I’m in my mid forties, single and living in a caravan in the north west of England with my mum, who at 71 years of age is more spry than I am! We look after each other, and enjoy travelling. I love Greece, and have visited the island of Kos, Crete and Kefalonia since there is a great vibe to each of the islands, all having their own character. A few years ago I was able to visit Hawaii on a cruise ship from Los Angeles, and spent eight days at sea and then four fairly intense days trying to see as much as possible before returning to the west coast of America again, before flying home. Since then, I’ve done two other cruises, around the Canary Islands and the western Mediterranean and am planning one to Iceland and another to the Caribbean in the next couple of years.

I’ve always loved to read, and enjoyed writing stories as a child, but the need to work along with family pressure to work at jobs which had a regular salary, rather than any serious application to write and get published led to me working in various jobs both in retail and the travel industry.

I left school at 16 years old, being an army brat and having my education disrupted every two years, so as soon as I was legal, I walked out of the latest establishment and decided I needed money rather than playing catch up all the time. I still read quite a bit, and became addicted to Mills and Boon early on, loving the happily-ever-after and predictability. My family laughed at my fascination with romantic fiction, telling me they were trashy, but I ignored them and graduated to sexier fiction with more naughty bits. I discovered erotica a few years ago, liking a romantic story with lots of sexy scenes. I enjoy sci-fi/fantasy and paranormal/shape shifter when I’m reading, but my writing style seems to be leaning towards contemporary.

Whilst I don’t have any formal qualifications for writing, I did end up going back to education in my twenties, completing a college course in Travel and Tourism and then going on to earn a BA in International Tourism. Neither courses are particularly erotic, nor do they have anything to do with erotic fiction writing, but they did give me a chance to practice writing essays, albeit rather boring ones.

About two years ago, I developed an arthritic condition which had me crippled in pain, and led to me looking for another type of work, since I couldn’t face the thought of going to work in agony each day. I had some money saved, and supported by my mum who was having to take me to endless hospital appointments, I finished at the store which I managed, and set about looking for an alternate means to support myself.

Writing came to mind, but I didn’t really think I had the talent to earn anything. Biting the bullet, I committed myself to writing a novel, and after a few false starts the right story came into my head and in about three weeks I had the first draft. I was fairly scared of sending it off, but I did my research, choosing an online publisher, closed my eyes and pressed “send”, emailing the finished draft off with a shudder.

About three to four weeks later I received the reply that the publisher was interested, and now I’m here writing my “author’s bio” which will be placed in the finished work! Wow!

Onwards and upwards!

JL :)

Visit her website at: www.joolslouise.com