02/09/2026
Writer Wisdom: a series of posts spotlighting writers in our community, sharing their insights and the reason they return to the page, even on the hard days.
This month, author Jan Edwards reflects on what keeps her writing. She was a Master Locksmith, librarian, publishing assistant, bookseller, editor and other things she can’t recall off hand. She appears in over 60 fantasy, horror and crime anthologies. Her WW2 crime series, Bunch Courtney Investigations garnered an Arnold Bennett Book Prize. She belongs to both the Crime Writers Association and British Fantasy Society.
"As I enter my eight decade, why do I write is a question I still ask myself. It certainly isn’t for the money! I have sold dozens of short stories over the years, and have a number of novels out there, but I invariably kept a day job; especially in the early days. Many of those jobs have been book related it's true - bookseller, librarian, publishing assistant etc (when I wasn’t slaving for the family business) but day jobs nevertheless.
The short fiction I place in anthologies with main stream publishers in recent years have mostly been commissioned, which is both good and scary. I’m not a slow writer so much as a compulsive re-writer; invariably coerced into relinquishing manuscripts because the deadline is about to whoosh past in a fiery blur. It gets no better (possibly even worse) with novels and I never get away with less than half a dozen drafts before I am even vaguely satisfied with what I’ve produced.
Yet I continue to write, no matter how painfully, frustratingly, infuriatingly time-consuming that process frequently becomes. Why? For the simple reason that I love it."
