Jeff's earliest childhood memories frequently contain older sisters reading to him. The love of storytelling followed him ever since, but he never thought he’d write his own, until an argument with an actress friend, over 30 years ago, who challenged him to do better than the TV programme he was criticising. His effort wasn’t that good, but he became hooked on writing, attending numerous creative
writing and editing courses, including mentoring with two established film editors. Five years later, two full-length scripts had been optioned, one by a film company and one by an independent producer, who took full advantage of Jeff's introduction to a major TV production company by pitching his own script, instead of the one they had been working on together...
Not wanting to give up, the frustrations of that fiasco resulted in the script being turned into a book. Alongside the writing, more courses for fiction writing followed, and in helping others on online forums, he became involved in editing for a boutique publishing company, who wanted to publish the book of the script. 'Indigo Heartfire' was published under the pseudonym Jo Marryat. Jeff edited four further books for the same publisher, along with 3 self-published novels for other authors. His own writing improved, gaining the notice of an agent who worked with him for over a year, editing and rewriting. A two-year postgraduate MA in Creative and Critical Writing taught him in-depth appreciation of wordsmithing, which benefitted his own writing, as well as others he helped online, and in writing groups. In the decade that followed
Being a writer himself, he understands the process, the frustrations, the sheer hard work that go into completing a book. That book becomes almost a living, breathing part of you...you are close, often too close to see even small flaws that may be distracting for your readers. He knows how hard the well meaning' criticism from family or friends can be, but lets face it they won't! Most will offer words of encouragement which makes the first 'rejection' from publisher, or agent, harder to bear. By the time you have the 50th, you're ready to give up. My advice is DON'T.
