www.jonirodgers.com
Born into a family gospel/ bluegrass band, I grew up on stage, opening for huge-haired, sequin-bedazzled country-western legends of the 1960s. I always loved setting words in rows and started seriously writing in the 1980s while living on a fire tower in California's Trinity Wilderness with my husband. I kept writing for the love of it as a young mom working on theatre and voiceover projects.
In 1994, at age 32, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a virulent blood cancer. That sucked, but I used the chemo downtime to finish my first two novels, both of which were published by small but prestigious literary presses.
In 2001, Bald in the Land of Big Hair, my memoir about the chemo thing, was published by HarperCollins and quite well received. Extraordinary people started asking me to help them tell their stories, which is how I ended up ghostwriting, book-doctoring, and editing between novels.
In 2011, I started my own indie e-press, Stella Link Books, to publish a 10th Anniversary Ebook Edition of BLBH (foreword by fabulous Elizabeth Berg!), my backlist books, new novels, and whatever else I feel like publishing on my own label. It's a thrilling time to be in the book business.
Meanwhile, I've been married for 35+ years to jet mechanic/winemaker Gary Rodgers, and we enjoy awesome offspring. So my husband makes wine, my son married a psychotherapist, and my daughter is a freelance editor. Writing life hat trick, baby!
Grace is real, and I am extremely grateful.
A few more details are offered in this post on my publishing journey as illustrated by my hair.
Peace and grooviness ~
jr
