Author Jan Walker launched Plicata Press, a small publishing company dedicated to bringing out good books from local and regional authors. The press is located in Gig Harbor, Washington. Jan, as editorial director, accepts submissions at info@plicatapress.com.
Plicata Press released Jan’s adult novel, A Farm in the South Pacific Sea, in Spring 2011. The novel is a fictionalized account of an American woman’s adventures in the Kingdom of Tonga in the late 1960s. Read opening pages of the novel on Jan’s Books page.
Jan’s previously published books have ties to the prison system and are based on her 18 year career as a correctional educator. She issued the Third Edition of the popular Parenting From A Distance: Your rights and responsibilities, in January 2011. The book, designed for incarcerated parents, has been in use since 1987. See Books for more information.
On the Stories page, you will find some previously published and some new shorter works in three categories: Family, Prison and Diverse. The first Family story posted, “The War Effort,” recounts how Jan’s dad and mother responded to changes wrought by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Residents on Puget Sound, home of several naval installations, feared war would soon reach their shores.
Jan’s Prison stories include anecdotes from her prison teacher’s memoir, Dancing to the Concertina’s Tune, a look inside adult female and male facilities where she taught for 18 years. She will be adding vignettes of her current volunteer work with a group that mentors female offenders in two Washington state correctional centers as the women prepare to release to their families and communities.
Diverse stories include fiction and nonfiction, and take readers to mountain and sea, tropical and northwest settings. Jan has been telling and writing stories since childhood. Her mother, a teacher and stickler for accuracy, often said the stories were exaggerated. Though that’s true, there’s a fine line between fiction and nonfiction, and fiction often tells the greater truth. Look for writing and publishing tips and updates on book and story releases Jan posts on News.