Linley Jones lives in Half Moon Bay, Auckland, close enough to the marina to keep an eye on the family yacht Campari but with enough land (even though some of it is ‘hillside’) to satisfy the absolute need for gardening. While Les plants native trees (twelve kauri during COVID-19 lockdown) Linley adds colour with Vireya, hibiscus and orchids. Whether she is sailing or gardening, her mind is always on the next piece of writing. Her short stories have been placed first in the Graeme Lay Short Story Award twice (2011, 2013), the Page and Blackmore/Top of the South Short Story Competition (2015), Heartland Short Story Competition (2005) and Franklin National Short Fiction (2019). Most have placed high in national competitions. She has been published in Takahe and Horizons. In 2007, Linley Jones was awarded a NZSA Mentorship funded by Creative NZ, to work with David Hill, and in 2014, she won a place on the NZSA Assessment Programme with Jillian Sullivan. Her earlier publications include: Net Navigator, Macmillan, Australia (2007) – the history of sea navigation Making Waves, Scholastic NZ (2008) – A family sailing trip from NZ to Tonga turns from a great adventure into a hideous nightmare On the Edge, AM Publishing (2013) –junior fiction adventure set in NZ, tramping, sailing abseiling and dealing with Russian orchid thieves Apple Tea and Camel Pee, AM Publishing (2015) – a selection of short stories for adults Sophie in a Pickle, AM Publishing (2017) – a children’s picture book.
