page_title: Jan Howard
section_title: 1987–2020: Autobiography and other writing
hierarchical_section_title: Jan Howard / Writing career and other professions / 1987–2020: Autobiography and other writing
caption_attribution_description: English: Jan Howard's real estate business card.
context_page_description: Jan Howard was an American author, country music singer and songwriter. As a singer, she placed 30 singles on the Billboard country songs chart, was a Grand Ole Opry member and was nominated for several major awards. As a writer, she wrote poems and published an autobiography. Additionally, she was married to American country songwriter Harlan Howard.
  Howard was mostly raised in West Plains, Missouri. The family moved to various homes during her childhood. Marrying in her teens, Howard and her husband relocated various times, including Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri. She took several part-time jobs to support her growing family, which included three children. Howard divorced her first husband in 1953. She met and married her second husband the same year. Moving to his military base, the couple and her three children lived a suburban lifestyle. In 1955, Howard discovered that he was a bigamist and she resettled with her children in Los Angeles, California.
  In 1957, she met and married Harlan Howard. Early in their marriage, he discovered that she could sing. Impressed by her voice, Harlan arranged for her to record demonstration tapes.
context_section_description: For several years, friends told Howard that she should write an autobiography. In response, she said, "Yeah, it would make a great soap opera." Howard had written an outline for the book, but put it aside for three years before turning to it again. She later explained that she chose to continue writing the autobiography because she became suicidal. In 1979, she was visiting a friend in Florida. "It was a very bad time in my life. I was in Florida and, I didn't know whether I was going to walk into the ocean or not. And I can't swim," Howard said in 2003. Deciding not to end her life, she went back inside the house. She then sat on the floor and wrote a song called "My Story". Howard later threw the song away because it was full of "bitterness". "Once I started again, it was just like rolling back the years," she said in 2003.
  The year of the book's release, Howard cancelled all her concert engagements to prepare for its completion. When officially released in 1987, the autobiography was titled Sunshine and Shadow: My Story. The book was published by Richardson & Steirman, a company based in New York City. Sunshine and Shadow received mostly positive reviews by critics upon its release. In their July 1987 review, Kirkus Reviews gave the book a positive commentary. Reviewers highlighted stories of Howard's interactions with other country artists and the recounting of her son's suicide. Kirkus concluded their review by stating, "Sure to be appreciated by die-hard country fans, and by any who seek a tale of victory over despair." Publishers Weekly gave their review of the release in August 1987. Reviewers of the book praised Howard's personal stories, but disliked the editing style of the book.
  Also in the late 1980s, Howard explained that she was working on her first fiction short story and a novel. In a 2015 interview, Howard explained that she still writes a "little bit of everything" including songs, poems and short stories. Howard also said she had started three fiction novels that had yet to be completed. "I need to put those together, I need to go through them. And I found things in there that I forgot I wrote and I said 'oh, this is pretty good' or 'this is bad'. So right now I'm gonna put those all together and put them in a leather-bound book," Howard said.
  Howard also wrote out her recipes that she used. She featured directions for her recipes on her official website, which were updated on a monthly basis. On her recipe page, website administrators stated, "Each month on this page we’ll be adding a favorite recipe or
  two provided by Jan…so keep checking back."
caption: Jan Howard's business card from when she was worked as a real estate agent, late 1970s
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