Interview with Jo Buer

Emma Dhesi  00:00

Hello, I’m Emma Dhesi and welcome to another episode of turning readers into writers. If you’re brand new here, welcome and here’s what you need to know. This is a community that believes you are never too old to write your first novel, no matter what you’ve been up to until now, if you’re ready to write your book, I’m ready to help you reach the end, I focus on helping you find the time and confidence to begin your writing journey, as well as the craft and skills you need to finish the book.

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Okay, let’s dive in to today’s episode. Jo Buer is a gothic and ghost fiction writer living in New Zealand. She is a sucker for the supernatural, she says, as well as time travel and all things to wool.

From an early age, she came to realize that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. And what we think we know isn’t always true. Jo lives in an ordinary house in an ordinary time with her muggle hobby, feline familiars, Atlas Gaya and Zeus and ghost kitties, Locky Rhea and Odin when not doting on her cats devouring self help books or gorging on chocolate, she writes slightly dark, sometimes scary, often ghostly stories with a smattering of romance.

Well, welcome, Jo, thank you so much for joining me today. I’m thrilled to have you here.

Jo Buer  02:41

I am absolutely thrilled to be here. So exciting. 

Emma Dhesi  02:45

It’s particularly exciting, because you’re on the other side of the world, quite literally, I’m here in Scotland, and you are in?

Jo Buer  02:50

I am in New Zealand. And it’s the very early hours of the morning right now, so…

Emma Dhesi  02:56

I appreciate you getting up early. I really do. 

Jo Buer  02:59

Oh, I’m just thrilled to be here. 

Emma Dhesi  03:02

Now I’m going to go right back to the beginning of your writing life and ask you, you know, when was it that you realized that you wanted to be a writer? When did that happen for you?

Jo Buer  03:13

Well, that’s kind of funny. I’m one of these, one of many writers and authors has always known that they’ve wanted to write. And I very clearly remember when I was about six years old, it was my sixth birthday. And I got one of those little my little ponies and I was so thrilled. It was my first My Little Pony toy. And so I went to school. And I had a for some reason, I had decided that I was just going to write the most spectacular story about it.

And my story was going to be so amazing that I was so sure the teacher was just going to be so proud of me and want to share it with the class and give me the gold stars. And it was just going to be the best. And I remember this very clearly, I had decided the way my story was going to stand out was I was going to write all of it, which I’m sure was probably only two sentences at the time.

But all of it and uppercase letters and capital leases. And I’m not sure why I decided that I don’t know if I saw an adult do that once or or what but I thought kids don’t do this. So this is going to make me a real writer. And so I wrote my little story all in uppercase letters, and put my hand up and waited for the teacher to come around.

And I was I must have had the biggest smile on my face because I just I honestly knew she was just going to applaud me as the most amazing writer and my little hat broke, because she actually told me off in front of the class because you don’t write stories and capital letters and that’s not what we do.

And yet, it never turned me off. So I Keep that passion. Obviously, she didn’t know anything about writing. So I kept that passion. And I continued writing lots of stories as a kid. And anytime I could convince my teacher to let me share them with the class, I would do that. Yeah, so I had that confidence, strangely enough. And then, in my teen years, I transferred change to writing, you know, really angsty poetry, about heartache and life and death and philosophizing about everything, you know, and.. isn’t it that?, absolutely.

And then something shifted. And as an adult, I stopped writing really, I talked about it all the time, anybody that would listen, I was always talking about how I wanted to be a writer. And I was going to write lots of books, and I was going to do it as a living. And I really didn’t write a lot, I did a few courses on writing and started a good few novels. And then it wasn’t really until about three years ago, when I started to notice, or didn’t start to notice.

But really, notice that there were so many unhappy people out there who were just living their lives, but not really loving their lives. And they weren’t following their passions, and they kind of fallen out of love with their life. They weren’t going after their dreams. And I was beginning to feel that way myself. And I didn’t want to be one of them. Um, so yeah, I started to I think I stumbled across Joanna pins, creative pin podcast, which, you know, she’s just amazing. 

Emma Dhesi  06:59

That’s wonder isn’t it?

Jo Buer  07:01

Yeah. And and learned all about indie publishing, self publishing. And that just blew my mind. You’ve got so much control over everything with that. And then, so I managed to get a couple of short stories published and local literary magazine.

Emma Dhesi  07:22

Oh Congratulations!

Jo Buer  07:24

Yeah, so that was kind of I came out, maybe I can write because something happens between being a kid and being an adult, I think sometimes your confidence shifts a little bit. And then it wasn’t, in January 2020, which is so strange.

But 2020 was my year that I decided now I’m going to do this, I’m going to go all in around the day job, but all in behind the scenes with my writing. And so I put together some of my other short stories and sent them off to my first editor, which was very exciting, and got them back into January.

And then the crazy of January, the crazy of 2020 kind of hatch. And they sat there for a while. And it wasn’t until just at the end of our lockdown here in New Zealand, I think in May, that I sit in the mat into the world as a reader magnet, and to attract people to my newsletter and everything and dove into reworking one of my NaNo Writer novels into a real novel.

And so, yeah, and so that went out into the world on January 1 2021. This year.

Emma Dhesi  08:42

Well, we’re gonna come back to that, but big congratulations for that. That really is a real milestone in any writers career. But I’m going to take us back a little bit because I understand you’ve completed a BA in creative writing, is that right?

Jo Buer  08:56

So I’ve got a BA in English, which had a specialization in creative writing. So a big component of that was in creative writing, which was really great. That That was amazing. I had some phenomenal teachers, when Catherine Shoji is quite a well known author, a traditionally published author here in New Zealand.

And there was a lots of workshopping, so you’re expected to bring a piece of your writing what you’re working on to class every week. And your seemed it ahead of time for your kind of peers to critique and raise, and then you’d sit in a workshop and they would give you feedback.

And I just found that amazing. You learn so much from here from reading other people’s writing and from offering feedback and from the feedback you got as well. So that was really cool.

Emma Dhesi  09:56

I wonder because I have not been part of a critique group like that before? And I confess, I am very nervous about giving feedback to other people. Did you? Did they kind of teach you the sort of protocol of doing it? How do you give feedback without? Because we’re very protective of our written work? 

Jo Buer  10:17

Absolutely.

Emma Dhesi  10:18

Very sensitive about it. So did they give you any sort of instruction on how to give that feedback without upsetting your fellow classmates? You remember…

The Authorpreneur life with Jo Buer

Jo Buer  10:27

Have to think of it. No, they didn’t. Not that I remember anyway. But we were all very, I think, because it was a very small group, we had had to kind of apply to get into the program, I think, and we were all there for the same reasons.

And I mean, it was going to be our writing out on the table, too. So I think we just naturally found ways to give feedback and feed forward and positive ways. So yeah, it worked well. 

Emma Dhesi  11:01

Good, good sense, I can see that it’s not traumatized you anyway, at all? 

Jo Buer  11:07

No, No!

Emma Dhesi  11:08

And so what might be one of the biggest takeaways from doing that? BA Do you think that you you might have had whether it be on their kind of literature side? The love of classics, or the love of foreign language? Or? Or even on the the creative writing side? What’s kind of one of the things that you you still use to this day, do you think?

Jo Buer  11:29

To be honest, I think the biggest takeaway was the confidence it gave me, like I said, I think when you get older, you tend to lose confidence in your abilities. And I having some of my peers say I really enjoyed your pace, I want to know what happens next. And my particular tutor at the time, Katherine, she fell in love with one of my, I’d written it as a poem.

And she didn’t, she said, I think it might be better actually, as a bit of prose and had me rework it. But she really fell in love with it, and kind of contacted me outside a class to say as much, which was that huge confidence boost. And so I always kind of keep that in mind.

Because if somebody who’s writing I really admire it, she enjoyed something I wrote, well, then, you know, on the bad days, when you’re feeling like, the biggest kind of imposter, even though Yes, but you know, there’s a published author that’s traditionally published, and it’s not easy to do, particularly here in New Zealand that liked my work.

So that was actually a huge takeaway. 

Emma Dhesi  12:41

Yeah, it shows the importance of a good teacher at doesn’t matter if you’re in primary school, or if you’re going as a young adult, you have someone to have someone believe in you and what you’re doing and what you’re aspiring to is. It’s such a, it’s such a wonderful source of validation, that you’re, you’re doing the right thing and to carry on and keep plodding on. So I love that. 

Jo Buer  13:04

Absolutely. Yeah. 

Emma Dhesi  13:06

So you mentioned that 2020, I think it might have been in the same article or piece that I read that you did mention that 2020 was a very pivotal year for you. It was like you decided this was going to be your year. And so what was it about 2020 that made you decide this was going to be the year because given everything that has been going on.

I think it’s been kind of easy for a lot of people to say, you know what, this isn’t the right year for me to start a business, publish a book, do something new, or wait till the pandemics gone? Or wait till everything’s calmed down? What was it about this year that you thought or what was it about you that said, No, no, this is my year, I’m going to carry on regardless.

Jo Buer  13:51

I think the lead up to it. So like I said, it was about three years ago, 2018 that I really, like it really hit me hard that so many people were living lives that they weren’t loving. And I knew that when I sat down and forced myself to do some writing, I just felt like a different person. It just lit me up inside. And if I felt that way, then I probably was a better person.

And wouldn’t it be better to have that version of me out in the world? And there was a couple of things in the lead up to that a couple. You know, I saw a friend lose somebody incredibly close to her. And we lost a couple of furbabies kind of over that time. And it was that stark reminder that life is so short, if we don’t go after our dreams now, you know, when when will we and we might not be given the option to wait until you know we’ve got more money or we’ve got more time or we’re retired or anything like that.

So there was almost this sense of urgency to just get on with it and probably like a lot of people, I went into 2020, with huge optimism of what an amazing year it was going to be. I’m one of those people that love New Year’s, just for that sense of renewal and starting again and yeah, and then about midway through January, it proved that it was going to be a little bit different and I don’t know, I just had this huge sense of commitment to I’m going, I’m going all in as far as I can, around a day job.

But I’m, I want to see how far this will go and there’s also that dream that maybe it’ll lead on to creating that life for myself and my family this will want you know, self publishing allows for a lot of freedom and a lot of ways it gets rid of that glass ceiling on what you can make financially.

It’s the idea of being able to work from home and be around loved ones and work from anywhere really appealed to me and I think during our lockdown here in New Zealand, I realized that I am disciplined enough to to meet deadlines and to work from home.

I was fine with that. I actually enjoyed it. So yeah, I think all those things kind of just said, yeah, this is the the path, so yeah…

Emma Dhesi  16:42

Yeah! And I think for a lot of writers, I’ve heard a lot of other writers say actually, there was elements of the pandemic in particular, that worked in our favor because we’re naturally reclusive anyway, I happen to be at home not necessarily not necessarily reclusive, but more introverted, each other

I think, Yes, absolutely going to be writing and doing what we love. And I knew that I for one was really glad not to do a lot of this stuff. And sort of being having my husband kind of hustled me out the door to be more active, I could say, well, I’m not allowed out. So leave me alone. Exactly.

But I think that she was a real kind of genuine entrepreneurial personality that you’ve got the you know, that you can do set these deadlines for yourself, that no matter what else is happening, the matter that you’re having to start working from home, you’re able to kind of keep going, and yet we’ve got a bit of a problem here, but I’m going to pivot I’m going to adjust, I’m going to still pursue my dreams and and what’s important to me, so I think it fits you already and kind of good stead for for being an indie publisher I think so

Jo Buer  17:44

Yeah, well. Thank you!

Emma Dhesi  17:46

Now, it’s part of being an indie entrepreneur or an entrepreneur, you’ve set up a website for, for yourself, what how did you find that? Was that easy or difficult? And what kind of advice might you have for any new authors who are thinking of doing the same?

Jo Buer  18:04

With that ammm So I did Mark Dawson’s self publishing formula 101 course, which I highly, highly recommend. I cannot recommend that enough to anybody starting out on this journey. And of course, he talks about having your own web website, it’s your your real estate really out there in the web or sphere. So, so I am not all that or wasn’t back then anyway, all that tech savvy.

And I had no idea really had a start up website. And it was actually my husband that had suggested I’ve heard of Squarespace, why don’t you check it out. And it was perfect. It’s really easy to work. It took me a very long time to do it myself. But I was determined to do it myself. I figured when I was in the big box, then I can maybe pay somebody to do it.

But in the meantime, I can I can work this out. And so a bit of that stubborn tenacity and, and I got it done. So I think finding a platform that you’re either familiar with, or is easy enough to work. And there’s this thing Squarespace is is pretty easy. You just choose a template and away you go. I have heard of Nick Stevenson’s author cats, which I think is I’ve looked into that it’s a bit more expensive for I think, beginning author.

But it’s it’s done for you. And it has everything that an author site can need. So you can get your books up there and you can change it up as you need to or get them behind the scenes to do that for you.

Emma Dhesi  19:50

And so what was the advice from either from Nick Stephenson or from Mark Dawson? What did they kind of suggest to you that you need to have on your author website? What did you put on yours?

Jo Buer  20:01

So I looked at a lot of other author websites to just to see what they were doing. And I wanted room to add to it down the line as well. So I think it’s really important to have a bit about yourself a bio. And whether it’s got your own photo, or if you’re using a pen name, maybe you might not want your own photo, but something that’s like a logo or something that is kind of the same across all the platforms that you use.

So I do need to change it up. But my photo on my website is the same and I think for Facebook, and social media and kind of every other kind of author thing that I’m not platform that I’m on

Emma Dhesi  20:48

Something, because then people recognize Oh, yeah, I recognize Jo’s face. Yeah.

Jo Buer  20:53

Yeah, absolutely and so I’ve got my bio up there, I have links kind of everywhere, too, if you want to sign up to my newsletter, you can get this free book between the shadows, which is my collection of short stories. So that is pretty bold. And one of the first things you see, I also decided to put on some of the links to some of the short stories I had published in the literary magazine, because it was online, and they were available online.

And I did that because at the time, I didn’t have any books written. So I thought, well, I’ll put that up there. So there’s also a contact sheet and when I was ready to put out my debut novel, I also put up put out a excerpts of the prologue on there as well, that could, that I could send people to check this out, have a read, you know, if you like this, then just so you know, coming soon is Rest Easy Resort.

So yeah, and I have been, have been thinking about adding to it. So there’s a for readers section, which I’d like to expand out a bit. But I would like to do a for writers section as well, where there’s just tips on mindset, and that toe for beginning writers, beginning authors. So yeah.

Emma Dhesi  22:20

All for that. I think that the more information out there, the better for, for people to come and discover so that they can, you know, find what they need to make sure that they write their book to. 

Jo Buer  22:32

Absolutely.

Emma Dhesi  22:34

Thank you for sharing that with us. Because an author platform, I think is very important. And I’ve sort of certainly within my community, I’ve been talking a little bit more about that, and the importance of it, even if it’s having a very simple website, but it’s a home base, it’s where people can come and find out about you and everything you do, it’s really, really needed.

And now I want to move just a little bit, you’ve mentioned already that you do have a day job. And one of the things that my audience has kind of said to me is that time management is something finding the time to write is something that they struggle with a lot and it really can be quite prohibitive in some cases.

So I’m wondering, you know, you’ve got a day job, you’ve got a family, you’ve got a social life? How would you manage your time to ensure that you can still have all of that, but you get your writing done at the same time? Do you have a routine for example? 

Jo Buer  23:29

Ah, yes and no. So it is a real struggle. I am I lucky in some respects, that I probably have a little bit more time and that I don’t have children. I have cats and a husband. But I so I’m actually so I am a teacher.

And so I think anybody that’s been in education knows that it can be quite time consuming. Even outside your normal teaching hours, it can also be quite emotionally taxing. And so that, to be honest, has been one of the biggest struggles and finding and scheduling time to write is that sometimes that the the emotion that kind of comes up through the day with the ups and downs of being a teacher, you’re just not feeling as it can.

You just don’t quite have the headspace to kind of get into the what’s required of you to sit down and write. So that’s been a little bit of a struggle. I would love to be one of those people who could get up really early in right before going to work. But I make the commitment to myself to get up really early to go to the gym. And so I’m usually up at about 4.30 most mornings and there’s just no room.

There’s no room in the morning to fit anything else and it’s ridiculous..

Emma Dhesi  25:00

 Oh my goodness, how long are you in the gym?

Jo Buer  25:03

 Well, not that long. But it’s so we the gym is not too far from from us, my husband goes with me. And so our classes generally sat around five in the morning. And then by the time you know, we get home and ready for work, and then I have a bit of a drive through the countryside to to get to my school that I work at.

And then it straight into it. So I find that my writing tends to take place at the evenings. So I do try as much as I can, when I’m at work to kind of work through my morning teas and lunches and and try and make the most of that time.

So that if I can leave early, then I will. And I am somebody that feels like I need a block to sit down a block of writing time. So I need at least half an hour just in my office to really focus. And I have a calendar kind of on my wall of word counts or deadlines that I need to meet. And then that’s what I do. So…

Emma Dhesi  26:22

You give yourself that accountability and that calendar, you can see the words mind, which then makes you feel good and… yeah, encourage, encourages you to continue.

Jo Buer  26:33

And you know, there are some days where I just I just can’t I’m just exhausted or you know, books gone on for longer or something’s happened and saying what, say my word counts up on their calendar, I’m like, Okay, well, I’ll just have to put on a little bit of extra effort and the weekend or shuffle things around or on the odd occasion, or miss the gym so I can get up early and get into the office.

But it really does come down to being really committed to those goals. And one of the best ways I have found to be committed to those goals is to hold yourself accountable and to find others to hold you accountable. And I don’t like to disappoint people. So I booked my editor asked in advance, and then put that pressure on myself to get it done.

And because I pay a deposit to for for her services, she’s amazing. But there’s also that, you know, financial kind of accountability, I’ve paid in advance a deposit. So I need to meet those deadlines. And having a newsletter go out every two weeks too. And I tend to talk about what I’m doing. I feel like all those, those people that don’t open the newsletter and read it, I’ve told them, you know, where I’m headed and what I’m doing.

So I owe it to them to do it so there’s all those things that keep me accountable. I also, a lot of writing, I think, is really just thinking, I find for myself, I have like a 35 minute drive through the country, which is really lovely to my day job. And I use that time to listen to the playlist that I always have created for whatever book I’m working on, to kind of inspire me for the scenes that I’m going to write or working out problems.

Or I use it to listen to podcasts like like your own to, you know, kind of fuel up on that excitement of other people were doing this to you can do it, or just learning new things. So I make use of those times with other ways to kind of keep on track with the writing buzz. So yeah…

Emma Dhesi  28:55

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you that a lot of the writing a lot, a lot of the creativity, I should say does happen away from the dance, and the quiet moments, either on a drive or in the shower or doing the dishes or something like that. That’s when an idea will spark a solution to that or that scene that’s been bugging you for ages and can’t find a way out of it.

And suddenly it comes to you. Yeah, I agree with that. I love that you You’re so open with your accountability in that you’re very public with it. I’ve told my mailing list this is what I’m doing. I’m editor, so I’ve got to do it and and it gives you that spirit to go on. I really love that and I really admire that you’re far braver than me I never did that far in advance.

Jo Buer  29:42

I just I don’t trust myself to get it done. Otherwise, I you know, like I can come up with any excuse under the sun not to write it as easy, but I do not want to disappoint anybody. And the idea of yeah, disappointing somebody. Somebody else even if it’s somebody that I don’t know, I yeah, I don’t want that. So I’ll get it done.

Emma Dhesi  30:04

I’m really impressed. Well, then you, now, talking of your book, as you mentioned, Rest easy resort has published two days ago. Was it two days ago?

Jo Buer  30:18

So on the first of, first of January, it was, yeah, yeah. Well, so that’s when I said, Yes, it is launched to the world and I managed to slip it in there, just actually at the end of December. So I could say, well, I published two books and 2020. But um…

Emma Dhesi  30:35

So tell us about it. Tell us about the book.

Jo Buer  30:40

Alright, so it is a little bit of a gothic ghost story with supernatural elements. Yeah, so it’s about the the main protagonist is Hannah Connor. And she is sitting off on her honeymoon with her husband, Mike. And he kind of decided that they were going to go to this little island with this resort, called rest is a resort that’s newly revived, it was a resort that kinda fell into abandon in the in his family and vested in it and brought it back to life.

And it’s a week before its grand darkening. So he decided, wow, honeymoon work trip, we can do this. And Hannah’s not too impressed with it. She’s not too fond of large bodies of water, either. She’s had some childhood trauma from that. And so being on a little island surrounded by the sea is not ideal. And then her husband keeps getting pulled away with things that are going a little bit sideways at the resort, leaving Hannah on her own more and more.

Only, she’s not really as alone as she thinks she is. And so there’s some, you know, there’s some things that start happening. There’s some protests about land ownership. With that the resort’s built on, she discovers that the land is actually cursed. And her husband, his demeanor, his whole demeanor starts to change, which brings up a lot of questions for her and the marriage.

And she has to end the interview, she really has to decide what’s most important to her and what she’s willing to sacrifice for, for love. So, there’s a little bit of a love story in the air. I love writing about ghosts, there’s a little bit of that kind of ghost kind of thing. Yeah, so it was so much fun to write.

Emma Dhesi  32:54

That’s good!. And you mentioned in your bio that you do like to you do like things that are kind of have a supernatural element or a bit of a time travel element. What is it about ghost stories and the supernatural that you enjoy?

Jo Buer  33:14

I think it encourages people to think about the world a little bit differently and to think outside of themselves. And I just love that I love the idea that maybe everything we see in front of us is not everything. Maybe there’s more to life than Yeah, then then we first think or see or believe events. So I think a little bit of that supernatural just just makes us reconsider and question. Yeah, what we know about life and what we know about ourselves. And yeah, I think that’s that’s kind of fun.

Emma Dhesi  33:53

Yeah, it is. It is it is. So I don’t know why I’ve got this question. And I’ve obviously read this somewhere. Do you have plans to turn the book into a podcast?

Jo Buer  34:07

Well, not the book into a podcast, but I have. So now that I’ve kind of began this journey into the world of writing and what not, I want to just do all the things I just want to do at all. So I’ve got some more while I’m working on another novel now and I’ve got some other ideas of novels and different states I want to work on.

But I have been thinking more and more about kinda sidebars to the writing biz, where it just delves a little bit deeper and to mindset particularly with beginning authors. It’s the difference between whether you get something written or you don’t it really does come down to how you deal with things like that imposter syndrome, and your your own self doubt and goal setting and all of that and I have been just playing Melling the idea over, so that might be something that I look at a little bit more in depth later on this year.

Emma Dhesi  35:08

Okay. Yeah, it’s good fun. I really enjoy it. So I recognize.

Jo Buer  35:12

Okay, thank you.

Emma Dhesi  35:15

And now you sort of touched on that there with the mindset stuff, but I know that you’re interested in self help books. And I wonder if you could mention one or two that have been your favorites, and you think my might help other listeners out there?

Jo Buer  35:28

Oh, gosh. So that is really hard to narrow down to just a few. And I think my teen years or my early 20s, I really got into Julia Cameron, and her artists way series. And they are still just absolute Bibles. I just love them because they go, not so much into the business of writing, but about keeping that your creativity fueled, keeping that fire lit, and moving past those, those kind of boundaries that hold you back.

Because you you know, you’re concerned that you’re not good enough, or who am I to make art or who am I to take the time to make art. So highly recommend all of her books, she has won the right to write, which is so right the right to write, as we do with pins and what not. And that for a very long time, I used to re-read, re-read that one over and over. I also look at there’s been a few recent books that I just think are so great for inspiring you to get on with living the life that you want to live.

Kathy Heller, who has a podcast as well, I think it’s something like don’t quit your day job or not do quit your day job, something like that, or something about or don’t keep your day job or something like that. But she has a book by the same title.

And she pulls on a lot of other personal development kind of gurus out there and and how you make those moves towards making your passion livelihood, or at least a side hustle. And that is another really brilliant, brilliant book. I haven’t really. Yeah. Cool. Thank you.

Emma Dhesi  37:30

Yeah, I would agree with Julia Cameron. I’ve read the the most famous one that she’s got the artists the artists way. Yeah, I haven’t read the others, though. But certainly the artists wave is. It’s funny you say that? I think I was in my early 20s as well.

And I find that unlocked that. But I haven’t come across Kathy Heller. So I’ll be I’ll be looking her up as well. Yeah. Great. So you briefly touched on it. Just before that you’ve said that you’ve got another idea that you’re working on? So is this going to be some more short stories or another novel? 

Jo Buer  38:02

Both. Like I said, I want to do all the things. So at the moment, I’m working on another novel. So similar genre to Rest Easy Resort takes place in a school environment, but is in the 1940’s and and present days. So it’s kind of over to split time periods. So…

Emma Dhesi  38:27

Your stories with a jewel timeline.

Jo Buer  38:29

Yeah. So this is a really fun, and then it’s got Of course, a little bit of the the ghost kind of aspects to it. So that’s fun. So I’m working on that at the moment and to keep myself accountable, accountable and putting it out there. Then I have it booked with my editor for the first of March. So here we go. Yeah, yeah, no pressure. So getting it done.

And then I have been playing around with putting together another small collection of short stories. And I would like to look at audiobooks as well. And maybe changing between the shadows and to audiobook for a reader magnet as well. And, and yeah, just looking at some of those things. 

Emma Dhesi  39:18

And do you think that you would narrate, lose yourself or would you be looking for someone to do that for you?

Jo Buer  39:24

I think at this stage sitting out I’d probably narrate it myself. I did I think back in I don’t know if it was October or something a webinar by I’m gonna get his name wrong, but it’s Derek. Dopcare or something like this.

And yeah, and yeah, and he might eventually I want to say maybe I first heard of him on Joanna pins podcast or something. Possibly, I’m not sure. But I signed up for his course on narrating it yourself. I haven’t delved into it yet. But I’m looking at maybe Giving that a go as a possibility, So… 

Emma Dhesi  40:06

It’s Exciting! so I’m where can people find out about you? If they want to find out more about you and your books? Where can they find you? 

Jo Buer  40:15

Alright, so there is my website, which is just www.jobuer.com. So that’s j o b u e r. And then I’m also on Facebook and Instagram. And that’s Jo Bouer author for both of those as the handles. So should be pretty, pretty easy to find on those.

Emma Dhesi  40:36

Lovely. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Jo I’ve loved chatting to you.

Jo Buer  40:41

It’s been so fun. Thank you so much for having me. It’s awesome.

Emma Dhesi  40:47

Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you find that helpful and inspirational. Now, don’t forget to come on over to facebook and join my group, turning readers into writers. It is especially for you if you are a beginner writer who is looking to write their first novel. If you join the group, you will also find a free cheat sheet there called 3 secret hacks to write with consistency. So go to emmadhesi.com/turning readers into writers. Hit join. Can’t wait to see you in there. All right. Thank you. Bye bye.

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Emma Dhesi

Emma writes women’s fiction. She began writing seriously while a stay at home mum with 3 pre-school children.

By changing her mindset, being consistent and developing confidence, Emma has gone from having a collection of handwritten notes to a fully written, edited and published novel.

Having experienced first-hand how writing changes lives, Emma now helps beginner writers find the time and confidence to write their first novel.