Melissa Barker-Simpson

My name is Jodie. I’m a 27-year-old Aussie aspiring author. I live in a relatively small country town and am loving being back in my hometown. I work as a sales associate as a real estate agent, but it is my ultimate dream to be a published author. In my free time you’d find me reading, drinking Red Bull and hanging out with friends at the local pub!

 2. What is your first memory of writing?

I remember when I was a kid, about 11 years old, my family and I went for a holiday on the Sunshine Coast. We went because my mum was getting a job transfer and we wanted to see what our new home would be like.

Anyways, while we were up there my mum bought me this little diary. It had this massive spiral to bind the pages and had a cartoon on the front of this girl with yellow hair. I’d had diaries before and had always loved notebooks, but this one was the first that I started to write in everyday. I filled that diary and the next, and the next. I’ve kept a daily journal since I was 11 🙂

So that’s my first memory of writing. I’d write little poems and little stories and talk about my day. I still have that first one scanned into my computer 🙂 The life of an 11-year-old really isn’t all that interesting!

I don’t consider myself a writer. To me, I’ll be a “writer” when I can write for a living. At the moment I write as a hobby, but I don’t think I’ll give myself actual “writer” status until I have an agent and a publisher.

My best friend basically dared me to do it. The Amazon Writer Awards were coming up and I said I wanted to enter, just to see what would happen. My friend said I should. So I wrote a book in 2.5 weeks and entered 🙂 I work very well under pressure! My first novel was a young-adult Sci-Fi and inspired by an image I found on Deviantart.

5. What book are you reading now?

I’m currently reading Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire. Her writing is like a guilty pleasure. The story is so self indulgent.

I find it hard to revise in the way my manuscripts deserve. I’m the sort of person that when I get it down onto the page, it’s done. I write it, I do some line edits and then as far as I’m concerned, it’s done and I want to move onto the next story. I’m sure a lot of people do complete manuscript overhauls, but I find that really difficult. If I write a novel and it isn’t right, then I’d prefer to pen another instead of taking another month to edit the one I have.

7. How long does it take you to write a book?

I wrote my first book, SECTOR 12 in 2.5 weeks. I churned out about 60,000 words in that time. It was crazy.

I wrote my second book, WRAPPED IN DARKNESS in 3 months. I committed to 1,000 words a day and got 80,000 words done in just under the 3 month mark.

I wrote my third book, CHEMICALS COLLIDE in about a month. I wrote most of it in Nanowrimo and a tiny bit afterwards.

So I write pretty fast.

8. What does your family think of your writing?

I live alone at the moment so I don’t have to deal with friends and family when it comes to my writing/reading/blogging and general fandom activity. But as far as they’re concerned, it’s just my thing, it’s what I do. I read a lot, a write a lot, and that’s okay with them. My boyfriend calls me a nerd and then tells me to write a best seller so I can buy him an awesome boat, and that’s about as far as it goes haha.

Writing is almost like an “after thought” to friends and family. They don’t really “get” what it’s like to write a novel and to chase an impossible dream, so they ask ‘how’s the novel going?’ ‘what’s it about’ and that’s really about it.

I’ve written a science fiction novel, I’ve written a fantasy novel, I’ve written a contemporary novel and I’m brainstorming a new fantasy novel. I don’t think there is any rhyme or reason as to why I choose genres. I chose fantasy this time around because I want to write an epic romance. And to me, an epic romance is set in an epic setting with a million and one things that could keep the relationship from working! Hence, fantasy. But maybe next time I’ll write in another genre. I don’t think I could ever stay true to just one.

My answer… neither. I actually start with a setting. I usually have an idea of the genre and the setting and then I’ll create a female character and her love interest from there. The plot generally comes last because I always start with a setting. I’m not really too sure why, I suppose because a setting can define the type of people you place there. For example, if it’s a modern day country town or a post-apocalyptic society. You’d create very different characters for each.

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To find out more about Jodie’s works in progress, visit her website by clicking here.