Contact C. Jane Taylor
phone: 802-825-1081
email: jane@cjanetaylor.com
address:
47 Orchard Hill Road, C
Hinesburg, VT 05461
PROMO IMAGES (click image for hi-res)
Jane photos credit: Katie figura
cover photo credit: John McConnell
Bios
(88 words)
C. Jane Taylor is a writer, biker, adventurer, and mom. At the age of 16, she went to Bard College at Simon’s Rock where she earned a BA in Literature and Music History. She’s been a cook for a baroque orchestra, a sculptor’s assistant, a resume writer, and a yoga teacher. She started (and stopped) her own welding shop. She has repaired farm equipment under the blazing sun on the Fourth of July and decorated cakes resembling the Palace of Versailles on Bastille Day. Writing is her foundation.
(217 words)
When C. Jane Taylor was a little girl, her mother owned the motorcycle shop, Honda of Ann Arbor. Motorcycles colored her childhood until she and her family moved to Northern Michigan and later to Vermont. At the age of 16, she went to college earning a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Music History.
She’s been a cook for a baroque orchestra, a sculptor’s assistant, a resume writer, and a yoga teacher. She started (and stopped) her own welding shop. She has repaired farm equipment under the blazing sun on the Fourth of July and decorated cakes resembling the Palace of Versailles on Bastille Day.
She is a writer, a biker, a mom, a wife, a warrior, and sometimes a bit of a chicken, but when she got the invitation from AARP to join their organization, she ripped the letter up and bought a motorcycle. And after a forty-year hiatus, she started riding again when her son graduated from college.
To celebrate his achievement and fill her impending empty nest, Jane, her husband, and son took a 10,000-mile motorcycle trek across the United States; this adventure is the subject of her new book, “Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-discovery and Letting Go.”
She lives, writes, and rides in Hinesburg, Vermont with her husband John, a yoga teacher.
Publisher’s Note
April 19th, Magic Hill Press will be releasing an extraordinary book by C. Jane Taylor.
I have read many manuscripts in the last two decades and Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-Discovery and Letting Go was an immediate standout. The first paragraph drew me in, and I read the book on the succeeding day.
Spirit Traffic hit so many human hot buttons, I approached Jane right away about publication.
Her phenomenal cross-country book release tour starting in May will draw countless fans across the country to this amazing tale of a complex childhood, fear of intimacy and motorcycles, letting go, and moving on.
I loved this book and am proud to be bringing it to you.
Watch for it in bookstores April 19th.
Bill Schubart
Publisher, Magic Hill Press
1 Magic Hill Rd.
Hinesburg, VT 05461
www.Schubart.com
NORTH AMERICAN BOOK TOUR
After a big launch party at ArtsRiot in Burlington, Vermont, Jane will be heading out on a North American Book Tour by motorcycle. With the mission of Inspiring Adventure, she is giving salon readings at select homes, bookstores, motoshops, distilleries, vineyards, libraries, and elsewhere!
The salon gatherings will include a reading and spirited Q&A with Jane, then she will sign your copy of Spirit Traffic. Audience stories will follow! Guests are invited to share a Moth-Style personal story (5 minutes without notes) on the theme “Adventure As I See It.” It will be fun to hear everyone’s story of adventure…as you see it! Having friends and neighbors share their own adventure stories could be the spark that ignites someone’s next great experience.
Jane In print and Online
On the Level Magazine, March/April 2022
HelloRevel (an online community of 9,000+ women in their 40s and 50s – featured in USA Today and FastCompany)
SELL SHEET
PRESS RELEASE
Do It Anyway: A 50-Year-Old Woman Conquers Fear on a 10,000-Mile Motorcycle Trek.
When C. Jane Taylor was a little girl, her mother owned the motorcycle shop, Honda of Ann Arbor. Motorcycles colored her childhood until she and her family moved to Northern Michigan and later to Vermont. After a forty-year hiatus, she re-learned to ride a motorcycle at the age of 50. She was afraid of her dirt driveway, afraid of dropping her 450-pound bike, afraid of up-hill starts, afraid of the tight curves called twisties by experienced motorcycle riders. She took a 10,000-mile cross-country road trip anyway.
Three days after her son’s college graduation, the author set off with him and her yoga-teacher husband (his stepdad) on a motorcycle adventure that took them into uncharted territory-both as novice riders, and as a family.
This family trek is the subject of Spirit Traffic: A Mother’s Journey of Self-discovery and Letting Go. The book is a dynamic and heartfelt exploration of midlife transformation that captures the often-overlooked nuances of the Midwest, the deep-rooted magic of the Navajo Nation, the grandeur of National Parks, and the beauty of the West Coast.
As if in the saddle of her dual-sport BMW, the reader experiences the good, the bad, and the heartbreak of her journey as a soon-to-be-empty-nester grappling with impermanence, sexuality, hot flashes, high winds, and tailgating tour buses.?
Starting out fearful and unsure, the author is pushed beyond self-imposed physical and emotional limitations on a rollicking journey that ultimately freed her to redefine what it means to be a woman, wife, and mother.
Spirit Traffic is at once a colorful travelogue of a bucket-list bikers’ route across America and an unflinching memoir of a middle-aged mom conquering her fears (on and off her motorcycle), unpacking a complicated childhood, and ultimately, learning to let go of her only child.
The book will be released April 19, preceded by a Book Launch party at ArtsRiot in Burlington, Vermont. On April 18, ArtsRiot will be converted into a Motorcycle Clubhouse for the night with local motorcycle dealers presenting new and vintage bikes and gear. C. Jane Taylor will kick off the celebration of storytelling, adventure, and community with a reading from her highly anticipated new book. The reading will be followed by audience members sharing their own true personal stories on the theme “Adventure as I See It.” Adventurers and wannabes of all stripes will enjoy an evening of storytelling, bar games, motorcycles, and dancing.
The print, audio, and e-book is available for pre-order at cjanetaylor.com and at bookshop.org
After the 19th Spirit Traffic will be available wherever books are sold.
The launch will be followed by a barnstorming book tour (by motorcycle) with readings at independent bookstores, libraries, house parties, and at a variety of venues across the country. The first leg of the tour will include New England and New York. The second leg of the tour will retrace the cross-country route depicted in Spirit Traffic. Go to https://cjanetaylor.com/barnstorm/ to find or schedule a reading.