Getting to Know RRBC's Talented Author Janelle Jalbert
Janelle Jalbert discovered her bliss at the age of 10. One passion was teaching as she taught stuffed animals daily lessons. The other was writing, due to her love of reading. After reading about an aspiring writer in her favorite book series, the light bulb clicked on, and Jalbert said “I want to do that!” Thus, her writing career began with serialized stories for her friends in the form daily notes passed before class.
Then, the cries to pursue a “stable” career won out over her dreams of writing.
After college, Jalbert taught language arts and writing at all levels. While in the classroom, students teased Jalbert for her love of NASCAR racing. Her reply was simply “Smart girls like racing too”. It became part of a gift from her students – a brick at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. While deciding on a topic for her master’s thesis, Jalbert stumbled into the world of Magical Realism and was hooked, though at first it was limited to academic interest. Jalbert wrote while teaching including an educational book, contributing to a business book, blogging and reporting on education. Once Jalbert transitioned to online teaching, she simultaneously taught and served as a motorsports reporter while traveling the country for NASCAR events.
Jalbert had an epiphany in the fall of 2013. Listening to a nagging voice inside, Jalbert began a story that would shape a new path in her life. The voice stated that she had 30 days to get the novel written. It sounded illogical and melodramatic, but she began drafting. It was nearly 30 days later when her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor, followed by other advanced cancers. It was during the remaining weeks with her dad that Jalbert completed the initial draft of Triangulating Bliss, though it would take nearly two years for the novel to be published.
In the months following her father’s death, Jalbert’s professional focus became writing and pursuing her dream. She began copywriting, landing projects from individual professionals to leading businesses. Copywriting led to numerous ghostwriting opportunities from international clients. With that momentum, Jalbert pitched and landed the contract for a book titled Wine for Beginners.
Throughout the spring and summer of 2014, Jalbert juggled copywriting, ghostwriting, fiction writing, and writing the wine book. On the morning that she submitted the draft of Wine for Beginners to the publisher, Jalbert went to celebrate with her mother and sister, only to find that life had other plans. Less than 12 hours later, Jalbert’s sister lost her 14 year battle with health complications related to a life-long disability.
Jalbert’s belief in the magic of daily life was both shattered and later reaffirmed as a result of her life-changing year. It is that belief, and the desire to help others see a special side to this crazy thing we call life, that fuels her writing.
In addition to teaching and writing, Jalbert loves to explore the world. Jalbert has traveled throughout Japan, Australia, Europe, the United States and other destinations. Her travels are often solo ventures with as little as a wallet, backpack and passport. In addition to auto racing, her guilty pleasures include happily-ever-after stories in book or film form, a glass or two of good wine, and cooking therapy. Jalbert currently lives in Southern California with her rescue pups and regularly returns to her second home in North Carolina. To learn more about Janelle Jalbert visit her website at www.janellejalbert.com.
About Janelle's Novel
What if you could take a complete time-out to figure things out when life got difficult?
What if you could see disaster before it struck and be able to avoid trouble?
What if you could share one more moment with a departed loved one?
All it takes is walking through the right door, at the right time…
Triangulating Bliss combines the magical, metaphysical, and mundane aspects of everyday living. The joys and the realities of life are woven together as part of the fabric of time, which may not only be a part of the human experience but also the gateway to divine assistance.
o0o
Greg Ellison is haunted by his experience in Afghanistan and realizes that life is too short to continue to live according to outdated expectations. His decision to drop out of law school and defy family expectations has consequences. Greg knows what he doesn’t want, but he fails to understand what it is that he actually DOES want.
When he reads about the mysterious disappearance and death of a local basketball star, Greg is drawn to learn more. He meets the owner of Bliss, the Southern California business blamed for the death, and discovers that there are others who have “disappeared”.
The owner reunites with the love of her life and learns that love never dies;
A woman, broken by life, sees how her life might be;
A musician’s wife stumbles upon her own grave;
A son, caring for his dying mother, learns that endings can be beginnings; and
A financial advisor with a shady past finds out how close he is to losing it all.
All of their stories include one figure…a man with dark hair, blue eyes, and a strong jaw.
Then, it’s Greg’s turn to face what lies beyond the door to Bliss.
Greg’s encounter with the mysterious forces at Bliss changes everything. He learns that what brought him to Bliss is not as it appears and that the lives touched by the “Bliss Triangle” are powerfully interconnected across space and time.
o0o
Triangulating Bliss combines elements of a Nicholas Sparks life and love story with a nod to classics such as It’s a Wonderful Lifeand popular films like Pay It Forward. Hints of the magical in stories like The House of the Spirits, Beloved, and The Alchemistbring an added dimension to this tale of a quest to discover contentment with life amid loss and change.
Triangulating Bliss is a tale of living life to the fullest; but to understand, you must first disappear.
