Hi, my name is Wendy Janes, and I come from a family of storytellers.

I was brought up on a diet of my grandmothers’ stories about their many brothers and sisters, my maternal grandfather’s imaginative re-tellings of traditional tales, and my paternal grandfather’s narration of his experiences during two world wars.

Around the family dinner table, my parents would often describe their own recollections of being evacuated during the Second World War, their lives in London in the 1950s and 60s, followed by stories of everyday coincidences, random happenings, bizarre characters met in waiting rooms and at the supermarket. Soon my brother and I were joining in with anecdotes of our own.

Regular refrains around the family dinner table when I was growing up were, “You couldn’t make it up!” or, “That would make a good story,” often followed by, “If I was a writer I’d put that in a book.”

As I entered my teens I started to write a diary, with the idea that I would eventually turn some of the experiences into fiction. I thought if I could capture moments on the page, in years to come I would write short stories and novels to entertain, move and amuse. I was aware that coming from a middle-class, loving family, there would be no gritty drama to draw from, but I hoped there would be nuggets of emotion that could be developed into something to grab the imagination of an audience.

My life became filled with school exams, teacher training, a disastrous year of teaching, office jobs, marriage and three children. Soon those three children took their places at the family dinner table, listening to our stories and then telling their own.

When they started school I looked around for a job I could do at home, and with the ink still wet on my Chapterhouse editing and proofreading certificate I set up my freelance proofreading business. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was that people would actually pay me to read and correct manuscripts: but they did, and they still do!

In the background soft whispers reminded me that one day I’d pluck something from my ongoing diary entries to turn into fiction, but at that time the closest I’d come to writing for an audience were the book reviews I penned for a magazine. I’d take hours to craft my three or four paragraphs, so how could I write a whole novel? Maybe I wasn’t sufficiently motivated, maybe being an avid reader and a proofreader would be the closest I came to the publishing world.

All that changed as I reached my 50s, and a chance conversation led to co-writing and publishing a novel under a pen name. Co-writing was both challenging and fun, and I’m still very good friends with my co-writer. For a variety of reasons, the book didn’t make our fortunes, but I learned an incredible amount from the many writing and publishing mistakes we made.

The whole experience introduced me to the wonderful world that is self-publishing. I even expanded my proofreading business to offer my services to individual authors in addition to the publishers I’d been working with for the previous decade. Writing that novel with my friend also unlocked something, giving me the confidence and motivation to turn that persistent but amorphous idea of writing my own book into a reality.

I thumbed through my diaries, hoping to find an authentic voice, a compelling story. However, the musings of a lovelorn teenager, a hapless teacher, and an overwhelmed new mother didn’t fill me with inspiration. I would have to find it elsewhere. And I did. Around the dining room table.

One Sunday lunch time, my parents were reminiscing about a bizarre coincidence they had found themselves in the middle of. They’d been friends with two women who were unaware of a connection they shared, and my parents had to decide whether to speak out or stay silent. Perfect material for a novel! Memories tumbled out and “what ifs” were toyed with. The real story was highly improbable and rather sad, so I took the essence of the plot from real life and let my imagination play with those “what ifs”. The heart of the tale emerged in the character of the confidante, Jennifer, and finally I had a story I was fizzing to tell.

After two years of plotting and planning, I’m rather thrilled to say that I have written and self-published What Jennifer Knows. I hope readers will relate to Jennifer, enjoy getting to know her family and friends, and become engrossed in her dilemma.

I’d like to thank my parents for sharing their stories around the dinner table, and giving me the inspiration to write What Jennifer Knows.

Thank you to Chris for giving me the space to introduce myself on his wonderful blog. I’ve been a long-time follower, and it’s lovely to be here.

If you’d like to connect with me on social media, find out more about the book, or maybe even pick up a copy, see links below:

Website – Twitter – Google+

LinkedIn – Goodreads

Facebook(Personal) – Facebook(AuthorPage)

Amazon:

UK – USA – Canada – Australia