Women's History Month Highlight - Janet Harvey

Einhorn’s Epic Productions is excited to continue to highlight some of the women who have influenced change, creatively contributed, and inspired us all for Women’s History Month.

Janet Harvey is a multi-talented writer who produces for video games, comic books, and film. Some of her credits include the DC Universe Online MMORPG,  Angel City for Oni Press, No Man’s Land at DC Comics, and, A Million Hits, for Amazon Prime, which Janet wrote and directed. She is also the author of The Curie Society, in collaboration with Einhorn’s Epic Productions and The MIT Press, coming out this April! 

The Curie Society is the story of three young women entering college who stumble upon a global society of scientists founded by Marie Curie herself. With high tech gadgets and cutting edge science, they’ll have to learn to work together to achieve their goals and save the world. It’s available for pre-order today, and officially hits the shelves in April of 2020! Continue reading below for more about Janet and her work.

Einhorn’s Epic Productions: What is your favorite character in EEP’s slate?

Janet Harvey: It’s really hard to pick just one of the girls from CURIE SOCIETY, because it’s like trying to pick a favorite child. I love Maya, Taj, and Simone equally, and they are all so different! I love Taj’s rebellious spirit, and Maya’s self-confidence, and Simone’s bubbly curiosity. But if you ask me who my favorite character is to write, I would have to go with our evil genius, Dr. Xiomena Olvera. Evil geniuses are fun to write, first of all – she’s brilliant and complex, and her motivation to change the world and overcome human limitations is, actually, really pure and relatable. It’s her methods that are twisted and wrong. As a reader, I really want you to be with her up to the point where she goes off the rails.

“Dr. Xiomena Olvera… [is] fun to write… she’s brilliant and complex, and her motivation to change the world and overcome human limitations is, actually, really pure and relatable.”

– JANET HARVEY

EEP: What’s your favorite character elsewhere?

JH: There have been a lot of great, complex women characters on TV in the last few years. Right now, I think I’d have to say my favorite is Cameron Howe on Halt & Catch Fire. She’s a visionary and a punk, but she is also allowed to be fully human – she has failures, she has fears about intimacy, she’s not defined by who she’s in a relationship with. She’s creative and smart and damaged, like a real person.

And she isn’t carrying the burden of being the “only girl in the room” on that show  – there are other female characters, like Donna Clark, who have different strengths, different concerns, different aspirations. She’s allowed to breathe, so she lets me breathe, too. And also, the character of Cameron pays homage to some of the great women game designers who were around in that era, like Roberta Williams, who pioneered graphic adventure games.

I think in the early days of an industry, you see a lot more women working in tech –  because it’s new, it feels like a frontier, and the rules have not been written yet. You see it in computers and games, and it was true in the film industry too, with women directors and producers, and Mary Pickford starting her own studio with Charlie Chaplin at United Artists. As someone who was kinda “there” in the computer game industry in the 90s, I really enjoy seeing that portrayal. (Also, I enjoy seeing Cameron show up in stuff I actually wore in the 80s.)

EEP: What woman in history do you look up to?

JH: Again – so many! But I have to give a shoutout to Lady Bird Johnson. If you like National Parks, you have her to thank for a LOT of them. 3.6 million acres of land were added to the National Park System during the Johnson Administration, including Redwood National Park, Fire Island National Seashore, and the North Cascades National Park. (But not Glacier National Park, which is featured in CURIE SOCIETY!)

EEP: Who are some of your inspirations? Who would you like to shout out?

JH: I think one of my biggest inspirations right now is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I admire her so much. She is so fearless, smart and tireless in her work.  I also worked as a bartender in New York, and went to an Ivy League school, so I relate to her – I take it personally! 😀 Watching the trajectory of her career has been so inspiring to me. She shows up and works hard every day for the people, and she does it with style.

Artistically, I have to say my touchstone right now is Patti Smith. Her authenticity is breathtaking, in writing and in life. The honesty and grace and love with which she expresses herself in Just Kids gives me faith in humanity and in art.

EEP: What’s your latest project?

JH: I’m excited to have a story coming up in WONDER WOMAN: BLACK & GOLD, an anthology of Wonder Woman stories, reuniting with my artistic collaborator on ANGEL CITY, Megan Levens. (Shoutout to my mom, Florence Harvey, who brought home the first issue of Ms. Magazine when I was a kid, which introduced me to Wonder Woman!)

Other than that, I have a book project I’m working on for my agent, which I’m really excited about. But it’s just getting started, and I can’t really talk about it yet.

EEP: What advice do you wish you received when you were starting out?

JH: I probably did get this advice when I was starting out, but I wasn’t listening, because I was stubborn. Don’t chase recognition, don’t work for yourself alone. I am an introvert, and I think many writers are, so it’s easy to feel like you’re an island. You’re not. You’re a boat. Stay in your boat, do the work, but find friends who you can lash together with in a storm. I’m stretching the metaphor here, but the point is, you need to help each other succeed, and encourage each other. Find people you trust. If you are there for others in a real way, the right people will be there for you, too. We really do lift each other up. I have a friend whose t-shirt reads “As Strong as the Woman Next to Me,” and it’s more true than ever now.

“…it’s easy to feel like you’re an island. You’re not. You’re a boat. Stay in your boat, do the work, but find friends who you can lash together with in a storm.”

– JANET HARVEY

And here’s the advice I needed when I started out: finish something. Finish anything. It won’t be perfect, but it will be done.

EEP: What was one of the toughest creative or professional challenges you had to face? How did you overcome it?

JH: I have worked in more than one male dominated industry – I went from comics, to film, to video games, and each time I had to prove myself all over again. They were dysfunctional systems, and I overcame them by using a bunch of maladaptive coping behaviors that I had to unlearn and shed in order to become a whole person. I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone. But I learned and grew, and I am in a place now where I can create and thrive on my own terms. I’m a survivor, and I can write my own future.

“I’m a survivor, and I can write my own future.”

– JANET HARVEY

EEP: What’s your superpower?

JH: Perseverance. Everything I’ve done – from moving to New York, to breaking into three industries, to making a feature film – was only possible because I refused to give up. I’m super hard-headed, I go after what I want, I grit my teeth and power through the discomfort, and I don’t take no for an answer. When nothing else works, it’s what I fall back on. Maybe one of those coping behaviors turned out to be useful, after all. 😀