Today, she's a part-time journalist, working mostly from home as a correspondent for The Boston Globe (MA) and as a freelance magazine writer. In her early years, she reported on everything from biotechnology to school lunch menus at The Worcester Telegram (MA), and later was able to hone her investigative skills at The Providence Journal (RI), where she got to cover the kind of innovative financial corruption that makes that state such a great place to be a reporter.

She grew up in Clifton, NJ, which was both urban and a very small town. Her father, a lawyer and former city councilor, knew everyone - especially the cops, which made her teenage years challenging. But her father also knew an infamous cop charged with murder. After the acquittal, Jan (then 15) was granted an interview and wrote her first murder story for her high school paper.

Jan went to Boston University where she majored in journalism, worked on a college paper that went defunct, and waitressed at The Eliot Lounge -- the backdrop for Addy's first meeting with the suspect, Kit Korbanics, in FINAL COPY.

Also, at B.U., she became friends with a man who would become a major criminal and be executed gangland style. His story is the inspiration for one of the subplots in FINAL COPY. She got the idea for A CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE years ago, listening to former mayor Buddy Cianci's drive time talk radio show as she headed home each night from the Providence newsroom. Amused by the abject adoration of the listeners, she decided she wanted her protagonist to be addicted to talk radio. She had no idea who was going to be murdered.

Her newest release, TEASERS delves into Internet dangers.

Jan lives in a suburb between Boston and Providence with her husband, two children, a dog, and a bird. When she's not writing, she plays tennis. Transplanted to New England, she's become a Red Sox fan and lately has started to read the sports page first and listen to talk radio. Unlike (her character) Hallie, she's yet to call in.