Q&A with children's author, Rebecca Fraser!

​Rebecca Fraser writes fiction for children and adults. Her work has won, been shortlisted for, and honourably mentioned for numerous awards including the Aurealis, Australian Shadows, Ditmars, and Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor’s Writing Award. Her publications include three middle grade novels, a collection of short fiction, and over sixty short stories, poems, and articles in various anthologies, journals, and magazines.

Visit Rebecca online at rebeccafraser.com

​1. Your latest book is the wonderful, magical fantasy middle-grade novel 'Jonty's Unicorn'. 
Can you please share how this story originated and what was your process of writing it from manuscript to published book? 
Thanks, Brenton. I’m so pleased you enjoyed Jonty’s Unicorn!
 
The idea of a unicorn entering a horse race galloped into my mind while taking a shower one day (the birthplace of many a plot and character!) and simply refused to leave.

When I’d worked out what the internal and external conflicts were for protagonist, Jonty, and her accidental unicorn steed, Rose, the rest of the story took shape around them…I just never realised how high their stakes would be.
 
Jonty’s Unicorn actually started out as a 10,000 word rhyming verse novel. After feedback from publishers, who loved the concept but felt it wasn’t commercial enough in its current format, I rewrote it as a prose novel, and it was picked up by IFWG Publishing, who specialise in speculative, young adult and middle grade fiction, and have been supporters of my work in the past. (IFWG Publishing released my middle grade urban fantasy adventure Curtis Creed and the Lore of the Ocean in 2018, and a collection of short fiction Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract in 2021).
 
I’m a massive fan of speculative fiction, and Jonty’s Unicorn is the type of story I loved to read as a child (and still do). It was a genuine pleasure to write.

 
2. What is your general writing process, and rewriting process, like when creating your terrific stories? You write nonfiction as well. Does the process differ depending on which book you are working on? 
As far as a daily writing routine, work and family commitments don’t always see me sit at the keyboard every day, but I still try to do something 'writerly' every day, even if it’s not all about the word count. This can involve anything from thinking about my characters, or working through plot devices (I find the shower and daily walks the best time for this), reading the works of others, or checking in with my writing community.

When I have a writing day, I find I’m most productive in the morning, so I might start at 8:00am and go through until 2:00pm. Writing at night time doesn’t seem to work for me – my brain turns to marshmallow around 7:00pm!

I’m a plotter, who allows myself to ‘pants it’ when the plotting doesn’t go to plan. I do like to have a framework to write to though, even if it’s just knowing the beginning and ending, and letting the middle resolve itself between the two.
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I give myself a self-determined deadline with longer works, and aim to work towards that…but it often makes a whooshing sound as it goes sailing past! I’ve learned to be more forgiving of myself when this happens.

I really love the rewriting process. I write relatively clean drafts (or so I’m told), but there’s nothing quite like going over your work with a reader’s eye after the manuscript has had time to rest for several weeks. I pick up so many things that lack either continuity, sense, or reality!

In my previous life I was a freelance content and copy writer (I’m a Library Officer now). I do still write non fiction articles though, although they’re more niche-based, rather than the diversity of industries I worked with as a copy writer.
I tend to treat my words and paragraphs as building blocks when it comes to non-fiction articles. I keep my angle, research, audience, and word count in sharp focus, and begin scaffolding the piece around those parameters.
 
3. Is there one thing, or a few things, you know now about the writing & publishing world that you wished you knew when you began?
I truly wish I had started taking my writing seriously earlier. I always knew I wanted to write, and dabbled with poetry, song lyrics, and short stories all throughout my junior years, through my teens, and then into early adulthood.
 
It wasn’t really until I was in my late twenties though that I felt my life was settled enough to believe I could make my dream a reality. I sold my first story in 2007, and the feeling of validation that came with that was galvanising.
 
Now I write novels, and I know how long the process can be from writing, polishing, submitting, waiting…waiting…waiting! I have so many ideas, and it feels like so little time.
 
I would encourage anyone who harbours a dream to write to seize it with both hands now. Learn your craft, experiment with your messy first drafts, connect with your community...you’ll never regret the time you invest in your career, even if it feels like life is a bit of a mess at the time. (Spoiler: life is pretty much always messy)! 😊
 
4. Your touching, warm, heart-filled middle-grade novel 'Sea Glass' was very popular last year. It even was shortlisted for the Readings Children's Prize! What was the experience writing Sea Glass like and what was the embracing positive response once published like for you? 
Thank you, Brenton! Sea Glass means a lot to me. It’s the little book that defied traditional word counts for commercial middle grade fiction yet went on to enjoy a place on numerous school and library book clubs, a longlisting for Adaptable: Turning page to Screen, and selection for the QLD and SA Premier’s Reading Lists, as well as the amazing Reading’s Children’s Prize recognition.

Can you believe the first official positive response I received actually came from you via your thoughtful and uplifting review in Books+Publishing! I remember being too scared to open the link when my publisher first sent it to me, and then nearly sobbing with relief when I read your generous praise.

Sea Glass started as a procrastination project during lockdown. (I’m from Melbourne, so our lockdown was five times the fun – ha ha)!
As well as home schooling and working from home, I was supposed to be working on a young adult manuscript – a big sprawling genre-blending space western epic, but with each passing day my creativity seemed to dimmish further and no words were coming.

I’m so grateful my 5km ‘lockdown zone’ included the beach, and there’d be many days when my son and I would head down to the beach for our one hour of exercise, and I’d always be beachcombing for sea glass.
Those daily beach walks revived me. Characters began to leave their footprints in the sand beside me—a city-dwelling girl, and her estranged grandfather who lived on a remote east Gippsland coastline. Their characters and plotlines grew with each ebb and flow of the tide, and when their voices grew from a whisper to a roar in my head, I knew it was time to commit their story to paper.

I’m very grateful to Wombat Books for their enthusiasm and vision for this book. And I’m so appreciative of the lovely emails I receive from readers, both young and old, who have been moved by Cailin and Grandpa’s story. As a writer, it means so very much.


5. Can you share if there's anything in the pipeline? What is next for you? 
I have a junior fiction novel Skippy Blackfeet being released with Wombat Books next year which is super exciting, and I’m currently working on a YA novel for a 2025 release, which was contracted on a pitch.
 
I’m itching to start work on a new contemporary middle grade novel which has been bubbling away in my brain for the past few months, and I’m also very keen to write a verse novel for the same readership. I’m attending a workshop through Writers Victoria with none other than Karen Comer in the coming weeks, and I’m very excited to learn some tips and strategies about the verse form from someone whose work I have such admiration for.
 
I’m shopping around another middle grade manuscript at the moment – an adventure eco survival thriller – and my wish for 2024 is that it finds a respectable home.