Gemma Johns
Author of The Marriage Sabbatical;
Writing is a passion of mine, and was actually one of the reasons I ended up in my day job – as a Professor. I love to write and I write non-fiction books and academic articles as part of my work. I have always dabbled in fiction writing, from changing fairy tales as a child to something more modern or gruesome, through to winning an erotic fiction competition as an adult (shhh! Don’t tell my parents). In the early 2000s I started and ran an online magazine for women. I had a background in business, working in IT, Internet and retail marketing prior to my academic career. Once I came out, lesbian fiction became very important to me, and I read lesfic books back to back for some time. I’ve always been an avid reader, though, and love contemporary women’s fiction, and crime or psychological thrillers – I just wanted to see more LGBTIQA+ characters in the stories I loved. So I decided to actually write a novel. Now, I simply cannot stop! I wanted to work with Spectrum Books once I realised their ethos as publishers aligned very much with my ethos as an author – good stories, featuring an LGBTIQA+ character. I hope you enjoy reading my books!