An interview with author Jenny Kane - prolific writer & collector of notebooks
Plus Jenny provides a fun and creative top 5 Desert Island Stationery items
Dear Stationery Freaks,
We hope you are doing well. It’s Rob here with the newsletter - and you know what it means when you get a newsletter? It’s new episode time. And my, what a cracker we have for you today.
In this episode we interview Jenny Kane. Jenny is a prolific author and lover of stationery.
Listen to the interview with Jenny Kane here.
We chat to Jenny about her literary career, spanning over two decades and encompassing more than 200 short stories and over 70 books across various genres and pen names – from her novels as Jenny Kane, and historical fiction as Jennifer Ash, to her "X-rated" works under KJB (for which she's won awards!).
And of course, we chat about stationery.
Jenny shares what her emotional support pencil case is, why notebook covers are critically important for book writing, and offers some genius advice on how to use notebooks when writing a book.
I made copious notes!
So, worth grabbing a pen and paper. (What a silly thing to write - you’re stationery freaks, of course you have a pen and paper ready).
Helen and I had a blast chatting to Jenny.
Jenny shares with us the reasons behind her "emotional support pencil case" and her meticulous colour-coding system for pens.
Learn about Jenny’s superstitious approach to choosing themed notebooks for each novel, and how these notebooks become the "little Bible" for every story, meticulously documenting plot, characters, and even overused words.
We also chat about Jenny's remote teaching courses, connecting with students globally.
Jenny chats about the reason behind the "Jenny Kane corner" in a coffee shop and the surprisingly early starts to her working day.
Plus, don't miss Jenny's ingenious and hilariously practical "Desert Island Stationery" survival kit – complete with a ruler for swatting and drawing pins for mapping!
Listen to the interview with Jenny Kane here.
Be a guest on the show
If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast and share your love of stationery then contact me (Rob) via Substack, or head on over to Instagram to send us a DM.
I will say, we’re not the most polished when it comes to technical stuff, we nearly lost half of the interview with Jenny (found it eventually), but we do love stationery and the potential it can help people release. If you have a story to tell, a love of stationery or are releasing potential through stationery (like Jenny is), then get in touch.
If I find some time over the next week or so, I may pop another newsletter your way with some cool stationery finds. We’ve not done that for a while and I have a backlog of cool stuff to share.
In the meantime, enjoy your week and enjoy the episode with Jenny!
Listen to the interview with Jenny Kane here.
Thanks for reading this article and listening to the podcast. If you enjoyed this edition of Stationery Freaks, feel free to share it with others.
Until next time
Rob & Helen
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You can tell I never get tired of talking with authors about their writing process and about the stationery they use to do it! Thanks Jenny for taking the time to talk with us :)