By the time she was 14, she'd written her first novel. It was about an elven princess whose evil step mother messed up her transdimensional portal trip to university to send her instead to a war torn world in a restricted universe. It was very cheesy and the 7 more books she wrote in that series were lost forever on the family window 95 computer that died a very final death one summer when she was sixteen.

By sixteen, Jaz was living with her very sick single mother and her little brother, and working nights to help pay the bills. There was time to read during her school breaks but there wasn't time for much else - and no money to replace the home computer.

In highschool, Jaz got her nickname 'Jaz'. Her birth name is Jessica, but as a 90's child most of her female classmates were also named Jessica. Because she moved around a lot, she didn't have any close friends, so when it was time to give nicknames it went something like this: "You can be Jessica, and you can be Jess, Jessie... Jay.... Ok I think we've run out of Jessica names. You're musical right? Lets call you Jaz!"

And Jaz was musical. She sang all the time and played her mothers hand-me-down guitar, and wrote many songs. The name stuck and everyone was calling her Jaz from then on.

After high school, Jaz went into college for writing and psycology. She was two years in when the unthinkable happened - the owner of the restaurant Jaz managed decided to retire and sell Jaz the business. Jaz dropped out of post secondary to open a medieval restaurant in downtown Victoria called Chef's Quest.

Around this time Jaz was engaged to the love of her life, John. They lived happily together with their cat Sasha, Defender of Man, and Jaz started to pick up writing stories again. Nothing came to fruition until a few years later when a terrible accident forced Jaz to close her business and take 8 months off to recuperate: She was just walking along when suddenly a construction baracade that wasn't tied down fell on her.

She spent a lot of time in recovery relearning music and writing and english. Re-meeting family and friends that were unrecognizable due to a very severe concussion. Luckily, after those 8 months she was deemed on the mend and could go back to being a normal human being again. Jaz and John got married and he started his journey to become a Math Teacher while she picked up writing again and became a Chocolatier at Purdys Chocolates.

Now, when Jaz wrote novels up until this point, they were all planned and detailed. She wrote a book of details and plans and chapter synopsis and then sat down and wrote the novel. Of the novels she'd finished and the novels she'd started and left behind, this was her motis operandi... until one day she got very very bad news:

The story she'd worked on, the first one she was going to finish in a long time, was on a laptop that died a permanent death. This was especially tragic because it was accomplished during a very emotionally difficult time after her injury... and in her grief, Jaz did something she'd never done before - she just sat down and wrote a book unplanned.

Abigail Tally is the apprentice of the protagonist of the novel Jaz lost, and she was a delight to write. From the very first page, Jaz wrote down all of her own emotion and stuggles, all of her hopes and dreams of the future, all in Abigail.

Without a plan, Jaz likes to say that Abigail wrote herself. It was less like writing a book and more like reading a book. A kind of magic that kept her coming back over and over again. At one point John asked Jaz "So, who's the murderer?" and she replied, "I don't know! They haven't figured it out yet!".

That wasn't to say she didn't struggle with writers block some days. During that time Jaz created a system - she either worked on the book, or drew maps of the kingdom, or wrote down the history of her book, or wrote down songs from the world of her novel. And she wrote down a LOT of songs. Currenly there are over 28 songs with more in production!

When Abigail was done, Jaz read it to her friends and sang the songs and was happy to know that others loved her books and music just as much as she loved them. Instead of trying to publish, she decided to write the sequel and maybe see about submitting query letters when there were more books in the series. She'd gone on bedrest, pregnant with her daughter Phoebe, and had time to get working on book two.

Then strange and wonderful fortune struck. Jaz loved to join musicians online during covid, and she'd been singing her songs for years. A lady named Bronwyn got the song Ander's Widow stuck in her head and reached out to Jaz to get a copy of the song. Jaz told Brownie about the book and let her read it. Unbeknownst to Jaz, Brownie worked as an audiobook editor and went to work waxing poetic about Abigail Tally, and singing her songs! The publisher immediately reached out and offered to publish her book. After months of review and editing and cover art and more, An Eye for Magic was ready to publish!

Jaz is currenly at home writing the sequels as you read this, or playing with her daughter, or laughing with her husband, or singing songs. She is very happy and hopes you enjoy!

When she was ten, Jaz moved to the big city - Victoria B.C. where she had very few friends and not much to do. When some of her classmates told her that she could be their friend IF she read Harry Potter, Jaz did so and realized for the first time that books didn't have to be boring. Sad to say all the novels forced upon her at school previous to this were not fantastical, not funny, not entertaining and not engaging at all. With a new interest in reading she ventured into the library and picked out two books to take out: Alanna the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce, and Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede.

From there she was hooked. Jaz made up the years without by reading almost a paperback a day for the rest of her youth.

By the time she was 14, she'd written her first novel. It was about an elven princess whose evil step mother messed up her transdimensional portal trip to university to send her instead to a war torn world in a restricted universe. It was very cheesy and the 7 more books she wrote in that series were lost forever on the family window 95 computer that died a very final death one summer when she was sixteen.

By sixteen, Jaz was living with her very sick single mother and her little brother, and working nights to help pay the bills. There was time to read during her school breaks but there wasn't time for much else - and no money to replace the home computer.

In highschool, Jaz got her nickname 'Jaz'. Her birth name is Jessica, but as a 90's child most of her female classmates were also named Jessica. Because she moved around a lot, she didn't have any close friends, so when it was time to give nicknames it went something like this: "You can be Jessica, and you can be Jess, Jessie... Jay.... Ok I think we've run out of Jessica names. You're musical right? Lets call you Jaz!"

And Jaz was musical. She sang all the time and played her mothers hand-me-down guitar, and wrote many songs. The name stuck and everyone was calling her Jaz from then on.

After high school, Jaz went into college for writing and psycology. She was two years in when the unthinkable happened - the owner of the restaurant Jaz managed decided to retire and sell Jaz the business. Jaz dropped out of post secondary to open a medieval restaurant in downtown Victoria called Chef's Quest.

Around this time Jaz was engaged to the love of her life, John. They lived happily together with their cat Sasha, Defender of Man, and Jaz started to pick up writing stories again. Nothing came to fruition until a few years later when a terrible accident forced Jaz to close her business and take 8 months off to recuperate: She was just walking along when suddenly a construction baracade that wasn't tied down fell on her.

She spent a lot of time in recovery relearning music and writing and english. Re-meeting family and friends that were unrecognizable due to a very severe concussion. Luckily, after those 8 months she was deemed on the mend and could go back to being a normal human being again. Jaz and John got married and he started his journey to become a Math Teacher while she picked up writing again and became a Chocolatier at Purdys Chocolates.

Now, when Jaz wrote novels up until this point, they were all planned and detailed. She wrote a book of details and plans and chapter synopsis and then sat down and wrote the novel. Of the novels she'd finished and the novels she'd started and left behind, this was her motis operandi... until one day she got very very bad news:

The story she'd worked on, the first one she was going to finish in a long time, was on a laptop that died a permanent death. This was especially tragic because it was accomplished during a very emotionally difficult time after her injury... and in her grief, Jaz did something she'd never done before - she just sat down and wrote a book unplanned.

Abigail Tally is the apprentice of the protagonist of the novel Jaz lost, and she was a delight to write. From the very first page, Jaz wrote down all of her own emotion and stuggles, all of her hopes and dreams of the future, all in Abigail.

Without a plan, Jaz likes to say that Abigail wrote herself. It was less like writing a book and more like reading a book. A kind of magic that kept her coming back over and over again. At one point John asked Jaz "So, who's the murderer?" and she replied, "I don't know! They haven't figured it out yet!".

That wasn't to say she didn't struggle with writers block some days. During that time Jaz created a system - she either worked on the book, or drew maps of the kingdom, or wrote down the history of her book, or wrote down songs from the world of her novel. And she wrote down a LOT of songs. Currenly there are over 28 songs with more in production!

When Abigail was done, Jaz read it to her friends and sang the songs and was happy to know that others loved her books and music just as much as she loved them. Instead of trying to publish, she decided to write the sequel and maybe see about submitting query letters when there were more books in the series. She'd gone on bedrest, pregnant with her daughter Phoebe, and had time to get working on book two.

Then strange and wonderful fortune struck. Jaz loved to join musicians online during covid, and she'd been singing her songs for years. A lady named Bronwyn got the song Ander's Widow stuck in her head and reached out to Jaz to get a copy of the song. Jaz told Brownie about the book and let her read it. Unbeknownst to Jaz, Brownie worked as an audiobook editor and went to work waxing poetic about Abigail Tally, and singing her songs! The publisher immediately reached out and offered to publish her book. After months of review and editing and cover art and more, An Eye for Magic was ready to publish!

Jaz is currently at home writing the sequels as you read this, or playing with her daughter, or laughing with her husband, or singing songs. She is very happy and hopes you enjoy!