Jan Bornstein

I went to school to become a licensed practical nurse straight out of high school.  Ten years later, I went back and became a registered nurse.  During a four-year period in New Hampshire, I had a management position in a home care agency, which suited me well. After moving back to Massachusetts, however, I found I was unable to get a similar position without a specialized degree, which led to a BS in psychology from Bridgewater State College and a BSN in nursing from UMass Boston. I also hold a paralegal certificate from Dean College and a Legal Nurse Consultant certificate from Northeastern.

In the course of my nursing career, I have worked in nursing homes, hospitals, doctor's offices and as a clinical nursing instructor.  For the past 18 years I have worked in home care, with positions ranging from staff nurse to director of clinical services.  I'm currently a nurse educator in home care. 

 

I had a brief position as an assistant manager of a retail store when I lived in NH and also a brief position as a paralegal. I still do occasional consulting. My hobbies include reading, dancing, music and walking, to name a few.  I enjoy reading biographies, history, non-fictionrelating to abuse, homelessness and other social issues, and romance novels.

When I was in college, I had to take a required creative writing course for English. The instructor, a writer himself, was far more critical than other instructors I’d had previously.  I struggled to satisfy him but never could. He assured me I should never think about being a writer.

 

A few years later, deeply moved by the death of a close friend at a young age, I found myself trying to write, but quickly discovered that I was too close to the emotion of the event to be able to complete what I’d set out to do. I put the project aside, thinking I’d go back to it in time, but never have. That unfinished book, as well as the learned opinion of that college teacher, weighed heavy on me when I started writing what has evolved into the Beyond Beautiful trilogy.

 

I cannot explain what inspired me to sit down and write this series. I certainly never thought of it as a trilogy when I started. I just felt the urge to tell a story. I am a great fan of plenty of rock stars and, as a culture, we are continually bombarded with the intimate – and, who knows, maybe sometimes even true – details of their personal lives. Love is hard enough for us mere mortals. I found myself wondering what a relationship between two giants in the rock world might read like. I decided to create a couple of characters and just see where it might take me. I quickly started enjoying the process. I only told a few trusted individuals that I was writing a book.

 

I was working as I started writing this, but didn’t particularly like the job, which included a commute that I liked even less. I settled into a routine of writing before and after work and, as I began to feel more comfortable with the still rather novel idea of myself as a writer, I made the decision to quit that job.

 

I took some consulting and contract jobs of one to two months’ duration. I was still looking for something more permanent, but I wasn’t finding anything of interest – and at the same time, I found myself more and more drawn to spending days at the computer working on my book. Eventually I found myself so drawn to the workthat I simply stopped looking for jobs entirely, and gave myself permission to find out where this all might actually lead.

 

Needless to say, it wasn’t all smooth sailing: I had my moments of asking myself what on earth I thought I was doing, wondering why I was doing it, wondering if it wasn’t going to end up like that other unfinished book in my bottom drawer. More than once I was tempted to hit the delete button. I don't know what or why but something kept pushing me to continue, and here I am now, with one completed trilogy.  I still don't know why. Hopefully God will give me the answer soon.