8 Rosemary Johnson

SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT NO.8 – ROSEMARY JOHNSON

Complementing the author spotlights I ran from 2011 to 2016, today’s Saturday Spotlight, the eighth, is of Rosemary Johnson. If you would like to take part in a spotlight, take a look at Saturday spotlights.

From childhood, Rosemary Johnson was one of those who ‘always wanted to write’ and to have a book published, but, as years rolled by, never got around to it.

In her teens, she scribbled in little red Silvine notebooks and, later on, on to computer. After achieving a history degree at university, she learned to touch-type (because this was what girls did), so keyboarding a novel straight into Word felt natural to her. But what a relief that most of those earlier pieces never ventured further than her hard-drive. A few she sent off to publishers, by snail mail, as you did in those days, but they always found their way back home in the enclosed SAE.

In the mid-2000s Rosemary decided it was ‘make or break’ for her writing. She joined several online communities, including More Writing and Writers’ Dock, where members put up their stories for feedback.  You thought you could write, girl?

With the support of more experienced writers on these sites, she started learning the tough business of writing, editing and submitting fiction.

Since then she has achieved reasonable success submitting short stories to literary anthologies, such as Radgepacket and Scribble, and ezines including CafeLit, Everyday Fictionand The Copperfield Review.

This summer, Rosemary’s flash piece, Not Working, appeared in The Best of CafeLit 12.

But she still wanted to author novels.

In 2015 Rosemary quit her full-time job, teaching IT at a college of further education, to devote more time to writing. She took on a voluntary role with the Association of Christian Writers, then challenged herself to do NanoWriMo. Having reached the Nano target, 50000 words during November, and won the badge, Rosemary finished the first draft of what would become Wodka, Or Tea With Milk three months later. This September (2023), it was published by The Conrad Press.

*

And now from the author herself:

I will write about–  When I am thinking up ideas for a novel, the setting comes first, and then I invent the sorts of characters who might have lived in that time and place.  Wodka, Or Tea With Milk is set during the Solidarność years in Poland. Why Solidarność? Like falling in love, there is no logical reason why a certain topic grabs you and compels you to write about it. If we could explain our fascination, maybe it would fade away.

I regard Wodka as historical fiction, but, according to the Historical Novel Society’s definition, it isn’t, because (they say) the setting for ‘historical’ novels must be at least fifty years in the past. As the action in my book occurs between 1979 and 1981, we’ll get there soon!

Writing, editing and submitting this novel has taken me many years. No novelist should begrudge the time needed to produce what is, after all, a major piece of writing. Nor should they restrict themselves to writing novels only. A ‘backline’ of published short stories gives the author credibility with publishers.

Writing is said to be a lonely activity, but writers need other writers, either face-to-face in a writing group or online, to bounce ideas off, for constructive feedback and that writerly understanding which family and friends cannot give.

The online communities I joined in the 2000s helped me enormously and, more recently, Association of Christian Writers members have provided me with the moral support to continue with submissions.

At an ACW meeting in 2020, I deprived the Committee of their coffee break by recounting the storyline of Wodka in more detail than they’d anticipated. One Committee member, who recently bought my book (bless her), said she enjoyed experiencing it again.

**

You can find more about Rosemary and her writing via…

***

If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at Saturday Spotlights or email me for details.

Complete and Continue