Featured Writer: Judy Backhouse
Unlike many authors, Judy Backhouse has not ‘always wanted to be a writer’. An avid reader, she grew up in South Africa reading books written and published ‘overseas’. She explains that, ‘Since my childhood story books were all set in England, it never occurred to me that anyone who lived on the far tip of Africa could be an author.’ Despite being the daughter of a printer, it was only at high school that she encountered books that were locally published.
Learning to write
Instead she studied mathematics, became a programmer, designed information systems and moved into management in the IT industry before transitioning into academic positions. Despite having no formal training in writing, she learned valuable aspects of the craft, including lessons in grammar from a boyfriend who edited and returned her love letters! (He went on to become a leading light in South African journalism.) In management she learned to write clear, succinct reports; in academia, to construct arguments from evidence and to appreciate the scrutiny of reviewers.
Becoming an author
She explains that her career was ‘unplanned’ and ‘driven by what I was good at, rather than by what was good for me.’ Retirement (in 2023) finally gave her time and space to reflect. ‘I realised that what really fascinates me is ideas. I wanted to continue to read and think, to shape my own ideas and understand the world, but I wanted to do that in a playful way. I was done with the seriousness of business and academia.’
She concluded that writing fiction would perfectly combine her interest in big ideas with her need for fun, and set about crafting the life she really wanted. She invented her genre ‘optimistic future fiction’ and published her first novel, Well Housed, in December 2025.
Community support
Judy has been a member of Just Write Porto since 2019 when she first moved to Portugal. Back in the academic world she ran writing workshops and retreats for graduate students and staff who wanted to improve their research writing. These developed into supportive writing communities and she wanted to reproduce that to support her new adventure in fiction, so she started the Monday Morning Writers group under the umbrella of the Just Write Porto community in 2023. These sessions bring writers together to work on their own projects every Monday morning and share the ups and downs of writing life.
Top tips for authors
When asked to share her writing tips, Judy refers to ‘contingency management’, which says that there is never a ‘best practice’ for how things should be done. The best approach is what works for each individual. She explains that for her, this means having a clear goal (to spread her ideas) that informs her plans, and then working out how to organise her space, tools and time to execute that plan. The final piece of the puzzle is to know your own motivational challenges and design ways to trick yourself into persisting. ‘While it’s useful to hear how other authors do it, in the end you have to figure out what works for you,’ she says.
Future plans
Over the next four years Judy plans to write another two novels, continue to build and be part of author networks, figure out how to share her writing more effectively and record her own ebooks. She is already 12000 words into the next novel. Like Well Housed, it is set in Johannesburg in 2050.
Connect with Judy
There are many ways to connect with Judy:
On her fiction website https://judybackhouse.com/fiction
By subscribing to her quarterly newsletter at https://judybackhouse.com/fiction/subscribe-for-a-story/
On Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18879796.Judy_Backhouse
Among the members of the Alliance of Independent Authors at https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/members/judy-backhouse/author-profile
On LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/judy-backhouse-5782001b/
On Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@judyback
On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/judybackhouse/
On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/judy.backhouse.374
Or meet her in person when you join the Monday Morning Writers in Porto by visiting our Just Write Porto MeetUp!