Jenny Vaughan

I’ve been telling stories and writing them ever since I can remember.

However, the need to support myself steered me into writing and editing on commission – mainly children’s non-fiction and contributions to reading schemes. That’s tended to come in the way of writing anything that hasn’t been specifically asked for: earning a living takes time and energy. Short stories, by their nature, are less demanding of both than the full-scale novel that’s lurked in my computer for years. When lack of time came between me and that longer work, I’ve always enjoyed writing shorter pieces – a circumscribed and maneagable form of creativity.

Writing short stories gives me the chance to make small, other worlds in my imagination, find the people living in those worlds, and tell their stories.

In doing this, I can draw on so much I have learned in work and in life – both in the UK and in Africa, where I lived for around three years.

Now I have given up editing and commissioned writing full-time, I hope to continue write – more novels, poetry and, as always, stories for both adults and young people.

After years of being a writer for hire, I am at last becoming a writer for myself.

Credentials

Jenny Vaughan in 60 seconds

When did you start writing?

1953 I can't remember – I've always done it.

What do you love about short stories?

I love writing short stories because of the satisfaction of completion it gives me.

Do you write in other forms?

Novels, poems, non-fiction (lots off the last!)

What distracts you from writing?

Housework.

Outside of writing, what are your other passions?

Politics, reading, gardening, travel, love.

What is your favourite book?

Middlemarch

Who are your favourite writers?

George Eliot, John Donne and Andrea Levy

Where is your dream location?

East Africa

What one item would you put into Room 101?

People telling me how to live my life.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

My advice would be, keep going, drink tea, don't be afraid.