Writers' News - The craft ark

	The craft ark Freelance craft writer Lynne Garner, Bishops Stortford, has written seven craft-related books and for twenty magazines over the past eight years but nothing prepared her for the work involved in her new venture. She and her partner, John Williams, have devised and set up a new subscription-based craft website aimed at the hobby crafter www.thecraftark.com 'The amount of work could be likened to writing four craft books in six months,' says Lynne who wanted 100 projects in place when the site went live. 'I've not only had to write many of the craft projects but much of the copy supporting the website too.'
	A teacher by profession, Lynne's first foray into craft writing was in 1997. She approached, amongst others, Popular Crafts magazine and was delighted when they asked her to write a regular three-page column for them. 'Looking back I made a lot of mistakes,' laughs Lynne, 'but I learned as I went along and taking a writing course helped enormously.'

This popular and growing genre spawns new magazines all the time. Craft Essentials and Simply Stamping are two recent arrivals and according to Lynne it helps to be 'a bit of a jack-of-all-trades'. She often writes under a pseudonym and occasionally produces what she calls 'coffee table pieces' such as Crafts of Egypt, when inspired by her travels.

Her books range from Native American Bead Weaving (Guild of Master Craftsmen), African Crafts (British Museum Press), The Little Book of Dough (Featherstone Press) to ones on rubber stamping and candle making.

In the middle of this busy time Lynne has also managed to get her first picture book accepted by publishers, Breslich & Foss.

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