Women and Adversity: 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.