Rebecca Jessen's Blog, page 8

First Page Proofs

Last month I received the first set of page proofs for my verse novelGap.There are so many small steps that make up the whole process and it’s such a thrill to see the manuscript slowly form into a book for others to enjoy. I have also had the good fortune of choosing from three excellent cover concepts and settled on a favourite which I absolutely love. Closer to the release date I’ll sneak a preview of the cover.

Interview in February 2014 WQ Magazine

If you are a member of Queensland Writers Centre, this month you can find an interview with me by fellow author Kathy George. In the interview I talk about winning the 2013 Queensland Literary Award for Best Emerging Author for my verse novelGap. I also talk about the early beginnings of the manuscript,the inspiration behind it, how the win changed things for me and some of my future writing goals.

‘I first met Bec, now 25, somewhere between 2009 and 2010 whenwe were both studying creative wri...

Water Street

You know time’s gone by too fast when a nineties song finishes playing on the radio and they call it a classic. And when I think of the nineties I think about sharing a bunk with my older brother in a cockroach infested house on Water Street. We would stay up til late every night and listen to the radio, hoping our favourite songs would come on so we could record them on the tape deck.

When our mum and stepdad went out on the weekends, my brother and I would go in to the back shed and look for...

The Family Files: Older Brother

When I go home to Sydney to visit for Christmas my brother picks me up from the airport. I get a late flight because it’s all I can afford but Mumdoesn’tlike to drive at night. She says her eyesight isn’t what it used to be and I guess that’s like a lot of things.

My brother drives through the back streets to avoid the tolls and we’re on this one stretch so long I think he’s lost his way. There are no streetlights and a lot of greenery so I know we’re far from home. We don’t talk much on the d...

The Family Files: Mum

Mum spends a lot of time watching the weather channel, especially when they’ve predicted it to be the hottest day on record in Sydney – or there’s a tropical low coming down off the coast and they’re calling it ‘the big wet’. Mum’s life isn’t very exciting, so I can’t blame her for dramatising even the most unremarkable weather events. The problem is, when I go home to visit I get sucked in to it too.

Mum blames everything on the weather. She says things like ‘the car alarm went off the other...

The Family Files: My Little Sister

This is the first in my new ‘The Family Files’ series where I dish the dirt on my family members in a loving and sometimes nostalgic way.

Last Christmas I stayed with my family in Sydney for two weeks and realised how close my younger sister and I had become. When she’s not demanding my every waking moment she’s watching me sleep until I wake up and see her staring at me.

‘What are you doing?’ I say.

‘You’re cute when you sleep,’ she smiles. ‘You look like a mouse.’

I pull a face and tell her to...