Meet the Author
Jessica Shirvington
How many of us can say we fell in love at seventeen? A lot of us. But how many of us stayed in love? Jessica Shirvington has been lucky enough to meet and marry the man she fell in love with at seventeen. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Jessica is married to former Olympic sprinter, five-time National 100m champion, and current sports personality with Australia’s Foxtel and Sky News, Matthew Shirvington.
Married for almost eleven years with two beautiful daughters, Sienna and Winter, Jessica believes her early age romance and its longevity has definitely contributed to how she tackles relationships in her YA novels.
At age nineteen, Jessica opened and managed her first restaurant in Sydney, and then, while she and Matt were living in London, founded a fine food import and distribution company, Stella Imports, in 2003.
Moving back to Australia and searching for a creative outlet after the birth of her second child, Jessica started on her path to writing. Although a long-time lover of creative writing and poetry, Jessica had never considered the possibility of making writing her career. But with some time away from work, she finally had an opportunity to explore her potential. The result is her debut novel, EMBRACE, which marks the start of Violet Eden’s story.
Jessica says: “Writing EMBRACE was an amazing journey for me. Discovering Violet and the other characters in the book has been my delight. The first draft just came together so quickly. I remember starting one day and then, six weeks later I was looking at something that had the makings of a book (I hoped). It took plenty of re-drafts but that, along with the copious amounts of research, the editing, proofing, all of it, has been such an awesome experience.”
Jessica still marvels at how everything came together; describing that time in her life, she says: “It’s totally clichéd, I’m almost cringing saying it — I guess I always thought I would have a corporate career and I was headed that way but life had other plans for me. When I wrote EMBRACE I had no idea it would turn into a published book, let alone a series — it all kind of snuck up on me and I’m so grateful. What they say is true…sometimes you just fall into the thing that is meant for you. I’m lucky, I didn’t just fall, I catapulted. Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
When asked why she chose to write young adult fiction, Jessica says: “I never considered writing anything other than YA. The reason is simple — they’re the books I choose to and love to read myself. YA books have the amazing opportunity to be there for a character’s ultimate turning point — to be there for the moments that will shape their adult future. That makes them really special.”
EMBRACE is now (or soon to be) available in the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Brazil and Turkey.
