5 minutes with author Penelope Janu
In 5 minutes with author, Over60 asks book writers about their literary habits and preferences. Next in this series is Penelope Janu, a writer based in northern Sydney. She won the 2017 XO Romance prize for her book On the Same Page and the Romantic Book of the Year title at the 2019 Romance Writers of Australia awards for On the Right Track. Her fourth novel Up on Horseshoe Hill is coming out on November 18.
Over60 talked with Janu about the books everyone can relate to, the prejudice towards the romance genre, and her dream dinner guest.
Over60: What is your best writing tip?
Penelope Janu: My best tip is to write something that you’d love to read. That enables you to connect with the characters and the world that you will create. Writing a novel is a long, hard process – if I didn’t find a lot of joy in what I did, I’d never be able to finish the manuscript.
What book do you think more people should read?
Books can mean such different things at different times in our lives. I often go back to my favourite classics by writers like Austen, Gaskell and Dickens, because reading these books is not only enjoyable, but it also reminds me that good writing and character driven stories are timeless.
What was the last book that made you laugh?
I’ve just finished Joanna Nell’s The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker, which made me laugh and cry! Jo and I are good friends and writing group partners. I love the way she writes and the wonderful characters she creates – just about anybody can relate to them, whatever stage of life they are at. My mum is 84 and loved this book too. It was, in her words, “magical”.
What do you think makes for a great romance?
I like to think of characters spending long and happy lives together, for which they’ll need to have shared challenges, laughter, trust and passion. My husband and I met at law school at eighteen and have been married for thirty-three years, so I appreciate that perseverance is important as well! Sexual tension is my catnip, and is often the reason that characters find each other fascinating, notwithstanding their differences – Elizabeth and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice encapsulate this.
What does your writing routine look like?
We’re renovating our house at the moment, so… shambolic! My best-case writing scenario is waking at five in the morning and writing until around eleven, and then reviewing what I have written late in the afternoon. But the most important thing for me is to write every single day so that I stay connected to the characters and their story.
Do you deal with writer’s block? If so, how do you overcome it?
I worked as a solicitor and legal academic for many years before writing creatively. In those jobs, just like my current one as a writer, there are times when you are overwhelmed by the task ahead and you simply don’t want to face it. But generally… you do. Once I’m over halfway through a manuscript, I find it much easier to write because the story drives me, not the other way around.
What trope grinds your gears? Alternatively, is there a cliché that you can’t help but love?
I’d like to mix these questions up! I think any trope well written can get away with being a trope, and that most storytelling is one form of trope or another. Which brings me to my cliché, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Some people say, “I’d never read a romance”, perhaps without fully appreciating that it is romance that drives so many stories in both literary and genre fiction.
Which author, deceased or living, would you most like to have dinner with?
I’d love to have dinner with J.K. Rowling! My eldest daughter was the same age as Harry when each book in the series came out, and she and J.K. Rowling set the scene for all six of my children’s reading lives for years to come. I loved the books too, and remember tiptoeing into the room of whichever child had fallen asleep reading the latest ‘new release,’ and taking it away to read before returning it (quietly!). I now enjoy J.K. Rowling’s crime fiction, and she seems friendly, so I think we’d have plenty to talk about over dinner!