Women and Adversity: Jacqueline DeGroot

Jacqueline DeGroot

Jacqueline DeGroot

The featured writer this week for my new blog, Women and Adversity, is Jacqueline DeGroot. A mystery and sizzling romance writer with 18 novels to her credit, Jack (her chosen nickname), also has co-written two coffee table books with Miller Pope. “Sunset Beach, A History” and “Ocean Isle, Gem of the Atlantic Coast” chronicle two of southeastern North Carolina’s barrier islands and are replete with vivid photography.

I asked Jack what obstacle she had to overcome when she decided to become a writer, and she responded with a perspective that addresses modern technology. Many women will say, “I know what you mean. I understand.”

Jack said:

The biggest obstacle was learning how to do things on the computer. How to use Word (or in my case, ClarisWorks and Appleworks, as I’m a Mac user), how to format, how to save files to floppies and Superdisks . . . how to make things compatible to what publishers, editors and proofers were using at the time. Things are better now, but it’s always a learning process as software changes and operating systems need to be upgraded. Last May I got a new laptop, it wasn’t until September that I was truly comfortable using it as my primary computer.

When asked what obstacles she faces now with 20 books published she said:

Technology is still a big issue for me, and I find I am paying a lot of money to have people do things for me that I just don’t have the time to learn (or if I made an attempt to learn, I still would not be very proficient at). Being able to do my own digital formatting would take a lot of stress off me. I am constantly revising as I want the books as perfect as I can get them, so I have to keep paying for tech help and using more money to upload revisions. Being more technologically savvy, would be a real boon to me right now in my writing career.

Jack’s books are available at www.jacquelinedegroot.com, on amazon.com, goodreads.com, booksamillion.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Article By: Jo Ann Mathews

I published three ebooks in 2020: Women and Adversity, Honoring 23 Black Women; Women and Adversity, Recognizing 23 Notable Mothers; and Women and Adversity, Saluting 23 Faithful Suffragists to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. These books are meant to be study guides for all students from grade school through college to help in choosing topics for assignments and to learn more about these noteworthy women. Go to amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and goodreads.com to learn more.

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