Godcorp

I’m Jessica Louise Smith and, like my protagonist Evie Stone, I’m from the rural county of Herefordshire - famous for cider and bulls. That isn’t where the similarities end; I also lost my long-term, on-off-on-off-on-again boyfriend, Malcolm McClure, in a biking accident when he was just twenty-four years old. Hence Godcorp was born. After Malcolm died the questions that plague Evie were the ones that haunted me. Where had he gone? Why? How could I get him back? I’d never felt anything like it - the gut-wrenching pain and absolute, world-crashing, everything-I’ve-ever-known-is-wrong disbelief. I couldn’t accept he was gone. Everything screamed: `Mistake!` I began to wonder about the reality of the afterlife and Heaven. I mean, think about it, such an operation would have to be immense, and what kind of organisation that big never makes mistakes? The idea of Heaven as a massive corporate and Evie Stone’s quest to bring Malcolm back home was born. Outside of being a writer I work, as Evie does, for a specialist IT sales agency. I sell business analytics solutions into the major UK banks and retailers, and have always had the jammiest streak in the world. It serves me well. I’m also a qualified NLP practitioner, Reiki Master and I’ve got the highest score on Bop-it of anyone I know. I got through to the screen test for BBC’s The Apprentice a few years back and am now glad I didn’t make it, as I’d never have written Godcorp. I’d say the book is my biggest achievement. It’s just a shame Malcolm will never read it.