1) When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer, and what has your path looked like to get here?
I handwrote a newspaper when I was in second grade and planned to sell it for two cents, but instead I gave it away. I drew a picture of my teacher on the front page, but I accidentally made her look bald. Later on, I wrote for the high school newspaper. Over the course of my almost fifty-five year career as a lawyer and judge, I wrote for the Court and lots of legal publications. When I retired and Covid came along, my husband and I found ourselves stuck at home a lot, which gave me time to write a memoir.
2) What sparked the idea for this particular book?
I realized that my challenges as a young victim of crime and then as a struggling lawyer and judge in San Diego in a legal profession dominated by men fifty years ago was something most people didn’t know about. And I felt they needed to know, because many women didn’t get justice back then, including me. There are people who would like to return to those days when women were excluded from positions of power. I believe that if more people understood what those years were truly like, they would not allow that to happen.
3) If you could go back and tell yourself one thing at the beginning of this journey, what would it be?
I’d probably shout, “Brace yourself! This is going to be way tougher than you think—but the reward is like nothing else!” The recipe for success? Sacrificing my leisurely retired lifestyle of reading and walking in the park, and actually working again—reconstructing the painful times in my life, finding the courage to share them, adding the humor and victories, and writing for countless hours.
4) Where can readers connect with you? (This is a good place to share website, socials, a book ordering link, and any upcoming events!)
My website, www.JanetKintner.com has links to buy my book and contact me, and has more information about me and my memoir. I narrated my audio book, and it is available along with my ebook and paperback. I love talking about my book to groups, including but not limited to, book clubs, churches, women’s groups, and service clubs.
https://www.facebook.com/p/Janet-Kintner-Author-61566536667406/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-kintner-2675742a/
https://substack.com/@joyfulwriter
To order at Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-judge-s-tale-a-trailblazer-fights-for-her-place-on-the-bench-janet-kintner/cfa5a966398f41d2?ean=9798896360162&next=t
To order at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Judges-Tale-Trailblazer-Fights-Place/dp/B0DXD8K4W1
Janet Kintner could have ended up just another victim of the system. After a traumatic childhood, and being sexually assaulted as a young woman, the odds were not in her favor—but instead of letting these experiences destroy her, she used them as fuel in pursuit of her dreams. By twenty-four, she was a newly minted lawyer determined to secure justice for everyone, regardless of their gender, race, religion, or income.
In 1968, the District Attorney’s office told Kintner, “We will not hire a woman lawyer.” Men dominated the legal system. Undaunted, she established herself as a lawyer who represented low-income people and, eventually, as a high-profile prosecutor specializing in consumer fraud. San Diego lawyers elected her the third woman ever to the County Bar Association Board of Directors. In her private practice, she continued to help everyone she could, often pro bono.
In 1976, when Kintner was thirty-one and pregnant, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her the third female judge in history in San Diego—a move that didn’t sit well with some men in her field. Two years later, two men challenged Kintner, a mother pregnant with her second baby, in the nastiest judicial election of the year. In the coming months, Kintner struggled to balance her time between her children, working full-time in a stressful job, and campaigning. She didn’t want to let other women, present and future, down. But was San Diego ready to vote for a female judge for the first time?
Janet Kintner, author of A Judge’s Tale.
She’s sponsoring: Set Yourself Up to Make Your Publishing Dreams Come True: An Insider’s Perspective
