Dear Janet, I just finished reading "Lilli de Jong" and found it fascinating. Your research must have taken years. How long did it take for you to write the book? I will recommend it highly to my book club. Are you working on another novel? Thanks for the pleasure of reading this book. Delores McElmurry deemac1931@gmail.com

Janet Benton Dear Delores, Thank you so much for your note and questions. The novel took me about a dozen years, from the first time Lilli's voice came to me until the book sold to my publisher. But there were certainly long periods in there when I was raising my child and running my business as an editor and teacher of writing, with just little bits of book time in there. There was indeed a great deal of research, which I found fascinating and rewarding.

Thank you so much for recommending my novel to your book group. It is in the hands of readers like you to determine how well a book does, and this determines whether there is a market for the next book, as well as how much a writer will be paid if that book is bought by a publisher. I sacrificed so much to write Lilli de Jong. I do have three novels in process, but whether I can dedicate the thousands of hours to finishing one or not sooner rather than later will depend on how Lilli does. Thanks for loving her story and for being a dedicated reader. With warmest regards, Janet Benton

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