About Jenny

Jenny grew up in small town New Zealand on a steady diet of fairytales and fantasy books. She lived in Mongolia for nine years with her husband where they spent the unfrozen months of the year living on the edge of the Gobi Desert mining gold.

When she isn’t writing, Jenny enjoys hiking, meeting new animals, and loves to curl up in a sunny corner with a cup of tea, a cat, and a book. She lives in Darwin, Australia, with her husband and their two street cats from Mongolia.

Writing

I started writing in the summer of 2018, when my husband Michael and I were living in a remote mining camp on the edge of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. With limited internet and no TV, I finally had the motivation I needed to start writing.

At first, I planned to write a book about our time in Mongolia, but as I began learning more about writing craft, I quickly discovered that writing fantasy was a lot more fun! I wrote my first book during a Mongolian winter, tucked away in our cosy apartment while temperatures outside dropped as low as -40°C.

A lot of my inspiration comes from travelling and discovering new places. These days, I live in tropical Darwin, with its unusual seasons, wild landscapes and even wilder wildlife. I love living in the heat while dreaming up magical winter towns I’d love to live in, but without actually having to be cold!

I’m currently writing cosy fantasy romance, with some fairytale retellings in the works. My stories are filled with magic, found family, characters looking for their place in the world, closed-door romance and, of course, plenty of tea and biscuits!

Travel

My favourite travel experiences are the ones where I can learn something new, go on a hike or find new animal friends. I love discovering nature, culture, history, mythology and secret attractions off the beaten track. And, of course, discovering new bookshops!

Many of my trips have been around Asia, in particular Mongolia, a country filled with wildflowers, frozen lakes, vast deserts and plenty of secret travel destinations.

But I’ve also been on train journeys through Europe, Australia and Thailand, seen Wadi Rum and the lost city of Petra on an amazing road trip around Jordan, met lots of cats in Istanbul, hiked through the jungles of northern Thailand, visited the DMZ in South Korea and explored the incredible temples of Angkor in Cambodia (where I randomly saw Michelle Obama).

But there are still so many places I want to see! My current bucket list includes visiting Singapore and its amazing zoos, travelling through Vietnam, hiking in Nepal and going on a road trip around the South Island of New Zealand.

I’m currently living in Darwin, Australia, and slowly exploring the Northern Territory and the rest of Australia!