I started writing aged 7. My English school books were the only ones I kept, because they were the only ones that were worth keeping.

I studied Classics as a student, seldom studying at all, and writing only a number of poems which reflected merely the excesses of student life and were later buried. After college, I trained as a barrister and then found myself working as a derivatives lawyer for a big bank. My boss was a demented chain-smoker, demanding long meetings at very late hours, and any creativity was snuffed out by the stench of tiny smoke-filled rooms. I decided that in order to escape (figuratively if not literally) I had to write a novel, and so I did.

My first novel was consigned to a desk drawer, a literal desk drawer in those days. I eventually found ways to work my day job around my writing, working as a contractor, working part time, taking breaks to get my travel fix (this was before children). I’m one of those writers that likes to have a day job, if only to have some machine to rage against. The combination of empty hours and an empty screen, and the resulting pressure to produce staggering works of genius, is overwhelming. Nowadays the machine is domestic rather than corporate. Often, quite literally, it is the washing machine!

I thought having children might allow me to stop the day job for a bit. That this would be the Life/Writing balance I craved. Alas, I love children, but they tend not to further the creative process. Regardless, I chose to have three of them. I carried on writing somehow, inspired by Jo March, Scarlett O’Hara, Elizabeth Bennett, and their creators. I worked around the children as a lawyer, and then I just focused on the books, returning to the law after some time. I tried the industry, failed, tried harder, failed harder, tried some more, received some lovely encouragement from some big names. I never stopped writing. I hope you enjoy the fruit of these years.

In terms of the writing process I’ve always found it easier to work in the mornings, preferably after a whole pot of coffee, and if I’m feeling up to it, a walk. On a good day, in three hours, I can produce 3000 good words. On a bad day, as every writer knows, I’ll be lucky to produce 10 bad ones. As Hemingway said famously ‘The only kind of writing is rewriting’. Every book needs to go through a number of drafts before it’s right and then through willing and constructive beta readers and brilliant editors in order to get there. Every one of my novels is lovingly crafted with sweat, blood, toil and tears, mine and other people’s. That said, there is no guarantee that a particular reader will take to any one of them! To those who are enjoying them, however, a big thank you for your support.

Jane Lightbourne
Nevada Street Press