Jen is a writer and
storyteller based in Dublin.
When not diving into fictional adventures she can be found running across mountains —slowly — questioning her life choices.
Alongside a professional career in the games industry, she has also dabbled in lecturing, acting, and filmmaking.
She once made a party game about puns, which probably tells you all you need to know.
A Bit About Jen
Writing.
Jen’s work spans poetry, personal essays, and fiction.
She has spent most of her life hopping between genres and styles, learning about the elements that make them unique. Beyond independent learning, this also included attending courses at a number of organisations such as: Big Smoke Writing Factory, The Gaiety School of Acting, Irish Film Academy, Filmbase and various festivals.
Her prose generally tend towards speculative fiction, strongly influenced by the structural elements of genre, with literary styling and focus.
Podcast.
If We Survive This is a fantasy book adventure podcast that Jen co-hosts with Ellie Berry of Tough Soles.
They took their 15 minute long voice notes to each other about fantasy books and formalised them into podcast episodes split in two parts, first a spoilers filled review, then a discussion on whether they would survive the challenges the characters face in the book.
The podcast is less frequent than either of them would like, but it's the trade off of spending so much time outdoors away from computers.
Jen is often the more critical reviewer, but as an advocate of being critical of the media you love, she does in fact love the books.
Outdoors.
In 2021 Jen took to the trails. It would be insincere to say she never looked back, she often did, questioning why she decided to do this to herself and, furthermore, how she considered this fun.
Trail running and hiking have brought her to the Peak District, the Pyrenees, and the Alps. Not to mention around Ireland and to the physios office.
She considers her greatest trail running achievement to be completing the VK (vertical kilometer) in Chamonix and not dying. We won't discuss the time it took.
Games.
Jen has spent most of her career in the games industry. Both board games and video games with experience in VR/AR immersive tech.
She has been involved in community organisation, serving as a board member of Imirt: The Irish Game Makers Association, lecturing in game design and narrative, and worked at a successful games technology company across a number of roles including project management and marketing lead.
Her interest in games has often been narrative first, exploring the unique techniques and abilities of the medium while taking lessons and inspiration from more mature storytelling techniques.
Jen once made a party game—Rampunctious— about making the worst possible puns.
While she rarely includes puns in her prose, they are often littered through every other piece of writing she creates. Rest assured, they are intentional.
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