Hello and welcome to my world,

 I am an emerging writer based in Western Sydney, Australia. Do you know Warragamba Dam? I’m a short walk from there, and I write under Joanne VanR, mainly because it’s easier to remember and spell.

I have two manuscripts waiting to be edited and one deep in the throes of editing. You can read all about them on my Home Page.  I’m torn between genres. If I decide to go with the cosy murder, I do have an idea for a second book. But I also have a third and maybe a fourth book in mind for the Constelliar series. Funnily enough, my short stories tend to be women’s fiction with a touch of humour.

I have entered several flash fiction stories for competitions and was long-listed in October 2021’s Furious Fiction competition run by the Australian Writer’s Centre. Several of those stories have been published and can be found here.

What does my world look like?

I read

I’ve always read and love where the stories take me. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women remains my all-time favourite. I went through stages; Stephen King’s horror in my late teens, then Dean Koontz in my thirties. In 2010, I discovered sci-fantasy through Terry Pratchett and have now read many authors in that realm of fiction.

Speaking of Terry Pratchett, I have been an active committee member of the Australian Discworld Conventions since 2014 for Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. The Vice-chair for Sydney’s committee and then the crazy people decided I should be chairperson in 2022 and 2023. 

I’ve had several jobs over the years.

I worked as a casual shoe sales assistant in my late teens. After leaving school, I worked in a bank for 15 years. Left that and helped my husband in our wholesale confectionery business. I owned a fancy dress costume hire business until 2018 and when I closed those doors, I took up sewing for a local business, near home. I’m still there. Cue the segue. 

I sew and I cosplay

 I’m a self-taught seamstress and sewed many, many costumes for my costume hire business. Aside from my casual sewing job, I still make costumes for my family and friends. I also sew and sell men’s waistcoats at steampunk events and various markets.

I take photos

I’ve won a commendation for three photos in the Australian Photography Magazine Mono Awards – 2020 and 2021. I created a blog to talk about my amateur photography experiences using my iPhone. Those posts are here, in case you’re interested. Then, with the help of a friend, I found a free TAFE online writing for the media course because I wanted to learn how to structure my posts so I wouldn’t spew out silly rubbish. I’ve completed a whole bunch of writing courses since then to help me on my way.

…And that course led me to discover my creative writing side. (See, we got here eventually)

Well done if you’ve made it to the end. One day, my world will look different and this page will be filled with my writing achievements.

Thank you for visiting my website.  

Joanne