About Rebecca Timmis


I have been writing stories since my first year at school. I love escaping into a book, the more enchanting and out-of-this-world, the better. Writing for me is a way to take all those things you imagine in your mind and make them into something permanent.

During school my favourite subjects were art and writing. I always kept a diary (most of which I still have!) and had my own bookshelf bursting with second-hand books. Most of my spare time was spent reading, writing and drawing, watching TV and playing video games (old school Zelda was the BEST). Without even realising it, the hours I spent watching cartoons and sitcoms was teaching me lots of story-building techniques like foreshadowing, point of view, cause and effect, character development and more.

When I left high school I studied animation at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art. To be a good animator you have to be talented, accurate, and FAST! I preferred a more relaxed approach to drawing. I changed direction after two years and branched into design and illustration. At the same time I enrolled in a professional children’s writing course. During that course I wrote my first award-winning short story, The House on Connor’s Street, which was Highly Commended in the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s Short Story Competition and read aloud on international radio. It was a huge buzz to hear my work coming out of the speakers in our lounge room đŸ™‚

By the time I finished my writing course I was halfway through the initial draft of my first ‘real’ novel for children. It was the first story idea I’d had that was so powerful, it wouldn’t let go. I spent every spare second scribbling away in exercise books until I had a box full of them. Then came the task of typing up each chapter onto my computer. Twenty-two exercise books and three years later I had my first completed manuscript, David and the Heart of Aurasius, all neatly typed up. After another year of editing, I started submitting my book to editors. The rejection letters flowed in! While I was well aware of how difficult it was to get a book published, I was still disappointed. Plus, waiting months for each rejection was adding up into years. I was going to be old and grey before I found a publisher!

Eventually I decided to self-publish David. It was hard work and a HUGE learning curve. Finally I launched David and the Heart of Aurasius in October 2010. After six months I had sold 400 copies of my book. Since then I’ve self-published three more books, The Brothers of Turoc, David and the Scavenger Prince and The Growly Bear.

In 2018, a publisher saw some of the drawings from The Growly Bear online and asked me to illustrate a picture book for them. I was so excited! My first book by a traditional publisher. The book was called Super Nova (written by Krys Saclier) and was published by Ford St Publishing in 2019. It was great fun to work on and was even shortlisted for an Aurealis Award (which is my absolute favourite book award).

In 2020 I illustrated another picture book, Reggie Red, by Josie Layton, published by Larrikin House. The book was chosen to be read by Fergie, the Duchess of York, on her YouTube channel, Storytime with Fergie. I couldn’t believe how lucky Josie and I were.

In 2020 I signed on with an agent, Justine Barker from Mayfair Literary Agency. With her super amazing agent skills she sold a junior fiction series I had written, MerTales, to Allen and Unwin. I had been working on MerTales for a VERY long time – over ten years! But it was worth it. We polished up the manuscript for the first book and I spent months working on the illustrations. The first book alone includes 179 mermaid drawings! When I received my first printed copy of MerTales 1: The Best Friend Promise in the mail I couldn’t stop grinning. It had really happened!

And what’s next? You’ll just have to wait and see!

Visit my Author Central page on Amazon at https://amazon.com/author/rjtimmis

© Copyright R.J. Timmis, Australia, 2024