Janet Skeslien Charles was born in Shelby, Montana, and studied English, French, and Russian at the University of Montana. From 1994-1996, she worked as a Soros Teaching Fellow in Odessa, Ukraine.
She travelled to France in 1998, where she intended to stay a year. She taught English and creative writing in Paris for over ten years. Her first novel, Moonlight in Odessa, has been published in over a dozen languages. Janet is the first American winner of the British prize, the Melissa Nathan Award. She is currently working on her second novel.
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What inspired you to write your first book?
For two years, I worked in Odessa, Ukraine, where two of my Ukrainian friends married American men they barely knew to escape the poverty. I spent time with my friends and their husbands and wanted to write about the experience.
How did you come up with the title?
In Moonlight in Odessa, the main character moonlights at a matrimonial agency. Everyone involved with the book liked the definitions of ‘moonlight’ – the romantic image as well as working a second job on the sly.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
A lot of times, email-order brides are the butt of jokes in movies or television shows. They are portrayed as docile or ignorant. The men who marry them are portrayed as losers. I wanted to show the real people behind these stereotypes. In my novel, some relationships work out well, others don’t, just like in any other dating situation.
I wanted to show why a woman would leave her country and her family behind.
Jake Lamar, Paris-based author of Rendezvous Eighteenth and Ghosts of Saint-Michel, has been very generous in talking about the publication process.
http://www.jakelamar.com/
What book are you reading now?
Americans in Paris by Charles Glass and The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.
What are your current projects?
I recently started working part-time as the programs manager at the American Library in Paris and absolutely love it. It is great to meet other writers as a part of our ‘Evening with an Author’ series. I am also working on a second novel set in Ukraine.
Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.
The Parisian community has been very supportive – fellow writers, bookshops, and book groups have really helped and encouraged me. I really appreciate how bloggers from all over the world have helped get the word out about my book. People in my hometown of Shelby, Montana, have also been incredibly kind.
Do you see writing as a career?
Absolutely. Writing, maintaining a blog, and doing publicity are all part of a writing career.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
The most challenging thing for me is to make myself sit in the chair and get going. I took a sabbatical from teaching and it took several months for me to learn to just sit and be silent.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
I have so many favorites! I love Excellent Women by Barbara Pym because she shows us who we are with such sympathy and humor. I also recently read and enjoyed City of Thieves by David Benioff. I loved how he moved from comedy to devastation.
Who designed the covers?
I am lucky to have many different covers. If you have a moment, I hope that you will look at the Cover Story page on my website, which shows the covers that were proposed but not used as well as gives the names of each designer.
http://www.jskesliencharles.com/cover-story/
I was shocked to learn that so many foreign women met American men through matchmaking organizations such as A Foreign Affair (loveme.com). According the Tahirih Justice Center, 16,500 enter the U.S. each year on three-months fiancé visas. This gives women only 90 days with their partners in America to make one of the most important decisions of their lives.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Don’t give up! Keep writing and believe in yourself. Keep reading and find readers you can trust to give honest, helpful feedback.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Thank you for taking a chance on a first-time novelist.
Moonlight in Odessa is AVAILABLE HERE
