Josephine Moon's Blog, page 4

Writing Services Menu Update!

I’ve had the pleasure of working with some developing writers of late and have subsequently updated my services menu to get writers the help they need.

Important updates:

I have reduced the price of The First Three Chapters packageI have added in your synopsis for review.I have added in a new ‘First Fifty Pages‘ package.

The first 50 pages of your manuscript is a commonly requested amount to submit to a publisher, agent or literary competition. The set-up of a story is so important.

Your first chapter is important. Is it enough to keep people reading?

The first three chapters are maybe even more crucial. By the end of the first three chapters, you’ll either have hooked your reader or not. If it’s a literary VIP reading it, those first three chapters are the most you’ll get out of their attention before they give up.

And the first fifty pages? If the VIP has read all the way to that point, they’re interested. If the first fifty pages just keep on getting better, that’s gold. If the first fifty pages has them dying to know what will happen next, even better.

If you have been lucky enough to be invited to send the first 50 pages in, you don’t want to waste that shot.

This Package is For You If:You are getting ready to submit your work to a literary agent, a publisher, a grant application, or a competition.
Your ‘First 50 Pages’ Package Includes:your opportunity to send me the first 50 pages of the book you are working on AND a one-page synopsis, for specialised feedbackmy reading, preparing and reporting timea Zoom meeting (up to 60 mins) with me so that we can go through the feedback togetheran emailed copy (after our online meeting) of my notes, feedback and suggestions**a mountain of useful information to help you take the next right stepscomplimentary digital assets and/or working resources, delivered to your inboxlifetime membership* to my private coaching/mentoring/assessment email list, with exclusive content for that groupFREE access to my e-course on how to find the time to writelifetime invitation* to a quarterly Zoom call for all my students, where you can ask me anything, and also (if you want to) connect with other writers who might be writing similar stories to you. (Writing buddies are the best! You might find one here.) GST, processing fees and printing costs

Your Investment: $550

Do You Love Bookmarks?

I’ve been doing a spot of designing lately and I am making myself a range of bookmarks, one for each of my books and then probably some for my favourite books of all time. If you love them, as stickers (just leave the backing in place to use as a bookmark) or a magnet.

Why Does Autistic Representation Matter in Books and on Our Screens? This is Why.

A lot of people (Autistic, mainly) have messaged me to say that The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose made them cry. Sobbed, even. This surprised me, honestly, because that’s not the vision of the book I hold in my head. Overall, I consider it an uplifting book (as do the reviewers). There are some painful moments in the book (it wouldn’t be a story if there weren’t) and many of them were painful for me to write. But as is my style as an author, I surround the pain with life affirming goodness so as to stay on the side of ‘complex’ rather than ‘distressing’. But I get it now, the pull towards tears, because this happened.

Yesterday, neurodivergent social worker, Joanne Hatchard, of Better Being Me – Neurodivergent Family Therapist posted this reel to Instagram and Facebook and it made me cry. Why? Because she was able to articulate so clearly why I wanted to write this story and why Autistic representation matters and our community is so hungry for it.

You see, we (the Autistic community) know there are many books out there with neurodivergent main characters. We know it because we can see it and we can see the signposting that the author has built into it, whether they are aware of it or not (I have definitely written Autistic characters into my past novels without realising it), and sometimes these books are massive bestsellers. Global bestsellers. Oh, the irony of readers loving these “quirky”, “socially awkward”, “different” characters on the page… but not so much in real life, a point mega children’s author, Sally Rippin, also makes in her non-fiction book, Wild Things: How We Learn to Read and What Can Happen if We Don’t. Some examples that come to mind include Anne Shirley (overwhelmingly cited by the Autistic community as a classic Autistic/ADHD character) and Pippi Longstocking.

But my Autistic community is not benefiting from this because we have not been identified. It bites, frankly.

In a perfect world, we would never have to identify or explain anything to anyone. We would all simply be accepted exactly as we are and when we ask for help we get it, without having to justify why. Sadly, the world is not there yet.

We need to start identifying Autistic and ADHD characters on the page. We need to explicitly connect their wonderful qualities, curiosity, bravery, compassion and empathy with the word Autistic because if we are deliberating cloaking Autistic characters under euphemisms (of usually narrow, stereotypical traits) of “walking to the beat of their own drum” and “fixated on routine” and such we are shaming Autistic people.

If we don’t name it, we shame it.

Joanne’s amazing words capture it in 90 seconds. Please, click the image to hear her say the words so many of us are craving.

A short story of Frances and me

A wee story… They say you should always be wary of meeting your idols. When I was a journalism student (back in the 90s…) Frances Whiting was my absolute inspiration. Mum and I would each take turns reading Fran’s weekend article, variously chuckling or tearing up, and every time I thought “this is what I want to write”. Human stories, character stories, small town stories, big emotion stories.

Jo and Frances at Brisbane Square Library

Sadly for me, there are very few opportunities to make a lifelong career in journalism (especially that kind) but that wasn’t the path for me. I took my skills and I did write all those types of stories… just really, really long versions in novels

Frances and Jo at Annie’s Books at Peregian

When Fran’s book, Walking on Trampolines, came into the world, I rushed to Annie’s Books on Peregian to see Fran in person (sorry Fran, that photo is a truly awful one of both of us… luckily we just keep getting better with age ). This was the moment for me to meet my writing idol and inspiration! Was she just as warm and interested and focused as she was in the paper? Gasp!

Of course she was.

Years later, I attended the Burdekin Writers Festival and was lucky enough to be billeted with a wonderful host family AND Fran AND Susan Johnson! My gosh… I was such the new kid on the block compared with these two veteran writers. Were they good to me? Exceptionally. Did they let me eat more than my fair share of homemade cheesy potato cakes each morning? Yep. And did Fran offer me targeted fashion/style advice that neither shamed nor belittled me but actually made me feel more empowered? YES, she did. (And anyone who knows me knows I NEED fashion/style advice because I live in yoga pants and horse t-shirts.)

Last week, while touring for my 10th book with Phoenix Rose, Fran hosted me in conversation and I have to say that more than once I thought… wow, maybe I’m finally a real author now…

Thank you, Fran, for the warm welcome, taking care of my heart, and allowing me a beautiful full circle moment. You and your writing make the world a better place, reaching more people than you know. x

Frances Whiting and Josephine Moon in Conversation about Phoenix Rose

So, fun fact: when I was a journalism student at Griffith University, Frances Whiting was my writing idol. Her warmth, her humour and her focus on people’s stories was exactly the thing that attracted me to writing the most. I didn’t get to have a job or career that allowed me to write like that for newspapers, but it was those same qualities that I honed and carried over into my fiction works.

Years ago, Frances and I were once billeted into a home in north Queensland, where we’d gone to be part of a writers festival, and she gave me some awesome clothing advice. (Because, I most definitely AM the person who needs styling clarity.) And because she is Frances, it didn’t feel like a criticism, it felt like, oh, wow, I wish I’d known that before — thank you!

This week, I get to sit down and have a chat with her about my new book, about road trip stories and animals and neurodivergence, and it kind of makes me feel like, ten books down, I might finally be An Author…

I’m so looking forward to this. If you’re in Brisbane, you can come along too. It’s a free event but you must book online here.

Hope to see you there.

Orion Kelly and I Sat Down for a Chat

I had a great chat with YouTube star, Orion Kelly (That Autistic Guy), about what terrible travellers we are, late autism diagnosis, writing neurodivergent characters, planting seeds of change through The Arts… and more! You can watch it now and marvel (as I do) at how much I talk with my hands…

The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose: Out Now

Today is the day that The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose lands out in the world for your to read. And to celebrate, I’m just going to leave you with this quote that my publicist just sent me and I have to say it has made my day.

Josephine is proving to be the go-to voice for warm, funny and vibrant stories – and this novel about a woman who is tasked with driving a car load of eccentric animals from Tasmania to Brisbane is an escapist’s dream!

Woman’s Day

If you’d like a copy, here’s a few online options:
QBD
Booktopia (signed copies available here!)
Dymocks
Amazon
Angus and Robertson
Collins

And more here….

Author Interview with Amanda Hampson and The Tea Ladies

Hands up who loves cosy mysteries. Me! And especially if they involve tea ladies?? (Me, again!) This week we have Amanda Hampson in The Hot Seat, sharing the inside story on her new release, The Tea Ladies, which is out this week! You can catch our chat here. Amanda’s book is out now.

Leonie Dawson in The Hot Seat

Catch-up TV. Have you met or heard of Leonie Dawson? She’s a local (to me!) Sunshine Coast creative and wealth-creation entrepreneur who makes her living working just 10 hours a week. True story! She’s a spicy, generous, big-hearted, swear-bear soul who gives away loads of her knowledge for free and rest for not much at all! I’ve been a big fan girl for over a decade now and was thrilled to sit down for a good old chat about her perennially popular ‘My Brilliant Year’ workbook (but it’s actually fun). She did want me to give you a language warning, though, just so you’re prepared She’s one of a kind and that’s why her fans love her. Buckle up

You Asked: The How and Why I Lost 30 Kilos of Body Weight… It’s Almost Definitely Not What You Think.

Many people have been commenting on and asking me about my weight loss. People in town in the shops I regularly visit. People who haven’t seen me for a while. Friends who’ve noticed things changing in the photos that I post to Instagram or Facebook. And they have a lot of questions. (The funny thing is that I have been losing weight steadily for 7 years now but people have only recently begun to get whiplash when they see me.

Essentially, they want to know how I lost the weight. So, I’ve written a comprehensive answer, because it’s not been an easy question to respond to in one line while standing in the checkout queue at IGA.

For me, it’s not terribly interesting that I have shed weight; the far more interesting question is about how the extra weight got there in the first place. I think people probably have a narrow judgement about that, presuming it was from too much food, lack of exercise and a sedentary job. The more interesting answer, though, is that at no time have I consciously changed my diet (either while gaining weight or while losing it), nor have I ever embarked on a new exercise routine to lose weight. Nope, none of that.

I am someone who experienced two miserable, painful, crushing years of disordered eating and, once through it and out the other side, I have never once allowed myself to manipulate food or exercise for any specific weight-related purpose. I cannot do it. I will not do it. It’s like being a recovered addict, I guess. I simply cannot ever go back to anything that resembles food/exercise control, portion sizes, calorie counting, weigh-ins, tape measures or anything like that. For me, diet culture and weight fixation is triggering and deeply uncomfortable. I am always interested in a loved one’s health, of course, but not the perseveration over ‘weight’.

Okay, back to me. What has actually happened? (You can scroll to the bottom for the TLDR section if you don’t like details.)

Well, this goes back a long way (more than thirty years), back to when I was fifteen. That was the year my autoimmune disease began. It’s called ankylosing spondylitis. Like all autoimmune conditions, it’s rather nasty. Its aim is to “remodel” my spine, which means: damage it, break it down, inflame it, fuse it where it shouldn’t be fused, grow bits where there shouldn’t be bits, cause terrible sciatica, fuse the sacroiliac joints… and for kicks and giggles it expands its territory to include other joints and soft tissues as well. Because medical ‘experts’ used to believe that women didn’t get ankylosing spondylitis (gosh… that gender prejudice is an exhausting and repetitive tale of medical woe), I was dismissed. I was gaslighted by doctors for years, told I must simply be depressed, signed up for thousands of dollars of ‘essential wellness’ tools, or told by new age healers that I had chosen this for myself and only I could make the choice to be well.

Sigh…

Then, at forty years of age, a good (female) GP referred me to a different (female) rheumatologist who quickly realised what was going on. Scans were ordered and by now, the damage to my spine from a quarter of a century of this rampantly unchecked autoimmune disease was so irrefutable that I finally received a correct diagnosis and, importantly, the correct medication.

You see, because I had never been diagnosed correctly, over the decades, I had been given all manner of pain modulating medication which, you guessed it, made me put on loads of weight. One of those medications took me four months to wean myself from due to the horrendous withdrawal side effects. It was a nightmare.

Now, The Too-Long-Don’t-Read (TLDR) Summary of My 30kg Weight Loss Story

I had a serious auto-immune condition that started when I was 15 but I was misdiagnosed for 25 years.In those 25 years, I required more and more pain medication to control the damage that was being done to my spine and body. These medications made me put on weight, made me dopey and sleepy and messed with my brain.At 40 years of age, I finally got the correct diagnosis and importantly the correct medication. This (practically magical) fortnightly injection does not make me put on weight and it improves my spine function and mobility so I can be naturally more active.When I stopped taking the wrong medication, I began to lose weight, with no specific intention (because I refuse to ever again be controlled by thoughts of weight and weight loss). I lost roughly a 1kg a month consistently for over a year. Interestingly, for a while after discovering I am neurodivergent, I lost more weight (again, at about 1kg a month) for some time. I have no explanation for this but (half) jokingly refer to it as my ‘Autistic weight loss’, perhaps the result of shedding decades of pain and shame from not knowing my true self. You never know…Things got twisty again last year when, for several months, I lost my appetite and couldn’t look at food and felt like I had morning sickness all the time and generally just felt I couldn’t cope. I was also hysterically thirsty (I literally couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t swallow!) and exhausted and I was dropping weight. I had tests to rule out diabetes, iron deficiency and liver function, which were all normal. Both myself and and the GP put it down to the side effects from having started ADHD medication. But we were wrong.When I saw a different GP about these symptoms (as I was worried no one was taking them seriously enough), she suggested trialling low-dose hormone therapy… and just like magic, all those symptoms went away.I have been eating as usual now since December last year (I no longer feel sick and am not ridiculously thirsty) and my weight has been stable for months now.

That’s it in a nutshell.

You asked… I’ve answered.

Jo X

(P.S. I have deliberately not provided before and after pics because, as stated, that kind of culture makes me feel queasy and triggers parts of me I’d rather not invoke.)