Here’s a little bit about me… I don’t know why you should be, but just in case you are interested, here’s a quick intro (and I realise that it’s really confusing that I have two names, so here’s the explanation!)…
I was born and brought up in Worthing, on the south coast of England, where I read voraciously, dreamed incessantly, and made up stories in my head while sewing patchwork. We weren’t a church-going family, but I discovered the love of God at the age of thirteen, after being introduced to church by a friend, and found a new story to share.
I spent a year in Belgium, with the Belgian Evangelical Mission, after finishing A levels, then studied for three years… and married my first husband, Alan Evans. (Aha, you are thinking, that’s where she got that name, and you’d be right!)
I began to write articles for magazines when my youngest son started school (I have two sons and a daughter), but what I really wanted to do was write exciting stories with Christian characters for children and teenagers, because I could see there was a gap in the market.
I wrote London’s Gone, then The Treasure Hunt (under me real name, J. M. Evans – the M stands for Mary, by the way – but in my heart I knew God was calling me to publish other people’s books.
When my first husband died from meningitis in 2003 I knew I had to get on with the task, because none of us knows how long we have in this world. It was a difficult time, as you can imagine, but with God’s help (and the help of many people) I set up Dernier Publishing. I began with my own two novels, so I didn’t ruin anyone else’s stories while I was on a sharp learning curve!
Fast forward to 2011, I married Andrew Wilson, so have changed my official name, but kept J. M. Evans as my pen name.
While I carried on writing my own books, I got brave and began to publish other people’s stories, and now Dernier has a whole host of books, written by some wonderful Christian authors.
And that’s my story! There’s lots more, of course. Maybe I’ll pop back and add a bit more at some point!
Thanks for reading,
Janet
P.S. These are my current books. You can order them direct from Dernier Publishing, or from your favourite bookshop.
