More about Neva…
Neva Andrews published her first Jo Barkley book, Wild Horse Summer, in the year 2000. It received a 5 Star Review from Midwest Book Reviews. Two more books followed in 2001 and 2002. The Secret of Tabby Mountain received a 5 Star Review from GW Book Reviewers, and A Mule Will Do received honorable mention in the 11th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. School and public librarians have welcomed the Jo Barkley books. Some teachers have used Wild Horse Summer in their classrooms and invited Neva to speak to their students. Neva belongs to Colorado Writers Fellowship, American Christian Romance Writers, and the Brighton Writers Group, a local critique group.
Neva can’t remember a time before she loved horses. Growing up on a small farm during the Great Depression, she not only rode but also drove horses on farm equipment. When the family didn’t own a riding horse, she rode work horses, at one time finding that even a mule would do. She cherishes memories of the summer she spent in the saddle riding range for her uncle
Her interest in writing goes back almost as far as her love of horses. When given a choice in sixth grade, she wrote a travelogue of the world history studied that year instead of taking the final exam. Many evenings of writing with pencil and paper by the light of a kerosene lamp paid off with an A+. About that same time, she began entering the American Legion Essay Contest each year. One year her essay placed second in the state. In high school, she wrote a ranch romance that garnered another A+. In college, Neva took one semester of Journalism. She dreamed of becoming a newspaper reporter until she heard about an axe murder only a few houses from her parent’s home in Portland, Oregon.
After she married Ed, Neva’s writing took a back seat while she reared a girl and four boys and served with her husband as a missionary for forty-five years. In 1991, she enrolled in a writing correspondence course and began seeing some of her articles in print in 1993. About this time, she began attending a writers’ conference every year and studying how-to books to hone her writing skills.
Neva attributes her successes to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whom she has loved and served most of her life, and to her supportive husband, Ed. Family is very important to her and when she’s not writing she may be found playing with grandchildren or working among her flowers.