What are you doing here? What am I doing here?
Grab a cuppa and let's dive into what this publication is all about
Warami! Welcome to Melissa Jane’s (me, that’s me!) Tea Break!
This publication is all about juggling – well, not literally juggling seven balls in the air with the aim of one day joining a circus (though my house often feels like one), but about the struggle to juggle more than one stream of work alongside parenting and trying to be happy and healthy.
Ugh, that’s a lot to even read.
My aim here is to document the highs and lows and write about things I’m doing in an attempt to be more organised and able to fit in all the things. Is that even possible? I don’t know, but join me on this journey and we’ll find out together.
What are my streams of work/income?
Editing – freelance for traditional publishers (currently working on projects with Thames & Hudson and Allen & Unwin) and occasional editing for new or indie authors.
Children’s author – contracted for three picture books with Hachette with my debut coming out in 2025. Story featured in a Lonely Planet anthology due out in September 2024.
Illustrator – illustrating (as well as writing) what will be my second book with Hachette due out in 2026, plus selling my artwork online (work-in-progress).
What’s my work schedule like?
It’s a mess, to be honest.
I have Mon-Wed during school hours, so around 9am–2:30pm, to fit in all my work. I sneak in work at other times if I can, but it’s never particularly planned and just happens when I find little cracks of time in between watching my 7-year-old’s latest performance and playing Paw Patrol with my 4-year-old.
Although, if I’m on deadline for a project, I’ll often work at night or sometimes have family members care for my 4-year-old on Thursdays or Fridays if I am desperate for more work time, and I’ll work weekends when I have to as well.
It’s really not a whole lot of work time, so you can see why I feel overwhelmed or like I’m struggling to juggle all the balls. But I also know that many others can relate. I’m not alone in all this.
Part of my goal here is to share my techniques or even my messy ways of getting things done, and learn from others too, so I love it when you can jump into the comments or reach out to share your strategies, or even just commiserate!
How did I get here?
I keep asking myself this very question …
As a kid (and even in my early adulthood), I struggled with a severe lack of confidence. I never even dared to dream of being something like an author or illustrator or even a book editor!
It has taken a lot of time and work to get where I am now, and I sometimes share specifics about my journey to get past my self-confidence issues in my posts because mental health has been a big thing that previously held me back. It’s been ongoing since I was a child, but most things took until my late 20s-early 30s to discover – some things I’m still discovering and working on.
In sharing some of this journey, it helps me analyse my thoughts and feelings because writing and illustration are such therapeutic endeavours for me. If you can relate to any of this, I’d love to have you along for this bumpy ride of discovery and a path to a sustainable creative life.
You can read a little more about how I found myself in this world of writing and illustrating for children here:
Why are things happening now?
I completed a Master of Publishing back in 2014 and started working as a freelance editor that same year. I was mostly working with indie publishers and/or publishers helping people to self-publish, which was not my favourite.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love working with new authors and authors wanting to self-publish, but most that were coming my way back then didn’t really understand the ins and outs of the whole process, so I felt like they needed much more work than was possible, and the results were never going to end with them becoming the next big thing that I felt they dreamed about. There were some exceptions, but overall I felt like I was letting authors down because their expectations weren’t reality.
In 2015 I got married, and then in 2016 was pregnant with my first baby arriving in 2017.
Having children is so wonderful and tiring and beautiful and stressful all at once. In terms of career, having babies really stalled mine, which is okay and not completely unexpected, but coming back felt like starting over completely.
So after a few years of only semi-working during two pregnancies and early days of being a mum, I’m now gaining momentum in my editing career right alongside my author career. It’s all happening all at once.
Things are happening! Lots of wonderful, exciting things! But it’s hard to manage on top of parenting and keeping my mental health in check.
In 2025 my debut picture book will be released, with another in 2026 and another at an as-yet-to-be-confirmed date in the future – all with Hachette (am I dreaming?? Pinch me). I also have a story coming out in an anthology with Lonely Planet in September.
With editing, I’ve been working with Thames & Hudson for over a year now mostly on some of their First Nations Australian titles, and I’ll be working with Allen & Unwin this year for the first time to edit a First Nations title there too. I occasionally work with new or indie authors – mostly in the YA space, though also fantasy for adults too.
As an Aboriginal (Mununjali) person, I want to highlight and support First Nations voices, I want to work with new or indie authors who are truly ready for the editing I provide, and I want to see the authors I work with enjoy success as they define it. I’m at a place where I’m lucky enough for this to be my reality.
I also secured a place on the APA’s Residential Editorial Fellowship 2024.
See what I mean about things happening?! It’s incredible and I want to keep the balls rolling – or up in the air, if we want to go back to my juggling analogy.
What I write about here
So how do I fit in all those career things alongside school things for my 7-year-old, preschool things for my 4-year-old, appointments, events, finding time to spend with my husband, my dogs, exercise, continuing to write and illustrate and so on?
(There’s more, of course, but I think you get the point.)
Well, I’m working on planning and organisation and getting things in order this year. Part of that is sharing my processes here and spilling the tea about what my life is like in amongst all of this.
So, some things I write and share about are:
Exploring what it means to be a creative
Finding inspiration when it’s lacking
New creative practices I’m trying
Updates on my author/illustrator projects and journey
Organisation and planning as I try to get my sh*t together
Honest takes on how I’m feeling about my creativity and other things in life
Managing my mental health while I create
Analysing how I got to this point career-wise and where I want to go next
And more topics that I either haven’t written about yet, have forgotten about or aren’t even on my radar until I’m in the moment … lots of what I write and share are things that come up in my everyday life and how I feel about them.
If you’ve managed to get this far, thank you for reading! If anything resonates with you, check out my subscription options via the button below.
My posts are all free but there are paid subscriber options if you’re able, and you do receive some of my artwork as a gift to thank you for your support.
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How often will you hear from me?
Roughly 1-2 posts a week will be sent out.
One post a week with an audio version included if you need or want to listen instead of reading that will generally cover a topic from the list above.
I will also be holding weekly one-hour planning sessions via Google Meet. These take place on a Sunday (Australian Eastern Standard Time) where I’ll sit down for an hour to plan my social media and work schedule for the week. Feel free to join me to do your own planning! I will send out another post about this on either a Saturday or Sunday (AEST) with a link to join and a time as it may change each week.
Language note: I usually start my audio posts by saying Warami (‘Hello’ in Dharug language) and end them by saying Yanu (‘Goodbye’ in Dharug). You might also hear other Dharug words pop up at times as I’m continuing to learn Dharug language. I’m learning Yugambeh language as well (the language my grandfather spoke), so there may be sprinklings of Yugambeh too, like Jingeri, which means hello!
You’ll also see that at the end of all my posts there’s an Acknowledgement of Country to show respect for the land and Traditional Custodians of the area I live and work on. It’s important for me to acknowledge my Aboriginal culture and language and to ensure that these practises, no matter how small they may seem to some, contribute to the ongoing recognition of peoples who have been here for over 60,000 years and are still here – something I highlight through some of my writing for children too.
Are you still here?
I’m surprised and in awe if you’ve made it this far – it’s a lot!
What next? Go ahead and take a look at some of my other posts, they’re all available via my archive, reach out if you have any comments or questions, and hit subscribe if you haven’t already.
But, if you don’t subscribe or feel that after reading all this that it’s not the place for you, no hard feelings. I’ll be here if you ever want to come back, and I’m wishing you all the best on your work/life/parenting/creativity/sort-your-sh*t-out journey.
Marri ngubady (much love) and hopefully you’ll hear from me in your inbox soon.
I acknowledge the Darkinyung people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work, and I pay my respects to the Elders past and present.
All very interesting! I especially understand the part of juggling so many things, especially with children. I read recently that the switching of tasks do cost a lot of time and concentration, I wonder how we can better structure our work and personal lives for that! I'll be glad to join you on this journey and exploration!
I enjoyed this format and might do something like it, if that's ok?