THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505250190
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEAN GEDDES, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
All her life, Jan Nelson had written essays, articles and profiles of interesting people. She didn't try her hand at fiction writing until later in life - much later.
``It wasn't until I turned 85 that I tried writing fiction,'' said Jan Nelson, now 90, and a retired teacher, a widow and longtime resident of Westminster-Canterbury.
Seated in her living room near a large picture window overlooking Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by her antiques, watercolors and mementoes of extensive travels, she said: ``Writing has always been an important part of my life.''
Fiction became part of it when teacher Richard Peterson started a writing group at Westminster and showed her the basics of fiction writing.
Drawing from her life experiences, people she has known and places she has lived, she creates her stories. ``The settings, characters present themselves then they take off on their own,'' she explained.
And her characters delight her readers, such as ``Aunt Nonie'' modeled after her own aunt who didn't marry until she was 50. After the wedding she proceeded to keep her devoted although impatient husband waiting for every appointment. ``Aunt Nonie was composed of wonderful stories,'' Jan said.
Born in New York City in 1904 into a family of college professors, she said she had and still has, an optimistic nature. ``It was such a secure, pleasant time in American society.''
Educated at the Horace Mann School, then Barnard College, she then went to France to live and study. Memories of France are both vivid and pleasant such as while living in Paris, how each afternoon she would go with a group of friends to Les Deux Maggots, an outdoor cafe on the Place Saint Germain, and order a mazagrin, a goblet of scalding hot coffee ``in which we would dip sugar lumps and solve the problems of the world.'' She also remembers the charming ``White Russians'' who would entertain them by singing and playing on their balalaikas.
Reluctantly leaving the world problems still unsolved, she returned to the United States and resumed her education at Johns Hopkins University where she met her future husband, a parasitologist.
After their marriage, traveling and writing continued to be a part of her life along with interests in photography, square dancing, camping, child raising (she has a son, now a chemical engineer living in Memphis) and acting as a docent for the Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The Nelsons came to Richmond to live when her husband became associated with the Medical College of Virginia.
It was after their retirement that they moved to Westminster-Canterbury. Here Jan joined the writing group led by Richard Peterson and when after that group dissolved, she joined the Great Neck Writers Group where she continues her membership.
``I write for the fun of it,'' she said. ``When we lived in Richmond, I used to write articles, profiles of some musicians for a music magazine. I also love doggerel, which seems to come naturally to me.'' She keeps members of the writers group amused with her spontaneous rhymes. And, on their toes with her knowledge of world events, literature, music and poetry.
Ideas for her stories come in various ways, perhaps through an incident during the day or a phone call from family or friends such as the time her granddaughter called and eagerly told her about their new furnace: ``pretty enough to be put into our living room,'' the girl said which sent her grandmother spinning back in time with memories of the many furnaces she had known, from coal burning ones to oil furnaces to the more modern ones. She decided to write a piece called ``Furnaces I Have Known,'' which won her third place in the writers competition at Christopher Newport College a few years ago.
Her love for life and people is obvious. ``There's no one who doesn't have an interesting story to tell,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Drawing from her life experiences, which include times in New York
City and Paris, Jan Nelson, 90, creates her fictional stories. ``The
settings, characters present themselves, then they take off on their
own,'' she says.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB