Biography
“Don’t rush work – it’s rarely completed on the first draft. Mine definitely was not up to standard.”
Around 1997 – Janine wrote a fortnightly community column in her local newspaper.
“This was a good opportunity to get into print without it taking up too much of my time.”
1998 – following the offer of a job as an editor of a local community magazine (Viewpoint), Janine took the position as a stepping-stone in her writing career, never imagining she would still be doing the job 22 years later.
“If you’re serious about fiction, don’t do stepping-stones, they sap your fiction energy away.”
“Never give up after a knock back.”
2003 – the magazines became priority when Janine was made redundant and she had to learn how to publish them herself. At the age of 48, she set up a limited company and became a director as well as continuing her role of editor.
“Sucker for punishment – but I realised my writing was now my bread and butter.”
2007 – inspired by a group of teenagers including her sons, Janine started to draw like a maniac and wrote her 3rd novel, Aggracore, based on the drawings. She published it in paperback with the help of her sons.
“If inspiration flows, you must attend to it. I published this for the young people who inspired it. I didn’t have the energy or time to promote it properly, so as a result it only sold a few hundred copies. It created excitement when the Richard and Judy competition took a fleeting interest in it.”
“At last, a way for my fiction to reach a wider audience, helped by social media.”
“It’s a good idea to stick to the same genre – if you swap – use a pen name.”
2015 – the third ebook Janine published was not written by her. Lacey Lightfoot goes to… was the result of a short story competition she held in her community magazines in 2014 and is an anthology of the 10 winning stories.
“It was very time consuming to publish and hasn’t sold many copies. However, I am proud of being able to help the talented winning authors reach a wider audience.”
2015 – a compulsive editor, Janine re-wrote Aggracore and named it Back to Go (it’s original working title).
She introduced a few girl characters. It’s the same story, but includes more tension and excitement. She published this one as an e-book without the illustrations. So far, it hasn’t caught the public’s imagination. It is currently being tightened up (2020), and will soon be published as Aggracore: Back to Go.
2017 – Cane Elephant was published. A psychological thriller, it’s an introspective roller coaster ride through the mind of a girl in a Britain you won’t recognise. It started as a novella which came runner up in national competition. The judges recommended it should be turned into a longer book, and this advice was acted upon.
2019 – Flyaway Angel literally flew out of her. A sequel to The Whispering Waters, some of the story is yacht-based and it picked up where the first book left off, continuing the story of Katrina and her American lover Brod. It Is available in ebook format.
2020 – One More Dream became the third ebook in her sailing series and is not for the faint-hearted. She confesses it was one of the hardest books for her to let go of because she loved editing it so much. With each edit, it grew stronger.
“The power of editing should not be underestimated.”
2020 – work in progress is a dog detective novel.
Future project – to get all her -books into paperback.