Not every writing career begins with a five-year plan. For Jacksonville author and illustrator A.N. Cook, it began on the drive home, exhausted, kids in the car, when a first paragraph arrived in her head and refused to leave. She wrote it down. The career launched. It has not stopped since.
Cook writes under the name A.N. Cook and publishes across genres, from picture books to adult fantasy, under her own indie imprint on Amazon. With 11 books to her name as of 2022 and more in the pipeline, she describes herself as a family writer, someone whose catalog spans young readers and adults alike, with fantasy at the center of it all.
Her signature work is the Pharian Chronicles, a completed four-book fantasy series following Brianna, a princess born different from her Pharian people, as she navigates a coming-of-age journey filled with magic, mythology, pirates, and the challenge of leading a community while standing apart from it. Cook has compared the series’ spirit to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and Pirates of the Caribbean, and the full series is available on Kindle, paperback, and hardcover through Amazon and Books-A-Million. Her most recent release, Nightmare Race, arrived in 2025.
What makes Cook’s story particularly compelling for North Florida writers is the practical path she has carved. She is a full-time nurse who illustrates her own book covers, has redesigned her fantasy series branding three times to get it right, and credits two habits above all others for her consistency: scheduling daily writing time as a non-negotiable appointment, and editing far past the point where most writers would stop.
Cook is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a regular at the Amelia Island Book Festival. She markets primarily through vendor events and word of mouth, and is currently exploring Substack as her next platform. She is candid about the challenges of self-promotion and the unease many independent authors feel about AI and the unauthorized use of their work in training data.
View A N Cook’s Interview on Jolenes Book and Writers Talk
On June 11, 2026, Cook joined Jolene MacFadden on Jolene’s Book and Writers Talk, the weekly podcast produced by Southern Dragon Publishing Services that features authors and publishing professionals from across North Florida and beyond. The full conversation is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Pandora.
Find A.N. Cook at aileencook.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
A Note from our Editor
We would encourage any North Florida Writers who would like to submit a Guest Post on our online magazine or be a featured author on the North Florida Writers Tour website then please get in touch using their CONTACT US form. Our other Online Magazine called “Webs and Blogs for Writers” does featured articles on authors not in our area CLICK HERE TO READ. For those who wish to be a guest on Jolene’s Book and Writer’s Talk podcast visit the Southern Dragon Publishing Information page.
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