Jayne Menard paints novels in the colors of nature to provide texture and context to situations and character. Inspiration for her characters and novels may come from her life experience and mental meandering.  Sometimes a character with a unique personality walks on stage in her mind and demands an audience.  The plots grow out of the characters.  Wherever it makes sense, she draws on her technical and business backgrounds. Her travels, surrounding scenery, and photos provide inspiration for the settings and richness to the locales in her writing.

While contemporary fiction, historical novels and romantic suspense capture her attention, she occasionally escapes into the intricate worlds of fantasy.  English novels, both historic and present day, are among her favorites.  She enjoys mysteries that focus on characters and settings. 

She resides on the stunningly beautiful and rugged Oregon coast and has a devilishly playful Pembroke Welsh Corgi to lure her out for walks. 

Jayne likes to cook, garden, travel and landscape photography.  She has wandered across five continents into 23 countries, as well as visited 42 of the 50 states in the USA.  She has an affinity for historic villages and country houses Landscapes and viewpoints call to her to stop and absorb the natural expanses; roaming country lanes is a favorite pastime. Her coin phrase, Places that Speak, describes the corners of our world evoking thoughts and emotions, calling to the viewer for appreciation, joy, inspiration and contemplation.

She has published four books in the Spook Hills series, Old Growth and Ivy,  New Growth, Noble Firs and newly released, Tilt Shift. She has two possible projects in mind as next efforts, one as fifth novel in the Spook Hills Series which is in the formative state. The other, likely entitled, Riffles, is in rewrite. It is a departure from the series, but contains similar themes of personal growth in the characters.