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   In 1996 or 1997 while living in San Diego, California, I was invited into Kate Braverman’s private writing workshop in Los Angeles. We met every other Saturday, one group in the morning, the other group in the afternoon. In the afternoon group, I was new to nearly everyone except the woman I’d commuted with. At the invitation of Kate, some of us attended a reading in Venice where Janet Fitch was among the readers. Because Janet was in Kate’s morning group, I’d never heard her work. I was impressed.

After six months in Kate’s group, she left LA abruptly due to her husband’s job change. I felt adrift with a short story that wanted to be a novel. After brief attempts at workshopping with Les Plesco and Donald Rawley, both brilliant writers now deceased, I found the courage to call Janet and ask if she’d be willing to help me with my new novel. She responded by asking if I’d be willing to join other writers. That’s how the Journeymen workshop began. These were all writers I’d never met, among them a publicist, an actress, an advocate and two or three other women. Maybe a man; I don’t recall. 

We had barely begun our meetings in Janet’s home when she got the call from Oprah. We were all gathered in her living room when she revealed the cover that Little Brown had chosen for White Oleander. We were as puzzled as Janet was at the selected image. Yet, before long Janet was a celebrity, appearing on Oprah’s afternoon TV show. I was dazed as we all were at this happy turn of events.

For two years, I workshopped the novel that became About the Carleton Sisters. Born on a women’s writing weekend at Zacca Lake, east of Santa Barbara, the character of Lorraine appeared in a diner out of nowhere. Her two sisters began to show up. The dying mother. The father’s mysterious disappearance. In no time, I was beginning to write scene after scene of what was beginning to look like a novel. Then, at the encouragement of my writing friend, Judy Reeves, I sold my San Diego condo and returned to Cannon Beach, Oregon, in order to sell a house I hadn’t lived in for some time. The money from the house would allow me to return to San Diego and write while conducting a private therapy practice. Janet agreed to work with me through the mail. She stated that I was “nearly done.” This was late summer 1999.

Expect the unexpected. Six months into my housesitting gig in Astoria, Oregon, Janet wrote and said, “Lorraine isn’t a big enough engine to drive this train.” Of course, I was heartbroken. For me, this meant that I needed to visualize the story differently. Meanwhile, I’d been travelling to a small town in California’s Central Valley where I walked the city streets, drove to mobile home parks, talked to Modesto Bee reporters, and spent hours in the library. Then drove back roads and walked the almond orchards. In Las Vegas, I researched showgirls hours in the UNLV library archives, interviewed two of the Jubilee showgirls at Bally’s, and watched the show from the press box. Visited various casinos, stayed at the Tropicana, and viewed one of the first showgirl reviews in Las Vegas. Listened to innumerable tapes and watched E! television interviews with the Jubilee showgirls. 

During these three or four years, Janet continued to work with me. She visited me in Oregon during the summer of 2001 and urged me to find a writing group. That’s when I landed in Tom Spanbauer’s Dangerous Writers workshop in Portland where I stayed for five years. I moved to Portland and continued to work on the sister novel. When I left the group in 2007, Janet again picked up the manuscript and we worked together on a major rewrite. 

By that time, Janet had published Paint It Black and was hard at work on what became The Revolution of Marina M. Throughout the period from 2007 until 2013, she continued to edit and critique until we thought the book was ready to pitch in Seattle at the PNWA conference. Two months after the conference, Suzie Finesman, an agent in Los Angeles, expressed interest in the novel. After some minor rewrites, she took the book to New York. Not once, but twice. I’d already been to New York once and met with Tom Spanbauer’s agent. No luck either way. After two years, Suzie recommended I find a small press to publish the book. 

Meanwhile, Janet had written her Russian novel, The Revolution of Marina M. In the same way that her readers remembered and resonated with Astrid in White Oleander, this reader will long remember Marina in the same manner that I remember Anna Karanina. Marina is so well-drawn that her character resonates throughout the pages of Revolution and into the sequel, Chimes of A Lost Cathedral. A writer of enormous talent and insight, Fitch brings the Russian Revolution and aftermath into memory banks that refuse to be sent to the deleted files.    

An exacting critic, Janet has clearly been a most generous mentor. And not just to me. She makes herself available to all writers through her weekly Facebook talk on writing, with topics ranging from scene development to handling rejections. Her long history as a writer began at Reed College here in Portland where she majored in history. Janet continues to have friends and family who live here. On occasion, she has been known to escape to Portland in order to write. 

I’m fortunate to have continued friendship with a writer who cares so much about good writing. Given that Portland is a writing and reading town, if you haven’t previously dived into The Revolution of Marina M, winter is here, and this is your chance. Meet a writer who reigns, not just as a storyteller but also as an artist who will be long remembered after you close the last page of her books.