Look and Listen

Biography

Lainey Bancroft’s first foray into writing was a primary school short story competition. She wrote a harrowing tale about young campers who found a snake in their bed. Despite spelling snake snack throughout her ten-page epic, she won because she made the judges laugh. Writing was fun, but the ability to make people laugh was more fun. If it hadn’t been for the fact that getting on a stage made her puke or pass out, a gig in stand-up comedy might have been a career path. But she was always most comfortable between the covers of a book. Although she continued to do well in English classes and went on to write many more short stories, it really never occurred to her to be a writer. Authors were otherworldly creatures gifted with magical powers of beauty, intellect, and talent. She was a small town girl destined for normalcy, despite the dozens of spiral notebooks she’d amassed filled with character outlines and snippets of dialogue she’d certainly never say. A free spirit—or rebel without a cause, depending on who you ask—Lainey wasn’t keen on being herded into expensive post secondary schooling when she felt no real call to study a particular subject. Thanks to family contacts she actually got to indulge in the stereotypical, artistic year of bumming around Europe. In addition to such glamorous jobs as tending bar and making beds, she worked inspecting and packing flower bulbs in Holland, and then carried on to a tiny village in England where she clerked in a garden center. The year wrapped up with a whirlwind bus tour of eight countries in fourteen days—she saw just enough to make her eager to get back there and see it all again some day. Then, back to real life. After getting a real job in a lab testing germination of flower seeds, which was every bit as exciting as it sounds—NOT—she met a real man. They had a real wedding and a couple of kids who really took up the vast majority of her time for a number of years. Time marched on, and despite being a techno-phobe, technology marched into Lainey’s life in the form of a new computer. Having modern kids, born hardwired to understand such things, she felt compelled to take a few courses so she could keep up. Attending college on-line in her jammies was a blast, and while she earned her professional writing certification she began identifying some of her scribbles as actual manuscripts. Surfing into writer’s sites such as The Romance Junkies and eHarlequin, Lainey was incredibly lucky to win numerous contests, which gave her the confidence to seriously contemplate publication. She has published several short stories, and a full-length contemporary romance with The Wild Rose Press, and Amira Press will soon release Mixed Blessings, a novella with paranormal elements. Lainey works at home, doing the scheduling and bookwork for her husband’s business, and hangs out in her jammies more often than she cares to admit. She is currently polishing a single title contemporary romance that was a finalist in a recent RWA chapter contest, a women’s fiction novel, and a romantic comedy. She likes to indulge her muse by writing stories that range from serious to sensuous to silly. She enjoys writing almost anything really—except perhaps about herself in third person. In addition to reading and writing, Lainey is an avid gardener, and enjoys spending time in Ontario’s four season playground with her husband, teenaged son and daughter, and their two spoiled labs. He greatest joy in this writers journey is meeting other authors and avid readers, so don’t hesitate to contact her with any questions or comments you may have!

Inspiration

As an avid reader from a very young age I worked my way through all the typical girlhood books, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, Rose in Bloom, Secret Garden, Little Princess--believe me, I could go on and on! Before I had a birthday in the double digits I was already sneaking my mother's paperbacks, fascinated by adult relationships. I fell in love with the ability to fall in love over and over again between the pages of a book.