Jace Carlton has had a diverse career as a freelance writer & photographer, award-winning poet, author, a former Adult Contemporary radio DJ in the San Francisco Bay Area, and twelve years as a popular and award-winning play-by-play football announcer.
As a freelance writer he has contributed reviews on new music and singer/songwriters to online publications, and regularly contributed book and concert reviews, along with personal commentary on the music industry, to Nashville's Songwriter's Connection e-Zine.
Jace is also the creator behind ChangeYourStars.com and its companion motivational / inspirational e-mail messages that have been read by tens of thousands of people all over the world.
Jace now enjoys a career as a romance novelist.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Jace and his wife, Kathi, spent nearly 10 years in the Nashville, TN area where Jace was a songwriter predominantly in the Country genre, but also enjoyed occasionally writing for A/C, Pop, R&B, and Smooth Jazz. Jace also had his own music publishing and artist management company. They now call Eagle Mountain, UT home.
The Reunion is Jace’s first novel, and his next romance novel, Letting Go, will be published in the summer of 2023. In October 2020 he published Breaking the Stillness. It's a compilation of his favorite poems, as well as his favorite lyrics from his years in Nashville. A special feature is a section he's added where he shares the inspiration for and stories behind many of those poems and songs featured in this book. His upcoming romance novels include At First Glance, Searching, and The Last Letter.
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I discovered my interest in writing when I was 7. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and I sat down at my desk and wrote a science fiction story about space travel because that was a popular topic in my youth. From there I wrote more in the science fiction genre as well as branching out into mysteries.
When I was 13 I began writing poetry because I was in love with my first girlfriend and I thought it would be a great way to impress her. It did! I bought my first guitar when I was 14, and began writing my own songs about six months later. Songwriting took preference over poetry throughout high school, mostly because I wasn't happy with the style of poetry I had been used to writing - the old standard of rhyme and rhythm. That was fine for songwriting, but I felt my poetry needed something different and I discovered the free verse style of writing poetry when I was 18 and haven't looked back.
I've been asked where I get my ideas for what I write, whether it be novels, lyrics, or poetry, and the answer is quite simple ... from my own life. Most of the subject matter deals with situations I've either been through, places I've been, and people I've known, or from experiences my friends have shared with me (and I've had their permission to share as long as I change their names). I also get ideas from books, movies, and songs. One of my favorite things to do is listen to instrumentals and write the lyrics I think should go with them. It's great practice!
Besides writing, music has always played an important role in my life. I've developed a wide range of musical tastes from Big Band to the Oldies of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and on through country, easy listening, folk, smooth jazz, Brazilian / Bossa Nova, and musicals (particularly those by Andrew Lloyd Webber), to name a few.
My favorite artists include Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, The Kingston Trio, The Beatles, Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, The Moody Blues, The Carpenters, Glen Campbell, Gordon Lightfoot, George Strait, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, George Benson, Michael Bublé, classical voices like Andrea Bocelli, orchestra leaders like Henry Mancini, James Last, and John Barry, and great songwriters like Mickey Newbury, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach & Hal David, David Foster, Tom Douglas, and Dan Fogelberg.
I'd love to hear from you! You can find me at facebook.com/jacecarlton, facebook.com/JaceCarlton.RomanceAuthor, or write to me at Jace@1423press.com (I promise to write back!).
