How often do you get to meet someone from Australia?
Not often. Right?!
Which is why this interview was especially fun—I got to ask Jessica a bunch of stuff I was just curious to learn that was totally unrelated to writing. HA!
I met Jessica at the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in September of 2018. We met the same night I met my roommate for the first time. Amanda (my roommate) was meeting up with one of her fabulous critique partners (Rebekah), who then introduced us to Jessica Kate. And voila, the rest is history. I was enchanted for the rest of the night’s conversations because, duh, she’s Australian. Accents are so fun! It also helps that Jessica has an out-going personality and a great sense of humor.
You’re going to LOVE reading this interview. Jessica is so fun and candid, it makes it easy to see who she truly is just by the way she responds in her answers. Enjoy!
Do people from Australia refer to themselves as being from “Down Under?”
I’m so glad you asked that! Not really, unless we’re talking to Americans!
What are some common phrases you’ve discovered that are different in Australia compared to America?
SO MANY words, guys. Australians have 4,300 shortened words in our vocabulary. So when I say: “I’m wearing my trackie dacks, flanny and pluggers to walk down to the servo ‘cos I heard the firies were on their way there and I wanna go sticky-beak,” Aussies know exactly what that means.
See if you can guess! (Check the end of the interview for the USA translation.)
Sometimes I make funny videos about the differences between USA and Aussie words, (more will be releasing with my second book), so follow my social media or my newsletter if you want to see some!
Has it been difficult to write a book for an American publisher? Any comical experiences in the editing process?
Ha ha ha, yes! Australians are much more into bathroom humor than Americans. Every manuscript my poor editor starts out so nicely going “Perhaps reconsider this joke” and by the end she’s like “ENOUGH WITH THE POO JOKES ALREADY!!!” 😀 It makes me laugh so much.
It can be tricky when I’m not super familiar with the things I’m describing, so I rely a lot on American writing friends or on experiences that apply to both countries. Or, I make up excuses to bring my characters to Australia! 😀
I’ve visited America a few times, so that helps.
Tell us a bit about your writing journey leading up to your contract with Thomas Nelson.
Let me confess something: my first full manuscript was pretty weird. It was kind of like Ted Dekker’s books had a baby with Denise Hunter’s books, but that baby had none of the talent of its parents.
Next I wrote the first draft of Love and Other Mistakes. Also terrible. I started a second draft, entered the first pages into a competition, and then burned out trying to write and go back into full-time work (I’d been part-time for a while). I took a hiatus from writing, and then six months later – BAM – an email in my inbox saying I was a finalist in that competition!
I decided (well, God kinda nudged…pushed…shoved me) to finish the second draft in a super short time frame, and fly over to the American Christian Fiction Writers conference for the announcement of the winner.
I didn’t win, but I did meet my agent there and we started to work together. Over two years I did A LOT of very heavy edits on the book and then wrote a first draft of a new story (now my second novel, A Girl’s Guide to the Outback). I flew back to ACFW in 2017 and we pitched to publishing houses and then sent them the submission.
By March 2018 we figured no one was interested in it, but in May I got a surprise email – my number one choice of publisher, Thomas Nelson, was interested! They made me an offer a month later, and I was absolutely ecstatic! I went back to ACFW in 2018 to meet the team and it was amazing!
Who are some authors that inspire you? And why?
Jenny B Jones is one of my favourite romantic comedy (now romantic comedy cosy mystery!) authors, and she includes a lot of representation of women working with the foster system.
I love how Bethany Turner is pushing the envelope on realism in Christian romance – The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck was refreshingly honest about how someone who’s not married still has a sex drive and has to deal with temptation and thoughts! It’s something we often pretend isn’t there or isn’t okay to talk/write about, but I think these conversations are really important.
What are some of your favorite hobbies?
Eating my bodyweight in Italian food. (By the way, this is a major difference between America and Australia. Australia doesn’t have a whole lot of Italian restaurants – because Italian is served EVERYWHERE. We don’t even call it Italian, it’s just ‘food’. Carbonara, chicken parmigiana, pizza, garlic bread – they’re available at 99% of pubs and most other restaurants too. Every time I go to America I’m like DUDE WHERE’S MY GARLIC BREAD?!?!?!?!)
So yeah, I get passionate about my food. Apart from that and writing I hang out with my family and friends and watch a lot of Netflix (professional research, folks – at least that’s what I’m telling the tax man.)
Oh, and I box! Just training, no fights – my reflexes are so terrible I’d be knocked out in the first round. But I’m told my left hook is fairly savage.
When you tell people you’re from Australia, what’s the most common question you get?
Everybody asks me “How do you survive all the snakes and spiders?” So yeah, we have snakes and spiders…but we also have anti venom. Hardly anyone dies nowadays, and…just don’t touch the snake or spider.
You guys have BEARS. THERE IS NO ANTI VENOM FOR A BEAR!!!
On your trip (or trips – how many times have you been?) to America, what wer
I’ve been five times! Best and worst things are:
Worst:
- Your money is super confusing, you have tipping, and the money on the tag doesn’t include tax. UGH! Australia’s money is colour coded, no tipping, and the tag price is what you pay.
- GARLIC BREAD IS LESS READILY AVAILABLE
- The food is less healthy than Aussie food, and the bread tastes weirdly sweet to me.
- Chocolate tastes different.
(I’m just realizing that three of these related to food. So you understand my priorities…)
Best:
- Ribs. Your ribs are OFF THE HOOK! So much cheaper than Oz, and so delicious.
- Everything is cheaper.
- I get a real kick out of those self-flushing toilets. Easily amused, I know.
- HOT APPLE CIDER. I really cannot express how much I love this stuff. I bought tea bags with the right spices and put them in hot apple juice here at home, but it’s not quite the same.
- I don’t know how to put this…just big stuff, done really well. Like Disneyland, that big replica of the Ark, stuff like that. Not the same here.
- Baseball is more entertaining than cricket.
- Live sports in general: America does it better. The audience is so much more enthusiastic. People dance in the stands and cheer and get T shirts shot at them.
What’s your biggest struggle with your writing career thus far?
Stress. I put a lot of pressure on myself. God’s been really teaching me how to rely on Him, plus I’ve learned some strategies for dealing with the physical effects (deep breathing, power walk to uplifting music, etc.)
What is one of your goal for readers?
My loftiest career aspiration is to make someone laugh-snort their milkshake out their nose and across their keyboard while they sneak in a chapter at work. 😀
Seriously, I just wanna create page-turners that trigger fits of laughter and swooning – and all in a way that glorifies God.
Have you had any mentors along your journey you’d like to give a shout out to? And how they’ve helped you?
Rachel Hauck is a great mentor, and Melissa Tagg and Susie May Warren have both given me so much encouragement. Rachel McMillan has great advice, especially in her mindset around editing. I don’t know if she realizes, but her words helped saved my sanity in editing Love and Other Mistakes (for the 5thtime)! It’s also great being on the same side of the globe as Kara Isaac – we’re Australasian (meaning Australian and New Zealand) mates!
And I have to give a shout out to David Rawlings, another Aussie author who signed with Thomas Nelson 3 months before I did. Every time I have a question I say, “Hey David” – because he’s always just gone through the same thing three months earlier.
And I’m probably forgetting some – our writing community is so supportive! So thank-you ALL!
Top FIVE favorite Rom Com movies, GO:
AHHHHHHHHHH! I LOVE THIS QUESTION!
- The Proposal
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Two Weeks Notice
- Set It Up
- The Duff
- (Please give me a 6th!) To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
And a special shout out to my Christmas movie, While You Were Sleeping!
What’s your favorite part of writing rom coms?
Hearing people laugh or gasp when they read my work.
I almost wish I wrote plays instead, because I thrive off that live audience feedback vibe. Reading a good review is amazing (please write reviews – any and all reviews even if it’s 0 stars or 5 stars ALL help so much!), but hearing someone cack themselves laughing (I think that’s another Aussie expression?) live in the moment – that’s even better.
My friend Hannah also reads my manuscripts for me and writes hilarious comments abusing me for making her cry and then later saying she laughed so hard she may’ve peed a little. Those comments are so fun to read!
Have you ever written another genre? Would you like to? What would it be?
If I wrote another genre it’d be Christian romantic comedy time travel/alternate universe. I am a HUGE time travel and alternate universe fan, plus really any character-driven sci fi. It’s the entire reason I put up with the terrible writing on The Flash for three seasons. The Earth 2 episode? GOLDEN.
You’ve started this train of thought now – it can’t be stopped! I love shows like Travelers, Killjoys, the new Star Trek Discovery (and the Chris Pine movies), The Orville, and The Umbrella Academy.
Okay, just give me a sec to talk about The Umbrella Academy. Guys, that show was GROUND BREAKING.
This was a fantastic family drama at its core, and all the other amazing elements – the superheroes, the time travel, the action, the special effects, the monkey butler – none of that ever distracted from the real relationships between these superhero siblings and their unpowered sister.
Every character – including the villains – had reasons behind their actions, so you had so much empathy for everyone, even while they all fought with each other! Plus, characters you don’t expect to like earn a soft spot in your heart. AND it was funny. And there was romance.
It literally combined all my favourite things: family drama, romance, humor, super powers and time travel – it even had a character who’s much older but is in a young body! (I find that super entertaining – Travelers did it too.)
Okay. Nerd out over. For now.
Is there one piece of advice you’d like to leave for other writers?
I put a lot of pressure on myself, and left to my own devices, I’m probably a workaholic. Stress has always been my biggest obstacle.
It’s hard to admit that I’ve burned out TWICE before I even got published, but it’s true. But God gave me this gift to bring joy, and this year I’ve gotten some tools to really help cope with the stress.
If writing ever stresses you out, these things might come in handy:
- Write down key truths about God and read them every morning. (A key one for me has been John 15 – God is my vine and I’m His branch. It reminds me I’m not doing this alone.)
- There’s a ‘marketing prayer’ which includes Prov 3:5-6 saved in my phone that I read and it gives me peace before I look at any social media.
- I know that if I’m stressing I need to go for a powerwalk and listen to some praise music. Exercising (enough to sweat) burns off stress chemicals.
- If a particular thing is bothering me, I write it down and pray about it, and it looks less scary.
- I have breathing exercises.
- I consciously put effort into getting out there and doing things other than writing.
These nudges all get me back in balance and remind me that this is writing, not brain surgery, and if I mess it up then nobody dies. 😊And the purpose is to have fun and bring glory to God!
*USA translation: I’m wearing my sweatpants, flannel shirt and flip flops to walk down to the gas station because I heard the
More about Jessica:
Australian author Jessica Kate is obsessed with sassy romances.
She packs her novels with love, hate, and everything in between—and then nerds out over her favorite books, movies and TV in the StoryNerds podcast. When she’s not writing or discussing fiction, she’s hunting the world for the greatest pasta in existence.
Her debut novel Love and Other Mistakes releases July 2019, while A Girl’s Guide to the Outbackhits shelves in January 2020.
Receive her sassy short The Kiss Dare FREE when you sign up for her newsletter at jessicakatewriting.com.
To Purchase Jessica’s Novels visit: Love and Other Mistakes – https://books2read.com/u/3L06gJ
A Girl’s Guide to the Outback – https://books2read.com/u/b570Dl
If you’d like to follow Jessica on all things social media, check her out
