A little about me

If you would like to contact me, you can email me at: debbie@deborahjbarker.co.uk

I am Deborah J Barker, author, artist, wife, mother, grandmother and other such things! I live in the English countryside in Hampshire, UK, with my husband and our Golden Retriever, Flossie and a Border Terror called Charlie Brown. I am wife to one, mother to five grown children and grandmother to four gorgeous little boys and two beautiful little girls. In addition, we are Trustees and mother and father figures, for our now adult nephew who has Asperger’s Syndrome, following the loss of my sister and brother-in-law, several years ago.

I love to write and read and do both as much as I can. I have had quite a few short stories published in women’s magazines and a few in other, less well known, publications. In the mid to late nineties, I wrote a humorous, monthly column for America Online as well as a monthly column in the guise of my dog, for a cat magazine, printed in America.

I have written several novels, Once Upon A Christmas Eve, has just been published as my debut novel. I love the review that John Cowton has written:

“It’s that time of year when we turn to feel-good stories like ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Frank Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ even the Griswold family in ‘National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.’ There are many more that we watch or read each year over and over again. They all strive to have the perfect Christmas, the perfect life, the dream we all aspire to ourselves. Isn’t that what the Christmas spirit is all about.
Deborah J Barker’s debut novel encompasses all of the above and a whole lot more. Debut novelist she may be, but I am familiar with the author’s writing, from her award winning blog, ‘Living Between the Lines,’ and I just knew this writer has an amazing ability to get into the head of other life-forms, as she did writing about her dogs, so she would have no difficulty living the lives of her main characters Hannah, Beatrice, Marjorie, and others, at ages ranging from birth to sixties, during different eras, 1943, 1963, 2000 and 2012.
My reading experience can only be described as magical, and isn’t that what we want at Christmas.
I could quiet happily see myself re-reading this for Christmas’s yet to come.”

What a lovely review!

In contrast, here’s how one, dubious, publisher described a novel I sent them some years ago:

“… a finely judged fantasia which delineates with brio an oneiric landscape in which supernal virtue and infandous evil are held in terrible equipoise the naturalistic dialogue ensures that characterization never divagates into the Scyiia of allegory and the Charybdis of flat description the novel excels at setpiece and mythic coup de theatre I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending it for inclusion in the (name of publisher) lists.”

Words fail me…but do not let this put you off!

I am an owner and Director of a design and communications company Glow Marketing Ltd. but have taken a back seat to concentrate on my writing. I now provide managerial, editorial and copy proofing support, as needed.

I write in whatever genre takes my fancy and read as much as I can, whenever I can.

I hope you find something to enjoy in my blog and if you do, please feel free to comment.

If you want to email me, you can find me at debbie@deborahjbarker.co.uk

Thank you for stopping by,

Debbie 🙂