Laura Jane Smith began writing seriously in 2019 when she took early retirement after a 34-year career in education. She lives in Perthshire in Scotland where she enjoys gardening, walking, theatre and going to the cinema, as well as cycling and cross-stitching.
Her interest in writing came not just from her own reading but also from the process of teaching others about reading, writing and understanding the written word. The ideas for her first novel came from her experiences in education and travelling in Europe, as well as her enjoyment of a well-told psychological thriller. She focuses on human behaviour and individual motivation when faced with life-changing events and difficult decisions. Relationships are at the heart of the novels. The decisions made by the characters and the relationships they develop drive the plot.
The inspiration for this first novel, Listen To Mother, came initially from a trip to Florence in 2011. However, the main inspiration was a desire for others to experience the world from the viewpoint of someone with high-functioning autism whose struggles with the reality of life result in his joining a world in the shadows.