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The publishing industry has its ups and downs, and so do authors. Staying published can be as hard as getting published, especially during periods of downturn.

But I hung in there and have continued to write two novels a year, sometimes more.

After a few years, I wanted to do something to extend my writing skills, so I wrote a modern novel, a family relationships tale. My agent was startled and suggested I relax more. But I’d had enough enforced relaxation with the chronic fatigue, thank you very much. So I asked him to submit my novel.

I think he was surprised when my second publisher (Severn House) accepted the new novel. I was thrilled to pieces. Change of Season had three years’ careful work in it as I’d taken my time to learn how to write modern stories. It’s out of print now, but is available again as an ebook.

I’m not writing historical romances now for Severn House, but modern novels. I love writing them, and I find that I need the variation in what I write to keep me stimulated. My latest is Winds of Change, set in both Australia and the UK.

I miss writing fantasy novels, so every now and then, between books, I take a week or two off and write for sheer pleasure, not under contract. I have (or rather my alter ego Shannah Jay has) a children’s fantasy novel out as an ebook, plus a prequel to ‘The Chronicles of Tenebrak’.

Sadly, there is a fashion for dystopian fantasy stories these days, where life is a brutal misery, so my tale of classic fantasy, three children on a quest to rescue their murdered father’s kingdom from an evil wizard, isn’t likely to be published in book format. I don’t care. It gave me a lot of pleasure to write it. I’m now writing another classic children’s fantasy, again for sheer pleasure.

I’m also working for a third publisher (Allison & Busby) writing historical sagas set in Wiltshire. After 58 novels published, I’ve speeded up as a writer, so can easily produce three a year.

I’m still addicted to story telling. I don’t want to take up any other hobbies. I want to go on writing novels. That’s what I love doing best of all.

Do go and visit my website. You can read the first chapters of my novels there and find lots of behind the scenes information about writing and researching each book. The website has pages for Shannah Jay as well as the main part for Anna Jacobs.

http://www.annajacobs.com

BIO:

Anna Jacobs was born in England but emigrated to Australia. She now lives part of the year in each country. She’s totally addicted to writing, and produces three novels a year. As of July 2012, she has 58 novels published.
At the moment Anna is writing historical novels set in Australia for one UK publisher, sagas set in Wiltshire for a second UK publisher and modern novels for another.
She has been married to her own hero for many happy years, and they have two daughters and one grandson.