Welcome to my blog, JD.

You have just published your novel A Bed of Thorns. What is it about?

Well, A Bed of Thorns is about a man on the run from both the police and a very dangerous other man who is out for his blood. He finds shelter and sanctuary with two reclusive sisters on the Yorkshire Moors but gets involved in a deadly triangle of love and power.
 
 
Sounds intriguing. And who is JD Worner?

JD Worner is the name I have chosen to write under – a pen-name. To be frank, JD Worner, stands for Julie Dorothy Worner, and is my birth name. However, nowadays, most people know me as Claire Ferdinando.
 
 
What inspired A Bed of Thorns?

What a tough question. Um, there wasn’t any real inspiration, not on a conscious level anyway. I first wrote the story under the title The Third Room in the early 90’s because I ran a theatre company and we had just finished a run of another play I had written. I needed another play. The previous play was a comedy, and although it did quite well, it didn’t really feel my cup of tea, so I needed another play but wanted to try something a little different. I had no idea what I would write but I had an image of two women in front of a fire in rocking chairs. I sat down and began writing and it sort of unfolded in front of me. So I guess it was pretty much a surprise to me what I ended up with.
 
 
How did you find writing your first novel? What hurdles did you have to overcome? What helped?

As I said, the story has been with me for years. After the stage play, I wrote a film version (currently under development) but I had always felt that I wanted to write it as a novel. Over the years I must have started about a couple of dozen times, but I always faltered. Plays and scripts were fine, but somehow I lacked the experience or confidence or something and it just never quite worked. It always ended up far too short. Like a film script. In many ways it is still short, despite being quite complex. Anyway, I finally took a Diploma in Creative Writing with the Open University where I learned not only the skills to write prose, but also the confidence to believe in my writing. I knew this was what I wanted to do now, so here I am.
 
 
Why did you choose self-publish?

I had sent the manuscript to an agent a while back, and although they were encouraging, it was declined. I did originally have plans to continue to send it out, knowing of the many stories about authors not necessarily getting lucky on their first shot. But I began to think about self-publishing as I researched other authors like Matthew Reilly, and the explosion of Kindle authors. Then a friend of mine self-published his book and I thought I’d just take the bull by the horns and just get on with it.
 
 
How did you find self-publishing? Would you recommend it to others?

Well, it was quite scary when I was thinking about it, but when I actually got around to doing it, I found it much easier than I thought, well, at least the publishing side of it was.  Basically, I had to reformat the manuscript according to the Kindle specifications, find artwork for the cover (which my daughter Emma Baugh painted for me) then follow their instructions. The paperback was a little more tricky but not really difficult either. Publishing an eBook on Kindle is easy and for the paperback I simply went with a Print-On-Demand service so it require not real outlay, so the process is easy and I’d recommend it as a fairly simple process. The problem, I think, is learning how to publicise the book and get it ‘out there’, now that takes a bit more effort and is a learning curve for me.
 
 
What should we expect to see by JD Worner next?

Well, I am already planning another novel, however, there are another couple of projects that I might publish in the meantime. The first is a book of short stories to help raise funds for the Stroke Art Café, Stoke-On-Trent, a local stroke charity that my daughter helps out with. I myself suffered a stroke in 1999, so it’s something that I identify with. The stroke victims use art as a method of rehabilitation and therapy, so I thought I would use their artwork as illustrations and to write, probably getting other writers to contribute, stories that fit the illustrations. All the proceeds would go to the charity. Another project is a children’s book that I wrote many years ago when my children were young and they loved it. It’s called Spigman’s Adventure and I’m considering publishing that too. Hopefully, by that time, I’ll have another novel ready. I suspect it may be another crime story but may be set in an historical setting.

Thank you, JD.

A Bed of Thorns is available from Amazon Kindle and in print version from Lulu.

JD Worner was raised in Scotland and now lives in the West Midlands, England. A Bed of Thorns is her first novel, although she has written for stage and screen. She spent twenty years in the entertainment industry as actor, writer, director, casting director and acting tutor. She has four children, all grown and flown, and now lives alone with a dog and a cat – which suits her perfectly. 

JD Worner’s fan page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JDWorner