your
[00:30:03] Janice: story. Okay. The story in 2016 on one of the pop music writers, Chuck Yarbrough, he wrote about he interviewed because he was not doing any one-on-one.
So talk gets in touch with me. You’re next in line. I’m going to interview you. The current needs out. You’re in. I said, okay,
[00:30:27] Stephen: that’s not bad being second
[00:30:30] Janice: happy with the article appeared in the Sunday section with all the stories about the concert and everything. I thought three quarters of the page. I was pretty overwhelmed just by.
And even at that time, I had decided I was going to write it for the bull at that time that everybody got was that I should meet Paul McCartney. That’s the only thing that would make the story complete. So the plain dealer that on this mission of how are we going to get the two of them [00:31:00] together, Janice and Paul.
And I didn’t really have a total plan at that time about writing a book until somebody up in Canada who was a beetle. He wanted me to tell my whole life story to him. We were on the phone for like over three hours. Wow. The whole thing he said, okay, now all you have to do is write it down. He’s the one that made me know.
Right. I said, what do you mean? He says, it’s your story? It’s a book. Don’t you understand? And I said, no. He says, well, you’ve got a great book there. I said, okay. All right. That’s how it got me through. So I brought the newspaper story into the writers group and I stood up in the middle and I held it up and I made a promise that I was going to write my book.
So I had made a commitment to a lot of people and I don’t back down. I wasn’t raised. I was [00:32:00] raised with Catholic, honest, hardworking girl, Irish.
[00:32:03] Stephen: So that’s important for other authors because sometimes I know authors struggle with, oh, I’m not ready yet. I’m not done. I can’t publish it. I’ve got to do this rewrite.
I’ve got to change this and they go on and literally it could be yours. So you made a commitment and said, I’ve got a deadline. I’ve got to make this happen.
And, but that’s also something that you’re from your journalism background too, because you had deadlines. You have to meet to get it
[00:32:29] Janice: out. Yeah. You gotta meet him otherwise. What are you doing there? That was ingrained in me.
[00:32:35] Stephen: So you’re with a small press out of Cleveland. Is that right? Great and company green company.
And just, what are some of the things that they did to help you get the book out? And what are you doing now to market? Get the word out. So
[00:32:49] Janice: we did a lot of brainstorming for, I had already done a leg brainstorm because originally I was trying to get a literary agent and I followed up. The [00:33:00] recommendations for all the work you’ve put into it.
I had a 40 page proposal ready. Now books are like yours, all this kind of stuff now. So I had that and David Gray, who’s the publisher. We decided that we would break some of those categories down and start a campaign to try and get people who would actually be advanced. Of my book to try and get blurbs from them.
So I made, I refined my list for authors of Beatles books, similar to mine, although there really aren’t any similar to mine, but just people in the Beatles world that I thought maybe I could, we could send out an email saying, would you please read my book? And we’ll send it to you. If you could think about writing blurred.
So that’s how it started out together, those people.
[00:33:59] Stephen: And I [00:34:00] can imagine that’s interesting, cause there’s a lot of memoirs of popular musicians. So you got people that like to read memoirs of some of their favorite musicians. But your, on the other side, you’re a fan that had a life experience that centered around the Beatles so that yeah, I can see how that could be an interesting challenge to find good marketing and, you know, people who are the right target group for that.
Have you done that or has your publisher been helping you with that kind of both.
[00:34:34] Janice: Yeah, like I would find, I would say, I think we should try these people and then trying to get the right pitch in an email to send out and then change it a little bit for each one. You have to make it personal on, talk about what they had done and tailor each pitch to each potential author that you would hope is going to want to do this.
And then at the advanced review copies called arc [00:35:00] arc. So that’s something that publisher already prepared. You don’t have to send out and that’s how we started.
[00:35:09] Stephen: So what type of feedback have you been getting from readers?
[00:35:13] Janice: People are saying they start reading it. They can’t put it down. They love it so much.
And it takes them to places that they wish they had gone when they could have during those days or reminds them of places. In Soho, the kind of life that they had lived, how much they loved the Beatles. And it’s just really fascinating. The kind of several people upset. I started reading it and I finished it five hours later because they couldn’t put it down.
And it’s, and a lot of readers have said, but this is written as if you’re 16 years old. And yeah, it’s true because when I was writing. I’m reliving it. That’s what I was actually doing. I was writing it from my point of view when I was 16 [00:36:00] years old and that’s how it comes across like that. So you’re living by experience with me.
And when I had come back and I wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody or anything. My cousin, Margie was my adult daughter. She said there’s been a lot of fan mail. I said, fan mail. What do you mean? So then all these kids are writing to you from all around the country, wanting to know how did you do it? What was your plan?
Step-by-step because we want to do that too. And I had my first. Oh, no, you figure how you yourself
[00:36:37] Stephen: as a totally different world than it was in 66.
[00:36:40] Janice: I know there was no internet. There was no Google or iPhone. There was no technology. Right in 1964, to get it to go to the library
[00:36:51] Stephen: or ask somebody that would tell you, like they’re doing only the library, you’re working on marketing this book.
Do you have any plans to write [00:37:00] another book of something? Maybe not, maybe instead of nonfiction, a fiction book or do any more writing.
[00:37:07] Janice: And I still do pretty extensive and incredible career as an investigator. So that’s what I started. I’m starting my next book on. Actually the line that runs through the first book is that.
I am a girl who stepped outside the box and society did not approve that. Meaning men do not mean, and that was really true. Girls don’t act like that. Girls don’t do those kinds of things. I didn’t think of myself as a girl. I just thought of myself as I’m a person with a goal, and this is what I want to do.
And this is what I’m going to do with, this is what I did in spite of whatever, anything. So that’s how I have lived my adult life. That’s how I’ve approached my investigations, but being an investigator, a [00:38:00] girl investigator in a man’s world was not the kind of exciting fun that anyone might have, but it should.
I thought we were all going to be on the same side. I learned a lot about that team and learning how to do destinations in that world. And in an international investigation world is very fascinating, dangerous because of the way I kind of person that I became. It was really easy for me to do undercover work.
I thought it was fun. I wasn’t scared. I had grown up in danger. This was another thing. And I was.
[00:38:39] Stephen: Nice. So is this a non-fiction book or is it going to be a fiction story?
[00:38:43] Janice: No, it’s not. It’s another true story. Okay, nice. I’m going to write it in the same style as
[00:38:50] Stephen: this book, except you won’t be 16. I
[00:38:53] Janice: won’t be 16.
[00:38:56] Stephen: All right. Let me ask two questions. First. If someone [00:39:00] just came up to your elevator and said, why would I want to read that book? What would you tell them?
[00:39:06] Janice: I’d say you probably want to read it because it’s going to be one of the most intriguing, interesting adventures that, that you could be a part of. If you come along with me on my story, you’re going to live in an era where there was actually much more freedom than what we have today.
You could, how could we get away with all this, right? Like today, a girl, my age wouldn’t even make it out of half its airport. So much less be allowed to land at Heathrow and just pick up your suitcases and go, I think I’ll rent an apartment, start living that way. That would never happen.
[00:39:41] Stephen: It’d be easier to find them too.
Cause no 16 year old girl could leave her phone alone so I can track that.
[00:39:47] Janice: Yeah. So how could you even live like that? But that’s how. So come along with me.
[00:39:54] Stephen: So then on the other side, for all the new authors that are listening, what would you tell them about [00:40:00] getting their book done? Working on their book?
[00:40:03] Janice: I would say get up if you can’t possibly live up to a deadline or a series of deadlines, which I did, like I had at the beginning three separate freelance editors and my very first editor, she said, well, when do you think you’ll have your manuscript? And I arbitrarily said May 1st. And she said, oh, that’s perfect.
And there’ll be high up the phone. And I said, what have I just said, I have no idea. I can be by papers. How can I do that? So I just typed and typed through the night and day to get it done. It don’t stop. Don’t worry about being perfect or anything like that. That all comes in the editing part, right?
Editing is where the real work. But the writing of the manuscript, that’s where the blood, sweat and tears happens. So you gotta be willing to go into that battle because you have a story that you’ve got to tell. You [00:41:00] have a story that you want the world to know. You want, you have a story that if in two years that’s your legacy and it’s gotta be out there.
You have to live like that. Like you’re in a. And that’s how I finished. That’s how I wrote my story. I know that sounds crazy. But when I first editor, she, when I finished the mannequin, congratulations, she said 95% of people who start to write a book, they all fall by the wayside. So you’re in the 5% that completed it.
So I said, wow, am I? Yeah. And then above that 5%, only 1% actually get their book published now. So that’s you got to think about that stuff. What do you want to do? Yeah, I know somebody who’s been writing a book about something really important and he’s been writing it for 15 years. Is he ever going to finish?
I don’t think so. [00:42:00] I think he likes the idea that he’s writing a book about something. And that makes her feel good. And that’s what you can do that too. If that’s all you really want, I’m writing a book and you can tell everybody, you have my book because people are going to ask you how’s the book company, you can say, so working on it, you can live with that, but do you really want it?
That’s the other thing you’ve got to ask you. Do you really want to get this done? Do you really want to get your book published and out there for people to read where it’s totally out of your control after that?
[00:42:34] Stephen: Right. I think that does scare a lot of people and they don’t realize that at first that they have the glamor, like you said of, oh, I’m going to be an author and go write a book and then.
It’s about time to actually publish it. You get scared and backed off. What if people don’t like it? What if they don’t like me? And what if it gets one star reviews? And what if it doesn’t sell anything? All those irrational fears. Yeah, they do happen. You’re not [00:43:00] going to sell anything. If you don’t put the book out.
Exactly. Oh, good. Janice. I’m so glad I got to talk to you about this. We get this out for the readers and authors that listened to the podcast. When I first heard that I’m like, wait a second, she got rock and roll band in Cleveland. I got to hear that story. That’s such a great story. And people probably don’t believe it.
Do you get that a lot? People like, oh, I don’t believe you.
[00:43:26] Janice: They’re amazed because we’re almost for everybody it’s brand new story because people still think it had everything to do with the girl falling off the balcony it’s stone answered. Oh, and let me just add this. This is really interesting about the stones.
The public auditorium was completely sold out. It’s about 10,000 seats for the stones concert and after Gagliardi had his say, and then Loker band every only 4,000 seats. And do you think the stones were happy about that? Because there was [00:44:00] this Beatles versus stones thing, and now the stones were playing at the same auditorium where the Beatles just had an incredibly successful concert.
They were furious. I read this paper and their manager demanded an apology. From the judge and the mayor. I don’t know.
[00:44:21] Stephen: I don’t think they did. And again, that’s a totally different time than to cause trying to ban rock and roll and trying to ban music. It sounds like Footloose. And just nowadays that’d be impossible,
[00:44:33] Janice: but back then you could control things a lot
[00:44:36] Stephen: more.
Yeah. Cause you didn’t have as many avenues. So that’s one thing the internet has. Different than background. So I can listen to all the beetles I want on Spotify all the time. So do you still listen to the Beatles? They still your favorite group?
[00:44:52] Janice: My favorite group, that test in the whole world ever.
[00:44:56] Stephen: Janice, please tell me, what are some of your favorite books and authors?
[00:44:59] Janice: [00:45:00] What am I most favorite authors? It’s Katie Salinger catcher in the rye really influenced my writing. And I can pick up catcher in the rye and start reading it. Think I’m really there. And I love that so much that he didn’t care. He didn’t care. He wanted you to know the story from the young man’s point of view, what he was going through.
What are you thinking, how things were happening. And that has resonated with me for a very long time. So when I was getting ready to write, I said, I get my kitchen on riot. And myself in the mood. Yeah. And then of course, David. Another one of my favorite stories and Oliver twists from thickens influence me quite a bit.
And John loved that story. There is a man wrongly convicted, fighting for his life. Those are stories that I really love. And then Dick Francis, he was an actual jockey in England. Very successful [00:46:00] race, horse, race, Jackie, who, after he became injured, he became. A combination of his own experiences as a Jackie and combined with always solving a murder mystery.
Now I’m a horse lover. I love horses been involved in thoroughbred horses for a very long time. So he really resonates with me. And then of course, Nancy drew. I love Nancy drew. And then the fun part that I like, like books when I was a kid, of course, it’s a girl hero, little
[00:46:35] Stephen: Lumina, little Lou. I love little Lulu.
[00:46:39] Janice: She was smart. Resourceful. Nobody could kick her around or tell her what to do. Yeah, she was my hero. I have a little lube bottle that sits next to where. And I look at her and I go, come on, we gotta get this done.
[00:46:56] Stephen: Yeah. I went to the comic book store. My son works out. They [00:47:00] had a sale and I was going through the comic book boxes and I was pulling out cause I write middle-grade fiction and I was pulling out comics that I felt were appropriate for the third to fifth, sixth grade range.
And I then put out a little video for parents, go to your local comic bookstore. See when they have a sale, go through. Dollar boxes. And you can find these for a quarter and you just got to look and has suggestions and little Lulu was one of them. Cause I remember reading that when I was a kid.
[00:47:29] Janice: Oh yeah.
She’s the best Lulu, Lulu, Nancy. True. Those are my girl heroes. See, I don’t know, girls today really have. Very many role models to look up to that are popular.
[00:47:44] Stephen: I know. Yeah. I know. They’re trying to change that more or less, especially with the popular superhero stuff. Cause you have wonder woman, you have Sheree that with the black Panther and some of the other female characters, black widow, things like that.
But, [00:48:00] and I’m not saying that’s bad and I’m not saying they shouldn’t do it, but. What does seem more female characters, like you said, Nancy drew doing something other than superhero. They did have a, there was that one. My kids watched when they were young, it was a girl like, like tech, Kim possible. They liked that one and she was a tech secret agent.
[00:48:23] Janice: Girl heroes who are smart, interesting, brave. And they think on their own two feet and they figure stuff out and they don’t allow themselves to be looked at as just sex objects or anything like that. They won’t, they don’t even seem
[00:48:38] Stephen: to cross. I agree. I think, I think we’ll get there a little bit. I think it’s been starting, but it’s just such a big push people I think are afraid to.
Not make, if you go have a female character, you have to make her the forefront. You have to make her strong. You have to make her every, you know, a superhero, because I think they’re afraid that if they don’t, [00:49:00] people will say, why didn’t you make her bigger, stronger, faster, smarter, and whatever. And I think that’ll balance out over time too, that things will set at that with that.
And I’m not saying we should keep writing all the white male in charge of everything. I interviewed an author, uh, that right. A fiction fantasy based on African mythology. And I said, wow, I’ve got to read some of this because I love fantasy. But honestly, I’m tired of the token. Middle-aged white guy fantasy.
I want something different, but it’s not trying to push the other way or it’s not saying one’s better than the other. I just like reading stuff different. Give me something new. So I think it’ll come. Awesome. Janice. I appreciate you taking some time to talk with me today. I can’t wait til everybody hears this story from you.
And if you come out with another book, let me know. Cause I’d love to find out about your investigation
[00:49:57] Janice: and my in my book, my ticket to ride. [00:50:00] Yep.
[00:50:01] Stephen: Yes. Tell us where we can get it and yeah, there you go. My ticket to ride is that you on the.
[00:50:08] Janice: That’s me. I’m sitting in the United States, embassy limousine being driven to Heathrow airport on my way back.
And that’s the paparazzi who is riding alongside of us, taking our pictures, trying to take our pictures. And there, the guy was right there. And I just said, what the heck? Hey, hi. But it’s called my ticket to ride how I ran away to England to meet the Beatles and that rock and roll band. A true story from 1964 by James Mitchell, you can get it@amazon.com or in local bookstores, like max back books and on Coventry or Logan, Berry and shaker Heights.
Nice. But Amazon that comes probably the easiest way to pick up a copy. Yep. Christmas is coming
[00:50:57] Stephen: all the Beatle fans with something new [00:51:00]
[00:51:00] Janice: story.
[00:51:02] Stephen: Thank you. I’ll put a link in the show notes for everybody. All right, Janice. You have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you again, you too.
[00:51:10] Janice: It’s been a pleasure.
Thank you for listening to discovered wordsmiths. Come back next week and listen to another author. Discuss the road they’ve traveled and maybe sometime in the near future, it might be you.[00:52:00]
[00:52:40] Stephen: All right. Thanks for listening. Episode. It’s a wonderful book. Uh, Janice was a great person to talk to. And if you like the Beatles, this is really good. One to check out, it’s been getting great reviews. If you have enjoyed the podcast, if you’ve been listening to different authors, finding some authors, you like finding some new books.
If you’re an author and you’ve been [00:53:00] listening and picking up some tips that other new authors have passed along, please. Go give the re the show, some reviews, give it some likes, give it some thumbs up. Uh, we’re getting quite a lot of downloads. We could really use some more, uh, stars and reviews. It’ll help discoverability.
It will help all of these new authors have more people to reach out to, and that’s what we need the most. So I appreciate it. And I’ll talk to you next time.