About me

Hi, I’m Jenny, author of the urban fantasy series, The Shadow Atlas.

I am a true bookworm and love nothing more than to curl up in a sunny corner with a cup of tea, a cat, and read. My bread and butter genres are fantasy for books and sci-fi for TV.

I’m a lover of nature, hiking, Harry Potter, cats, magic, gemstones, fantasy lands and quiet places. I grew up in small town New Zealand, and spent the last nine years living in Mongolia with my husband Michael and our two cats, Chinggis and Shimo.

We are currently living in Darwin, Australia!

Writing

I started writing in the summer of 2018 when Michael and I were living in a remote mining camp on the edge of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The lack of Internet and TV was the motivation I apparently needed to get started.

I wanted to write a book about our time in Mongolia but as I began learning writing craft, but I decided I enjoyed writing fantasy a lot more! I wrote my first book during winter in Mongolia from our cosy apartment while it was down to -40 degrees C outside.

The more I write, the more I have new characters and magical lands popping into my head! I currently write NA urban fantasy, but also have plans to write books in sci-fi, gaslamp fantasy, and fairytale retellings.

A lot of my inspiration comes from travel and seeing these new places as magical fantasy lands, which they often are (in my eyes)! I can’t help but get ideas for new stories!

Travel

My favourite travel experiences are where I can learn something new, go on a hike, or find animals to befriend. I love to discover nature, culture, history, mythology and secret attractions off the beaten track.

Many of my trips have been around Asia, in particular Mongolia, a country filled with wild flowers, ice lakes, vast deserts, and many secret travel destinations.

But I’ve also been on train journeys through Europe, seen Wadi Rum and the lost city of Petra on an amazing road trip around Jordan, met lots of cats in Istanbul, been hiking through the jungle of northern Thailand, been to the DMZ in South Korea, and explored the amazing city of Angkor Wat in Cambodia (where I randomly saw Michelle Obama). But there are so many places I still want to see!

I’m currently in the Darwin, Australia and I’m looking forward to exploring the Northern Territory!