Jeevani Charika and Rhoda Baxter

Hi, I’m Jeev

I write contemporary rom coms and women’s fiction under the names Jeevani Charika and Rhoda Baxter.

Back in the early 2000s, when I commuted into London every day, I read romance novels and wished there were more books about women like me, who wouldn’t know a designer shoe if it came and bit me.

Besides which, where were all the nice men? The sort that rely on wit and charm rather than money and biceps.

I now write the sort of books I wanted to read … and am lucky enough to find publishers who want to publish them!

So why the two names? Well… I’m British Sri-Lankan and the first book I wrote was about a bunch of middle class Sri Lankan people. I couldn’t find a home for it for ages(even though I got some very nice rejection notes). 

The next book I wrote was a rom com with white main characters in it. That found a publisher within a year.

I chose to use a pen name for those books, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that my real name is difficult to spell and difficult to pronounce and marks me out as not white. I thought at the time (and still do), that this would make it more difficult to find readers and/or a publisher.

So when I finally got a publication deal for a book with a Sri Lankan heroine. So it seemed only right for that book to be under my difficult to spell, difficult to pronounce real name.

For the record, it’s pronounced Jeev-uh-nee. But I prefer to be called ‘Jeev’.

In real life, I have a DPhil in microbiolgy and work with intellectual property for universities. In fact, my pen name (Rhoda Baxter) is based on the bacteria I did my DPhil work on, Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

You can usually find me wittering on about writing, Lego or cake (sometimes all three at the same time) here on my blog, on Facebook or Bluesky.

My books have been nominated for prizes and my articles have appeared on various websites, including USA Today. I have a YouTube channel where I show authors how to use Canva to market their books.

My latest books How Can I Resist You (written as Jeevani Charika) and Christmas With The Secret Tycoon (written as Rhoda Baxter) are available to buy now.

I am a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Society of Authors. I’m also a member of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, but that’s probably not terribly relevant here.

If you want to hear about new books before they come out, please join my reader group newsletter.  (Or you can follow me on Amazon or Bookbub if that’s how you roll).

ction

5 things I love

• Lego – I tend to just build the sets as they come, rather than be wildly creative with them. I sometimes take photos of Lego stormtroopers doing silly things. 
• Cake – when I was a student, I used to bake for stress relief. My husband’s usual reaction to finding fresh baking when he gets home is to say ‘oh no, what’s wrong?’. Now that I’m older, I don’t get to each as much cake as I’d like. 
• Korean dramas – I watched Crash Landing On You and got completely hooked. I love that the romance storylines are such a slow burn. I also like that they are swoony, but not spicy. This is what I aim for in my books.
• Reading – I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a child. At some point in my life I forgot this and became someone who watched telly instead. This was not good for my mental health. So now I read every night before bed. I have fewer nightmares.
• Nandos chicken thighs (hot) – I like spicy food and I like chicken, so…

5 Things I don’t like (hate is too strong a word)

• Lime pickle.- Or any pickle really. I also don’t like the smell of vinegar much. I don’t understand people who like pickled gerkins. Why? Why??
• Exercise – Seriously, it hurts. Now that I’ve reached the age of being able to injure myself simply by sitting still, exercise is probably dangerous as well.
• Conflict (in real life) – That’s not to say I don’t face up to it. I just really, really dislike it.
• Chocolate orange – I know, right? I loooove chocolate. I am ambivalent towards orange. Put them together and it’s an instant NOPE.
• Things that make me anxious – Given that I’m generally an anxious person (most writers are!), I can’t get away from this one. Oh well. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.