As the eldest child of avid readers it was inevitable something of the love of books and stories would rub off on Jodi.

In the first decade of her life she discovered writing, spent the second decade lost in writing and dreaming of publishing success and the third decade just plain lost. In the fourth decade of her life Jodi finds herself back at the page again.

The greatest thrill for her is seeing ‘fantastical’ teenage dreams find form and substance.

It was the realisation that writing would never be enough, and the peace settlement with ‘writing’ and ‘editing’ which has allowed Jodi to pursue both her passions – writing and editing/publishing – culminating in the creation of Chinese Whisperings and eMergent Publishing with Paul Anderson in 2008.

While her characters are unwilling to allow their muse to be pigeon-holed into any one genre, distinct themes recur in Jodi’s writing: love, loss, betrayal, dynamics of power, time travel and the eternal question what if?

Jodi credits the 1984 Australian Olympic Mascot ‘Willy’, motherhood and her friend Danae Sinclair for where she is today.

On any particular day you can find her hidden away in a favourite café or Borders manically typing away, with a tea close at hand.

Mercurial – The Red Book, 2010

Soon to be written – The Yin Book, 2010

Bondi The 12 Days Anthology, (ed) Jim Wisneski (2009)

Taping Lydia Best of #FridayFlash 2009 Anthology, (ed) Jon Strother & Co (for publication mid year, 2010)

The Chameleon Thieves and Scoundrels: Flash Challenge #3, Absolute Xpress (for publication April, 2010)

Demon Lover @Getting Hitched

Astonishing Adventures of Captain Juan online adventure serial with Annie Evett and Paul Anderson

Reclaiming Sex After Childbirth co-authored with Annie Evett

Writing in Black and White
Write Anything – Monday Columnist

Facebook Fan Page
Twitter

Functioning in the role as a contributing editor has been nothing short of a challenging experience for me.  Having my short story Mercurial as the spring board for the entire project has created an interesting dilemma for me.  I have a huge emotional and creative investment as a contributing writer but I also need to have the detachment and objectivity of an editor.

As time has passed and the stories have moved a number of times beyond Mercurial I’m better able to step back and function as an editor. Winding the stories together has become an intricate and subtle art form for both the writers, and for Paul and I as editors. Knowing the ins and outs of each story has become an essential skill to ensure consistency and originality between stories.  While at times it has felt a little like the blind leading the blind because at this point Chinese Whisperings is a great untried literary experiment, the darkness is giving away to the brilliant dazzle of unpredictable twists and turns from paragraph to paragraph, story to story, writer to writer. It really has taken on the dimensions of the Choose Your Own Adventure concept which was one of the original inspirations for this anthology.

It has been a steep learning curve and I have been eternally grateful for the support and insights of fellow editor Paul Anderson in managing this transition. I’m holding Paul to his promise that the view from the summit will be amazing.

Mercurial came to me originally in two tiny parts.

The first part which floated into my consciousness one morning early last year was two words: Nux Vomica. I knew it to be a homeopathic remedy, but I’ve since found out treats over indulgence and is commonly known as ‘the hang over cure.’ It is often recommended for Type A personalities who are known for their competitiveness, compulsiveness and short tempers.

The second part came in the emergence of a female character—a young woman who was getting the short end of the stick from the medical profession. Her predicament was born from my utter disillusionment with the medical professional, especially its treatment of women. She was originally named Maia, after the Mayan Goddess of illusions, as the story was written as a series of delusions and false impressions intended to leave the reader uncertain of the true nature of Maia’s situation.

The story crystallised not long after Paul told me the then un-named [Chinese Whisperings] concept would be just crazy enough to work. It was another two months before anything was written down. The first draft appeared on my blog on the 6th June in response to the [Fiction] Friday challenge: Your character becomes obsessed with someone. Who? And Why? And there it languished there for seven months even though I knew it would always be the flag ship for Chinese Whisperings.

I swore off going to my writers circle with Mercurial in March this year—swamped by doubt and indecision about the merits of the story, despite the fact Paul and I had already moved to assemble our cast of writers. When I did finally take Mercurial to my writing group, the feed back was wonderful and I felt guilty for having so little faith in my abilities, in my main character and her story.

Based on the general response to Maia’s character, she was re-christened Miranda. I felt she needed a name which reflected the intense emotions she evoked in readers and drew a much maligned name from my past. An additional 1400 words were added to the story in a flurry of rewriting in late March and I Mercurial was ready for a final critique. We also finally had a template length of 3,500 words for the project.

I have always had a definite ending for Mercurial but given the vision we had for Chinese Whisperings I left it open for the next writer to fill in. I really like Jason’s treatment of Miranda in his story and the juxtaposition he very cleverly creates with my main character and his. Depending on how the anthology pans out, I may at a later stage release the link for those interested in knowing what happened to Miranda. As I write this her fate still hangs whisperings in the aether.