About the author: Wendy Janes lives in London with her husband and youngest son. A number of her short stories have recently appeared in anthologies, and 2015 sees the launch of her first solo novel, What Jennifer Knows.
As well as writing contemporary women’s fiction, she loves to read and review it too.
Wendy is also a freelance proofreader, and a caseworker for the National Autistic Society’s Education Rights Service.
**Contact Wendy: Website Facebook profile Facebook author page Goodreads Author page Twitter
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INTERVIEW
Describe yourself in five sentences: Family and friends are very important to me. I enjoy a good chat. I love finding out what makes people tick. Being able to help people makes me happy. You will never persuade me to go on a camping holiday.
When did you know you wanted to work with words? From the moment I learned to read.
Salty or sweet? Sweet. Huge bars of milk chocolate are the best!
Tell us about a day in your life: A typical day will include: working on proofs for clients; advising parents over the phone via the National Autistic Society’s Education Rights Service; writing/editing/researching; catching up with friends on social media; spending time with family. Each day ends with a few chapters of a good book.
What is your writing/editing/publishing process like? My writing process involves lots of thinking and plotting in my head before I actually write anything. Then after the first draft is down, there follows masses of editing, reviewing, re-editing and tinkering.
Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? Paperbacks and eBooks.
If you could meet any author, who would it be? Jane Austen.
Tell us a bit about your job as a proofreader? I count myself extremely lucky to earn my living by reading books every day. I love helping publishers and authors add that final polish to their books: ensuring spelling is correct and consistent; checking each comma, apostrophe, and quote mark… Although spotting typos gives me great pleasure, a greater pleasure is knowing that I’m part of a whole team of people who work with an author to ensure their book is the best it can be.
Do you have any rituals? Not exactly a ritual, but for anything longer than a tweet, I need to write the first draft on paper before transferring the words to my PC.
Is social media a help or a hinder? In terms of being able to connect with lovely people, social media is a very positive thing in my life. However, it’s far too easy to become distracted by dancing kittens and quizzes about who would play you in your film autobiography, and suddenly an hour has whizzed by!
What do you want readers to take away from your books? I’d like readers to feel like they’ve made some really interesting new friends.
What are you working on right now? I’m working on six short stories that are loosely linked to What Jennifer Knows.
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**Blurb: A vital member of her Surrey community, Jennifer Jacobs is dedicated to her job as a dance therapist, helping children with special needs to express themselves through movement. Wife of a successful though reclusive sculptor, Gerald, she is known for having a deep sense of empathy, making her a trusted confidante. So when two very different friends, Freya and Abi, both share information with her that at first seems to be an awkward coincidence, she doesn’t tell them. But as the weeks roll by, the link revealed between the two women begins to escalate into a full-blown moral dilemma – and also brings to the surface a painful memory Jennifer believed she had long since forgotten. What is the right thing to do? Should she speak out or is the truth better left unsaid?
**Get “What Jennifer Knows” now: Amazon author page US Amazon author page UK