Plenty of authors have day jobs – in fact it’s more common than not, such is the nature of the business. For Dr. Jo Skinner, she is adamant not to let her medical career stifle her writing. In fact, it has actually become a source of inspiration.
“I always say that I am very fortunate to be paid to listen to other people's stories,” she explains. Her work as a GP has enriched her writing, allowing her to weave nuanced human experiences into her narratives. It also played an important role in her second novel, A World of Silence, via Hawkeye Publishing.
Furious beginnings
“It seemed as likely as flying to the moon,” Jo says of her path to publication. Like many, she had enjoyed English at school and would have considered a writing-related career, but after experiencing a long stint in hospital, she was inspired to go into medicine. Writing was put on the back burner until a chance conversation.
“One of my patients mentioned [AWC’s monthly flash fiction challenge] Furious Fiction to me,” Jo recalls. “That consultation ran long overtime, and I realised then that the writing bug was a persistent itch under the skin. The next month I entered a piece of flash and kept entering every month. I don’t think I have missed one yet!”
She admits that when she first started submitting stories for Furious Fiction, she had no idea about story arcs or narrative structure. “I was used to making notes in point form for work and rarely wrote full sentences that were not part of a referral letter,” she recalls. “The first pieces of flash I wrote were terrible.”
Coming home to writing
It was at that point, she learnt more about the Australian Writers' Centre and signed up to do Short Story Essentials – her goal being simply to make the long list of the monthly competition. “It was a competitive streak,” she says. “To prove to myself that if I learnt about the scaffolding behind a good story, that I too could list in a competition and I had Furious Fiction in my sights.”
“Before starting the course, I just told myself that I didn’t have time between my career and family life to write,” Jo says.” I realised after starting that you just have to make time when you are passionate about something as there is never a period in your life when you are not busy. Time will never magically appear inviting you to do something creative. You need to make it a priority between the other demands life makes of you.”
Jo’s road to writing enlightenment reached a big milestone when she received her first Furious Fiction shortlisting, aptly titled The Road Less Travelled.“I emailed everyone I knew to tell them and danced around the room. That was when I thought, maybe I can do this.”
Developing her craft
At the same time, the Pitch Your Novel course gave her the confidence to put her work out there. “This course really dealt with an area that I had been avoiding,” she says. Using many of the methods in this course, Jo started pitching her manuscript – with one of her novels longlisting in the Hawkeye Unpublished Manuscript competition, with another placing Runner-up the following year.
I have continued to write more novels and suspect they would all be languishing on my computer if I had not signed up to do this course,” Jo says. “Writing is a tough gig, and we are told not to send anything to a publisher until it is the best it can be. I was [previously] never certain when that was.”
A course that had a lasting impact on Jo was Your Author Website – breaking down the complex task of building an online platform. “I was not tech savvy at all and knew that before I got anything published, I needed to have a presence,” she says. “I did the whole course in a weekend and then went through each step slowly and created my own website which I am still incredibly proud of. It was empowering to create an online presence where I could build up an audience and eventually showcase my increasing portfolio of work.”
Publishing breakthroughs
After accumulating four (and a half) unpublished novels, Jo was offered a publishing contract while at work. “It was surreal. I spent the day in a daze and all I wanted to do was to tell the world,” she recalls. “I did tell some of my colleagues who were surprised as I hadn’t told them I was writing! That night I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t sleep and got up to check my computer to make sure the contract was still there. It really was a ‘pinch me’ couple of weeks.”
Jo launched her first novel, The Truth About My Daughter, in late 2024 and her second novel is A World of Silence – released in 2025 via Hawkeye Publishing. It explores female friendships; the things they talk about, the secrets they keep and the consequences.
The novel follows Kate, a psychologist juggling work, finances, children, and her ailing relationship to Ryan, a musician too engrossed with his band to help at home. She finds herself nostalgic about her first love. Meanwhile, Tori, the owner of a successful second-hand clothing and furniture store, is determined to protect her son from the truth about his past, adamant that he will never meet his father.
So, when glamorous Shelley, now married to Kate’s first love Daryl, arrives in town, uncomfortable truths start to emerge. Will Kate, Tori and Shelley confront the past that shaped them? What are the consequences of speaking out? Of keeping silent?
“The novel does deal with some darker themes like coercive control but at its heart, it is about the complexity of female friendships,” Jo says. “Our jealousies and rivalries and yet, despite these, the lengths we will go to for a friend who needs us.”
Finding a balance
The question Jo is overwhelmingly asked more than anything else is just how she balances being a GP work and writing. “Time is a strangely elastic thing,” she says. “It moves differently depending whether you are running late for the bus, have a deadline for work or are relaxing by the beach on holidays. I took a good hard look at how I was spending my precious hours and minutes and chose to make my passions a priority and to not fret about the things I don’t get time to do.
“I am also a marathon runner, so I need to make time to train. I am not fussy about the house and often make very simple meals. Now my kids are older they cook a couple of nights a week and hubby is very supportive and does a lot around the house. Some chores like my tax do get left to the last minute and become a stressful scramble!”
She also admits to setting aside actual slots of time just to chill and read. She also makes a point of taking holidays each year to recharge. “This is so important, otherwise I would burn out,” she says.
“I always say that we plan all the best things in our lives. A wedding, a holiday, a dinner party. We need to do the same with our writing. Blank out time where we just write.”
Doctor’s orders
Did Jo ever expect to find herself a published author? “It is something I dreamed about but couldn’t imagine,” she says. “It seemed such a foreign thing to have a book with my name as the author on the cover. It was so removed from what I did every day … This is why it is important to do courses and to connect with other aspiring, emerging and established authors. It gives your impossible dreams a shape and instead of just imagining, you start to do the hard yards to make them a reality.”
“The beauty of AWC is that there is such a huge range of courses to choose from. There is something for beginners, for established authors, for someone who wants to do copywriting, travel writing or needs to learn how to promote their work. You will learn step by step how to progress your craft, will make a lot of friends and grow as a writer and a person.”
Jo also has one final piece of advice – from where it all began. “Challenge yourself to submit a piece of flash fiction – 500 words with a strict time limit is one of the best ways to hone your skills as a writer!”
It was at that point, she learnt more about the Australian Writers' Centre and signed up to do Short Story Essentials – her goal being simply to make the long list of the monthly competition. “It was a competitive streak,” she says. “To prove to myself that if I learnt about the scaffolding behind a good story, that I too could list in a competition and I had Furious Fiction in my sights.” 
At the same time, the Pitch Your Novel course gave her the confidence to put her work out there. “This course really dealt with an area that I had been avoiding,” she says. Using many of the methods in this course, Jo started pitching her manuscript – with one of her novels longlisting in the Hawkeye Unpublished Manuscript competition, with another placing Runner-up the following year. 
After accumulating four (and a half) unpublished novels, Jo was offered a publishing contract while at work. “It was surreal. I spent the day in a daze and all I wanted to do was to tell the world,” she recalls. “I did tell some of my colleagues who were surprised as I hadn’t told them I was writing! That night I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t sleep and got up to check my computer to make sure the contract was still there. It really was a ‘pinch me’ couple of weeks.”
The question Jo is overwhelmingly asked more than anything else is just how she balances being a GP work and writing. “Time is a strangely elastic thing,” she says. “It moves differently depending whether you are running late for the bus, have a deadline for work or are relaxing by the beach on holidays. I took a good hard look at how I was spending my precious hours and minutes and chose to make my passions a priority and to not fret about the things I don’t get time to do. 
Did Jo ever expect to find herself a published author? “It is something I dreamed about but couldn’t imagine,” she says. “It seemed such a foreign thing to have a book with my name as the author on the cover. It was so removed from what I did every day … This is why it is important to do courses and to connect with other aspiring, emerging and established authors. It gives your impossible dreams a shape and instead of just imagining, you start to do the hard yards to make them a reality.”
