MEDIA & INTERVIEWS

Thank you Roger Kennedy at CSfm and Stacey Harris at CSfm for the interview you can hear HERE. We have had it confirmed that Jackie does sound like 'Theodore Chipmunk' so please, spare us from further chipmunk comments. Although I, (Jan), would be interested to know who else you think she sounds like!

The 'Lancashire Evening Telepgraph' November 2005

"JK Rowling wasted years, I won't make the same mistake!" Blackburn administrator Jackie Coupe took a different route - she chose to pay for the publication of her first horror novel herself. Witness - The White Volume cost Jackie £600 and £200 for copyright with publishers Authorhouse. For that she received one copy - the rest will be printed on demand. Jackie,28 of St Aidans Avenue ,said she didn't see the point in wasting time being rejected by publishers "JK Rowling was rejected by nine publishers, now I'm not putting myself in that calibre but how many years did she waste going round with that book? If you publish and say 'I've shifted 10,000 copies', and they'll snap you up. It's quicker to prove it yourself than to let other people decide if you've got a chance or not ." She is in the process of advertising her novel and setting up a website on which people can buy a copy and is optimistic that her first quarterly sales figures,due next month,will be good. And she is hoping to publish the sequel, Witness : The Black Volume after christmas, "It is my dream to be able to write full time but I wasn't in the position to do that so I've had to fit it around everything else, writing in the evenings but mainly at weekends. " I would recommend anyone to do it. I know I'm biased but I think the book is good enough to sell"

Interveiwed by Caroline Dutton

Regional News for the North West

Horror addict Jackie Coupe, a repair operative at Blackburn, is delighted to have sold more than 1,000 copies of her first novel - Witness: The White Volume. She first completed a novel at the age of 17 and, when it was rejected twice, Jackie gave up writing for ten years. “When Witness poured out and the second - Witness: The Black Volume - came hot on the heels, I was elated,” said Jackie. “It seemed I still had the spark and I enjoyed every gut-wrenching minute. Then it got rejected – then I got mad.” She believes the novel was rejected as its subject matter is dark and sometimes horrific. “But it is good fiction – it’s the kind of stuff horror nuts like me eat with a spoon," she said. “Horror is my life. When I wake up I’m hatching evil plots, whilst I’m at work my mind is scanning horrible scenarios, before I go to bed I partake of horror movies and if I’m lucky sometimes I don’t get nightmares!” Undaunted by the rejection, Jackie decided to pay to have the book published herself. “I paid a lot of money but it was worth it – I’ve had three successful reviews, sold more than 1,000 copies in five months and it looks like a publisher is interested in the sequel.” Although Jackie has only been with BT for five months, she is enjoying her job – and writing is her way of winding down after a hard day’s work. “Coming to BT has been the dawn of a new era for me," she said. "I find that I get to talk to lots of interesting people and I’m always busy. “But it’s so relaxing to come home after a hard day at work to write and brutally dismember a few people!” The story of Witness: The White Volume centres on a young man and his decision to kill himself but it goes horrifically wrong. “I’ve made a promise that if anyone reads the book and doesn’t feel they have been entertained then I will refund their money – so far there have been no takers," she said. "It’s modern horror and as such is going to disturb and excite.” If you would like to find out more about Jackie’s novel, visit her website. The book and the website are not suitable for children.

Writen by Julie Tempest of 'BT Today'