Jody Overend is a Canadian novelist known for comic fiction and light mystery themes. She is best known for the Bessie series and for her middle-aged romantic comedy UpHill (2011). Her recent novel Frozen Goldfish (2025) continues her interest in stories about reinvention.
Jody Overend began her career as an advertising copywriter in Toronto during the 1970s and 1980s. She later said that she had long wished to write novels and added that she felt “ready for a new life”. She left Canada for a planned three-month stay in Mexico.
Jody remained for three years. During that time, she worked on her first novel and taught English to young children. She also met her future husband, Charlie, a seafarer from Alaska who spent his winters in Puerto Vallarta.
She returned to writing after her move back to Canada. UpHill appeared in 2011 after fifteen years of work. Overend based the story on her time in Vancouver, where she worked as a real estate assistant while her husband was at sea. She drew on past colleagues from her advertising years and used these figures as material for her fiction.
Her Bessie series began with a recurring dream about a teenage girl in Heaven. Overend wrote down the stories that formed from these dreams. She added ideas about angels, past lives and pets that return across time.
The first two books were Bessie: Lost & Found and Bessie: Life & Death. She later rewrote the series, setting it in the early 1970s. Next Chapter published the new trilogy under the titles Missing Bessie, Surviving Bessie and Forgiving Bessie. She noted that legal issues required new titles and covers.
Frozen Goldfish (2025) is her most recent novel. It follows Hazel Thistle, a housewife who has lived in one small town for her entire life. Hazel became pregnant in high school and remained in the same home after marriage. Her husband, Marshall, offered charm but little support. In midlife, she decides to leave her old world.
She boards a secret flight to Puerto Vallarta to start again. She meets a group of expats, a kind son who backs her plans, and a Mexican man with green eyes who alters her view of herself.
Jody Overend has said that her fiction grows from long experience and brief moments of sharp insight.
Photo credit: jodyoverend.com
Jody Overend began her career as an advertising copywriter in Toronto during the 1970s and 1980s. She later said that she had long wished to write novels and added that she felt “ready for a new life”. She left Canada for a planned three-month stay in Mexico.
Jody remained for three years. During that time, she worked on her first novel and taught English to young children. She also met her future husband, Charlie, a seafarer from Alaska who spent his winters in Puerto Vallarta.
She returned to writing after her move back to Canada. UpHill appeared in 2011 after fifteen years of work. Overend based the story on her time in Vancouver, where she worked as a real estate assistant while her husband was at sea. She drew on past colleagues from her advertising years and used these figures as material for her fiction.
Her Bessie series began with a recurring dream about a teenage girl in Heaven. Overend wrote down the stories that formed from these dreams. She added ideas about angels, past lives and pets that return across time.
The first two books were Bessie: Lost & Found and Bessie: Life & Death. She later rewrote the series, setting it in the early 1970s. Next Chapter published the new trilogy under the titles Missing Bessie, Surviving Bessie and Forgiving Bessie. She noted that legal issues required new titles and covers.
Frozen Goldfish (2025) is her most recent novel. It follows Hazel Thistle, a housewife who has lived in one small town for her entire life. Hazel became pregnant in high school and remained in the same home after marriage. Her husband, Marshall, offered charm but little support. In midlife, she decides to leave her old world.
She boards a secret flight to Puerto Vallarta to start again. She meets a group of expats, a kind son who backs her plans, and a Mexican man with green eyes who alters her view of herself.
Jody Overend has said that her fiction grows from long experience and brief moments of sharp insight.
Photo credit: jodyoverend.com
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