Hello,

 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 four manuscripts in different stages of editing. You can read all about them on my Home Page.  I’m torn between genres. I have recently completed the first draft of the second book in my cosy mystery series, and have an idea for the third. 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 Writers Centre. Several of those stories have been published. Read them 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 many other authors in that realm.

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 until 2022, when the wonderful people decided I should be chairperson. It’s 2026, and I’m still here.

I’ve had several jobs over the years.

Casual shoe sales assistant in my late teens. I worked in a bank for 15 years. Helped my husband in our wholesale confectionery business. I owned a fancy dress costume hire business until 2018. I now sew show ribbons for a local business. Cue the segue. 

I sew and I cosplay

 I’m a self-taught seamstress and have sewn many, many costumes for my costume hire business. Aside from my casual sewing job, I still make costumes for cosplay events. I also sew and sell men’s waistcoats at steampunk festivals.

I take photos

I’ve won a commendation for three photos in the Australian Photography Magazine Mono Awards – 2020 and 2021. My preferred weapon of choice: my iPhone. I created a blog to share my photography experiences. Those posts are here.  A free TAFE online course – Writing for the Media provided the skills needed to structure my posts without silly rubbish. 

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

Since then, I’ve completed a bunch of writing courses and workshops through the Australian Writers Centre and Westwords to help me along the way.

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