About

Blurb bio

Photo of Janine A. Southard taken by Jeremy BartonJanine A. Southard is the Cygnus award-winning author of Cracked! A Magic iPhone Story and of other fun, speculative fiction. Her core passion is guiding readers on escapes into exciting worlds. And she must be doing something right! Most recently, she was invited to edit her fourth anthology, full of adventure and optimism and ladies with weapons: Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology.

She lives in Seattle with a whole room devoted to dead-tree media, and she happily travels all over the US and the UK to speak about writing, anthology editing, and how to run a successful Kickstarter project.

For a longer version of this author bio, click here because why not?

Ten facts about Janine

1. Janine’s all-time favorite TV show is the British classic Blake’s 7. (Followed closely by Firefly, Gossip Girl season 2, and Yes, Minister.)
2. She’s a semi-professional singer who’s performed Celtic folk-rock in auditoriums and at wineries.
3. Her favorite color is green. Which goes nicely with her red hair.
4. Janine was voted “Tyrannist for Life” of the Oxford Folklore and Fanfiction Society. Since leaving university, she has only organized one meeting, but maybe when she next visits the UK…?
5. Janine worked as an economic consultant before she became a writer. Her fiction always has an economic angle, even if she’s the only person who notices.
6. Janine believes she will someday be fluent in another language. So far, she’s closest in Spanish, Moroccan Arabic, Japanese, and Welsh. By which, she means she can get through a level 1 podcast lesson.
7. Janine has lived in three countries: the US, the UK, and Japan.
8. Janine’s favorite drink is Diet Caffeine-Free Coke. It just tastes the best.
9. Janine got really serious about writing as a career in 2012, after freelancing to craft stories and dialogue for videogames. She thought, “I can get paid to write this all day!” and so it was.
10. She’s writing a musical set during COVID-19, Quarantine! The Musical. You can listen to songs and wonder if it will ever be performed by a real cast on her YouTube channel.

Still not enough stuff about Janine? You can read a longer bio here, but it’s pretty boring.

Janine has eyes, yo.

My eyes are so big. From the photoshoot for a new author photo in 2013. Photo (c) Jeremy Barton