Jane McCaa was born and raised in Scotland. She attended the famous Mary Erskine School for Girls, and in her final year also studied Italian at the University of Edinburgh (she tends to be quite busy). She went South of the Border to Bristol University, where she gained her first degree in Greek, Ancient History and Archaeology, followed that up with a Diploma in Business Studies and went back for a research degree studying the religion of the Hittites, which was immediately thereafter accepted for publication. She also did things like learn karate, dance cha-cha for the University and smash her leg in a climbing accident, so she may be a swot but she isn’t a wimp.

After a chance conversation on a street corner with a former lecturer, she then helped build Bristol Classical Press from a gleam in the eye to a major player – seven days a week stuff - and from there back to Bristol University to work in Information (i.e. journalism, publishing and P.R.) Being the University’s movie critic was definitely the icing on that cake.

And from there... the lure back into educating as well as promoting education did not take long, and Jane embarked on her teaching career. She is unusual in having taught every age from tiny primary children to pensioner mature students, and she enjoyed responding to the challenges of each one. Her wide background of studies and qualifications in Language, Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and even Business have allowed her to explore many possibilities and open doors in the minds of her students – and it all gets fed into the fiction.

Jane has taught in schools in Bristol and the South West but her greatest educating passion has always been lecturing (she just loves an audience and they do seem to love her back – they keep in touch anyway - and she has been a repeat performer as a guest lecturer for various groups and organisations). She taught in the Open University, where the students’ questions inspired her books on daily life in the ancient world, and went on to lecture at Filton College in Bristol. There’s no room for the whole c.v. here, but that gives you a flavour.

But this has not been an ivory tower life – Jane has seen the coalface in offices, shops and catering, and also worked for happy years with a Bishop as a kind of cross between a P.A. and a research assistant. She has fitted all this in by holding jobs for respectable lengths of time but almost never one at a time. Her record was six at once, but that was in response to emergency and is not entirely recommended even for someone who has learnt a thing or two about logistics and prioritising. She is not an aged crone, she has just packed a lot in.

Jane has now returned home to Scotland, where she lives in the Borders

And the s.f.? All along and everywhere. She wrote her first s.f. novel about a girl taking her robot sister to school before she even knew such a thing as s.f. existed, and has been honing her writing craft ever since.

Studying other lives in other places is the perfect background for a speculative fiction writer, as Jane explains in the lecture which you can read here (Download Word doc)

Jane will talk about her work and s.f. in print and film for hours on end (contact via buttons on each page). She cannot offer individual advice on getting published, but you can read advice based on her years of experience as both publisher and publishee, read here (Download Word doc)

Read sample chapters from the published and new books on this site  - and there is more to come.

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