Janet Skeslien Charles's specialty: Fearless travel & turning poorly paid jobs into bestselling novels."

 

HALLIE EPHRON: One of the great pleasures of the teaching I get to do is the talented authors I meet.

When I was teaching a week-long class this summer on mystery writing in Paris for WICE (Where Internationals Connect In English), I got to hang out with fantastic writer and all-around delightful person, Janet Skeslien Charles.

She's the New York Times international bestselling author of The Paris Library, as well as Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade, The Parisian Chapter, and Moonlight in Odessa.

Janet grew up in Montana but now she's living in Paris, speaks fluent French, and writes and teaches in English. It was so much fun getting to hang out with her, and I never got to ask her how, on earth, has she done something that I could never imagine doing: traveling widely, living abroad, and learning to think and breathe (and write!) in another language?

First thing I'm dying to know: How did a girl from Montana end up writing living in Paris and writing a HUGE international bestseller??

JANET SKESLIEN CHARLES: It was wonderful to spend time with you, Hallie! Thank you for your kind words.

I became interested in France because as a child my neighbor was a war bride from Normandy. In 1998, I got a job teaching English in France and meant to live there for a school year, but ended up staying in Paris… for 25 years!

In 2010, I was writing a novel set in Ukraine at home in my apartment. Unfortunately, my building underwent massive construction, so to escape the hammering, I got a job at the American Library in Paris.

On my first day at work, I knew the place was a novel.

I researched the librarians who defied the Nazis in order to hand-deliver books to Jewish readers.

After painful rejections from my first agent and the publisher of my debut novel, I queried 75 agents and was accepted by Heather Jackson. After ten looong years, The Paris Library was finally published and became a New York Times bestseller. The follow-up book The Parisian Chapter was finally published in 2025, after fifteen years.

I mention this in case fellow writers are reading this. Keep writing! Keep going!

HALLIE: And how does that [spirit of adventure?] imbue your characters and your storytelling?

JANET: At heart, I’m interested in journeys and the way that we react to changes in circumstances, whether it be marriage, divorce, widowhood, a new job, getting fired, having children, not having children, becoming an empty nester, breaking up with a friend, having cancer or Covid, or moving to a new country.

My debut, Moonlight in Odessa, is about the booming business of email-order brides. Several of my Ukrainian friends – talented, motivated, intelligent women – married foreigners to escape poverty.

In my second novel The Paris Library, a librarian who has made a terrible mistake flees France by marrying a G.I.

Though the books are set in different countries and eras, the themes and plight of the main characters – one an email-order bride, the other a war bride – are essentially the same. I describe people out of their elements as they deal with loss of the familiar or loss of loved ones. At some point in our lives, most of us usually have to start over.

My books are about and for people who struggle.

HALLIE: I'm fascinated to hear about the travel and research you did to write that debut novel, Moonlight in Odessa.

JANET: Growing up in small-town Montana during the Cold War, I was a voracious reader of books, magazines, and newspapers.

As a teen, I noticed that color photographs taken in France or England featured young people having fun on the beach or dancing, while photos taken in the Soviet Union featured old women in headscarves waiting in line for bread. These pictures were always in black and white.

I knew those images didn’t tell the whole story, and so I wanted to see for myself. I took Russian classes at the University of Montana with the intention of working in the (then) Soviet Union.

At this time, I translated letters from lonely Montanan men to Russian and Ukrainian women, who the men had found through catalogues. International Matchmaking Organizations: A Report to Congress (1999) notes that, “Mail-order marriage is not a new phenomenon—it is an inseparable part of North American history and the settlement of the United States.” My home state was in part populated by mail-order brides in the 1800s and early 1900s.

I interviewed dozens of women, women who took a chance on love and moved across the world to marry someone they didn’t know very well. I’m interested in war brides and email order brides because of their courage and grit.

HALLIE: Your novels tend to be set in the historical past. How have you chosen the backdrops for your stories? Or have they chosen you?

JANET: I feel lucky to stumble onto the stories. When I was thinking about working in the former Soviet Union, I opened an atlas and pointed to a spot, which is how I ended up in Odessa. (After Montanan winters, I aimed for someplace warm.)

Odessans are incredible people, and I wanted to write about the city and its people, through the experiences of one woman. That novel was interrupted by construction on my apartment building. The hammering drove me out of my comfort zone and into a job that led to other stories.

So there’s an element of chance, and element of making the best of things, and paying sharp attention and asking questions.

HALLIE: I love the way you described your own special approach to writing: "If I have a specialty in writing, it is taking poorly paid jobs and turning them into novels." Tell us more, please!

Janet: Oh my goodness! My first professional job was teaching English in Odessa, Ukraine.

Thanks to a fellowship from the Soros Foundation, I received an airline ticket, travel insurance, and a $100 monthly stipend. The contract stipulated that I earn 120% of a head teacher’s salary. Fresh out of college, I would earn the same amount as an experienced teacher. Not bad!

Imagine my surprise at receiving my first pay and learning that my monthly salary was $25.

Young and inexperienced, I didn’t know which questions to ask. Despite the very low wages, I loved my job and my time in Odessa.

At the library, my contract was for minimum wage and fifteen hours a week. My colleagues and I all worked overtime. The boss promised “comp time” that never materialized.

I wish I’d had better boundaries. I’m proud of today’s generation, who are standing up for themselves on the job. Still, it worked out because I published a library trilogy about real-life American librarians who worked in France during world wars.

Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade features Jessie Carson, a Pittsburgh librarian who joined the American Committee for Devasted France. This all-woman aid organization worked just forty miles from the Front and helped civilians who had lost their homes and livelihoods.

Jessie Carson created the first children’s libraries in France during World War I. After the war, she founded libraries in Paris and Northern France. She paved the way for an international library school, which French authorities dubbed “The Wild West Library School.” It was housed in the library where I worked.

HALLIE: Can you tell us a little about of your newest book and the spark that got you hooked writing it?

JANET: My latest novel is The Parisian Chapter, which is set during dark moments in the City of Light in the 1990s. I took copious notes while working at the American Library in Paris as the programs manager. My coworkers, trustees, and library members fascinated me. When people from different walks of life cross paths – it creates friction.

In the novel, the main character Lily meets an extraordinary cast of characters—including her favorite writer, struggling students, haughty trustees, and devoted volunteers—each with their own stories...and agendas.

My favorite review of the book calls it “The Devil Wears Prada, set in a library.”

The novel is an ode to libraries. It’s for anyone who's ever chased a dream, lost a friend, or found a place that feels like home - even if it's across the world.

HALLIE: Where should readers be looking for you to hear firsthand about you and your storytelling?

JANET: The Parisian Chapter came out in May, and I’m excited that my debut Moonlight in Odessa is being re-issued on December 1st.

My favorite place to connect with readers is my website jskesliencharles.com or my Substack newsletter, where I write about the women who inspire me, books I love, and life in Montana and Paris. My favorite post is about the similarities of writing and wheat farming (my parents’ profession). A Golden Harvest - by Janet Skeslien Charles https://jskesliencharles.substack.com/p/a-golden-harvest

Thank you so much for having me on Jungle Red Writers! 

HALLIE: THANK YOU!!

Janet will be hanging out here at Jungle Red today, checking in possibly from Paris... so please, share your reactions and questions... please, pile on!