Jane Bay

Jane Bay "lives in Marin County, California where she has worked at Lucasfilm for nearly three decades. She considers herself a Sunday writer and doesn’t intend to quit her day job. She is currently working on two other books, a memoir entitled Growing Up Southern, and an anthology of short stories called The Magic of New Mexico about her experiences on the Navajo and Hopi reservations, and the Pueblos along the Rio Grande River. She is also active in the campaign to save Tibet."

Her website is http://www.janebay.com

She writes that:

"I had also become involved in the Women’s Movement, and organized “Women’s Consciousness Raising” groups, inspired by Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, while still working in Hollywood. Yet, after several years of disappointing assignments as a story editor for one movie producer and office manager for another, I became disheartened with opportunities for women in the film industry. I also felt that women were taking on the worst qualities of masculine aggressive behavior to break through the glass ceiling, and I just didn’t have the stomach for it.

"During the summer of 1977, shortly after the first Star Wars movie was released, I took off for New Mexico to rethink my career path high up in the Sangre de Christo Mountains. I fell in love with the Land of Enchantment but found no viable means of earning a living there, and reluctantly returned to California not knowing what the future would hold.

"Serendipitously, I called my friend, Tom Pollock, who was George Lucas’ attorney at the time. (Tom and I had gone to the Academy Awards the year American Graffiti was nominated and I met George briefly that night). Tom mentioned he had recently talked to George who was looking for someone to help him set up and manage his office in Marin County, California. A few days later I met with George at a small office he had at Universal Studios. He asked if I would be happy working in a small town in Northern California, away from all the drama of Hollywood, not knowing that I was already planning to leave all of that behind. Much to my surprise, George hired me on the spot, and I moved to San Anselmo a few weeks later. Over twenty-nine years later, I still wake up in the morning excited about going to work."

Books

• Precious Jewels of Tibet: A Journey to the Roof of the World (Clear Light Books, 1998).
• Love and Loss -- A Story About Life, Death and Rebirth (Clear Light Books, 2007).