An Introduction

This is my first piece for More Than Writers, although I’ve been writing my own blog under the title Dancing Through Chaos since 2016*.  I think the protocol is that after thanking you for inviting me – which I do wholeheartedly – I introduce myself; so here we go.

    I’ve been writing pretty much since I could hold a pencil, and was the kind of child who would have been happy with back-to-back creative writing sessions in the school timetable.  I never really understood numbers, but words fascinated me.  Books were a staple in our household, with a dedicated bookcase on the family landing stuffed full to bursting, and changed twice a year for a suitcase of fresh goodies we three sisters had almost forgotten about.

                                     Me hoping the timetable is back-to-back creative writing lessons in 1976

    I always anticipated becoming an English teacher, but flirted with various other options before completing a BA(Hons) degree in Drama, Theatre and Television in Winchester.  For a while, I wrote only essays and toyed around with pushing into children’s television as a presenter, complete with a London agent, while I also taught speech and drama at a posh girls school. It was great fun.

    However, life took a different turn when I married a man in full time ministry, and before long life was full and frenetic with four children, church activities, discipleship, marriage and parenting classes, school runs, and an open door hospitality policy in our home. 

    Eventually, I found an opportunity to return to writing with a regular column – Thought for the Month –  in our local newspaper, which I wrote for twelve years under the eye of a sympathetic editor; but it wasn’t until the children were grown-and-flown that I focused more intentionally on writing when we began to spend more time in Cape Town from 2013. These have been my most productive writing years with two published collections of children’s stories, and two non-fiction faith-based books – one published during lockdown and one on the way this spring.

 

    My Jesus journey began considerably earlier. 

    I’m a third generation Jesus-follower, and thankful for a heritage which includes grandparents who prayed for their grandchildren by name each day.  I treasure the privilege of having walked with Him for almost fifty years and for knowing Him as my friend from my earliest years.

Writing is a God-given gift for which I am enormously grateful. I have files full of ideas, and perhaps more of them will come to light in the coming year; who knows?  In the meantime, I’m more than happy to share the journey with you all and hear what you’re up to as well.

    *You can find my blog here should you wish: https://jennysanderswriter.co.uk/about/ 

Feel free to follow/subscribe if you’d like to although I expect, like me, your ‘in’ box is bursting so please feel equally free to delete it.

 Jenny Sanders has spent the last eleven years living between the UK and South Africa. She writes faith-inspired non-fiction: Spiritual Feasting (2020) asks how we can ‘feast’ when life serves unpalatable menus; Polished Arrows will be published in spring 2024, exploring the allegory of how God shapes us to be fired effectively into our culture and contexts.                                      Jenny also has two published collections of humorous short stories for Key Stage 2 children. She is available for author visits in primary schools, taking creative writing sessions.  She loves walking in nature, preferably by a river, and has a visceral loathing for offal, pineapple and incorrect use of car indicators on roundabouts.