You pitched the novel to NewSouth Books at an ASA Virtual Literary Speed Dating event. What was that experience like?

Even after all these years in the industry, and working without an agent for most of them, I learned a lot from the Pitch Perfect workshops. For the Speed Dating itself, I’m very glad that I practiced and refined my three minutes [for the pitch] with another writer I know who was also prepping.  

The Speed Dating wasn’t what I’d call enjoyable. It was nerve-wracking! But I did a good job of it because of the Pitch Perfect training. I didn’t hear anything for a while, but it was the end of the year, so I was prepared to wait. Both the publishers I pitched to had been politely interested so I really had no idea of what would happen next. When NewSouth Publishing (NSP) contacted me, I was thrilled. 

The publication experience with NSP has been excellent. The contract needed only a few changes, which I received advice on from the ASA’s contract service. At every point NSP has been very communicative, respectful, and eager to make the book as good as it can be. It’s a small team with a lot of expertise. The editing process was excellent; it is a much better manuscript for the work that Linda Funnel and I did on it, along with Paul O’Beirne and Elspeth Menzies. My publicist, Kat Rajwar, has been brilliant. The book itself has been beautifully produced: cover, the text design, the photographs.  I couldn’t be happier.

You’re also an ASA mentor. What made you want to act as a mentor, and why do you think mentorships are valuable opportunities for creatives?

I love working with writers and manuscripts. It’s incredibly gratifying for me to see writers grow their skills, their craft, their confidence, and self-knowledge. When the writers I’ve worked with get published, or win an award or competition, or simply understand their writing process and themselves as a writer more deeply, that’s very satisfying. And I want to contribute to Australian literature, and our industry. And so, when I left full time university teaching in 2021, I was thrilled to become an ASA mentor. 

Writers are drawn to mentoring for all sorts of reasons: sometimes they know they want to improve their technical skills, or need feedback on how to structure the work, or to discuss their characters in-depth, or to have another writer  care about their work and encourage them with the added plus of deadlines. Other times it’s to ask questions of themselves as writers; perhaps they’re self-censoring or hyper-critical in unhelpful ways. Working with a mentor ideally means you learn a lot about writing technique, and about your individual writing process. It is also time saving; receiving timely and astute feedback is priceless.

What inspired you to begin a writing career?

I didn’t think of myself as having a ‘career’ as a writer until maybe my second book was published. The notion of being a ‘Writer’ still scares me, because from one book to the next it can all come to a halt. Artists’ careers are always precarious.

When I started out I was writing because it was what I loved to do. The writer Sara Dowse knew me when I was a teenager, and recently told me that when I was thirteen I’d told her then that I wanted to be a writer. I have no memory of that!

Nothing’s changed. I love to write, whether it be fiction or nonfiction; I always have something underway. I love working with stories, with language, figuring out the puzzle that every manuscript is, making a contribution to  culture, to the world of ideas.

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your career?

Creatively, I wish I’d known writing takes practice, and that over time you do learn, and not to be so scared. Writing terrified me for years, and yet I was irrevocably drawn to it.

Which Australian authors and illustrators are influential for you?

There are many Australian writers whose individual books or whose portfolio of works have inspired me, often in ways that aren’t literal or even relate very specifically to what I’m writing.

I’ve learned a lot about craft and technique from mid-to late 20th century fiction writers such as Christina Stead, Elizabeth Harrower, Amy Witting, Frank Moorhouse, Robert Drewe. There’s individual works that have inspired me and given me a sense of what’s possible in terms of writing historical fiction, such as Christos Tsiolkas’s Dead Europe, Alexis Wright’s Plains of Promise, and Ursula Dubosarsky’s YA The Red Shoe.

While I was writing Raven Mother, reading works such as Raimon Gaita’s Romulus My Father, and Maria Tumarkin and Ellena Savage’s memoir-based nonfiction books was inspiring. I’d love to write YA, but don’t have the imagination for it, so am very envious of Tegan Bennet-Daylight’s Royals series. We have some great women’s fiction and genre writers too, such as Kate Morton and brilliant short story writers such as Margo Lanagan, Cate Kennedy, and Catherine McNamara. 

Why are you a member of the ASA?

The ASA is the reason Australian writers have fair publishing contracts with advance royalties as a norm, and PLR and ELR payments (now including for digital book borrowing). The ASA is the reason why our creative works are now protected — to the extent that they can be — from use by AI. We need to support our local industry — as writers, readers, book buyers, and library users. My ASA membership is an essential component of my support for our local industry.  It’s my essential ‘union’ affiliation.

At an individual level, it keeps me updated on industry news, publishing opportunities and it’s my go-to for professional training. I’ve always received great personal service when I’ve had a question that I needed help with.

Find out more about Jane Messer at janemesser.com and @janemesserauthor.