BuiltWithNOF
About Me

Hi there!

I have been writing seriously since the early 1990s.  Prior to that I had written one or two things and won a poetry competition when I was about nine years old!

My first novel Jo’s Circle of Eight – a series of eight thematically related romantic stories – gained me an agent, Millstone Lit, who tried to find a publisher but unfortunately without success.  (It’s been recently published through Lulu.)

I then wrote The Summer Acorn, another romantic but slightly darker novel, which was put into book form by Citron Press.

My third novel Cytherea’s Island followed.  It is a tale of fantasy and romance, and it’s very good!  This was published by Matador.

And after a fascinating cruise on the Nile I completed my fourth novel, Shadows of the Nile.  It has a fantasy / romantic element, like Cytherea’s Island, but is not a sequel.  The backdrop is ancient Egypt, in the New Kingdom Period, about 1500 B.C.  Matador also published this.  It received excellent reviews on Amazon.

My novel-writing is very important to me and very rewarding.  But I have hugely enjoyed writing short stories, too, and this has had its rewards.

So, a little on the short stories:  I have written many, on such subjects as crime, science fiction, romance.  I was delighted to win two awards from, and get published in, the UK’s prestigious Writing Magazine – first prize in the annual Science Fiction Short Story competition (Little Green Men), and first prize in the annual Crime Short Story competition (A Smile From Mr Penrose).

I was also very pleased to have success in the American market via Atriad Press, who published Rose in “Haunted Encounters: Ghost Stories from Around the World”, and The Phantom Swimmer in “Haunted Encounters: Departed Family and Friends”.

Back in the UK again, there was good news from Yours magazine who published Lavender Bees.  They then published Thursday Afternoons in their Spring Special magazine.  And later they published Brenda’s Goal (under the title ‘Brenda’s Going Football-crazy!’).

I was very pleased to be interviewed some time ago by well-known UK publisher David St John Thomas (sadly now departed from us).  As a result, Lavender Bees appeared in his Aspire magazine.

Woman’s Weekly liked Tea with Tania and published that.  At roughly the same time I was successful in having a short story published by The People’s Friend.  This was Fairies, Eggshells and Crystals (published as ‘Magic Moments’).  My Weekly magazine published the short story Ginny’s Scheme.  Let’s Talk magazine published short story Dinner with Miguel, following my success in a competition.  I have also been commissioned to write short stories.  (If interested, please see Contact page.)

I collected together a couple of dozen or so of my short stories and self-published a book, Jo’s Tales.  It was made available at on-line suppliers like Amazon.

As for non-fiction, I haven’t been averse to writing the odd piece.  Some time ago I was privileged to be invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace; an article about this, A Party At The Palace, was published in Evergreen.

Membership of a prestigious organisation, such as The Society of Authors, was something I always aimed for.  I was delighted to be accepted as a full member of the Society in 2008.

Like other writers, I cannot stop writing, whether or not I achieve success with a particular story.  It’s something I have to do.  Roger, my husband, understands all this, is very supportive and helps me enormously with commas, marketing, IT, and things.

If you would like to contact me about any of my work please email me and I will get back to you.

All the best

Jo

 

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