Jackie Fraser

I’ve been writing books forever, but in terms of publication I’m a late developer. My first novel was published when I was 48, deep in the throes of that strangest of years, 2020. Appearing first as a ‘digital original’ in the UK, paperback publication in the UK and US followed in 2021. My second book was written during Lockdown, and published in 2023.

In my day job, I’m a freelance editor working on food, travel and fiction titles. I’ve been an editor for over thirty years and I have to say I quite enjoy it. I enjoy writing more though, because making stuff up is fun. I like to write about relationships, because people are fascinating. And I like to write about older people, because I love a back story. My stories are usually set in places I’ve visited, and I enjoy tweaking the ‘real’ locations to create the perfect setting for my characters’ lives to expand.

I live in Hampshire with my partner and when I’m not writing or editing you might find me climbing awkwardly over a gate to look at a stone circle, taking photos of rust, lichen or peeling paint, or poking about in antique shops. I love to read and am interested in more or less everything.

Jackie can be found at:
Website: jackiefraser.co.uk
Bluesky: @muninnherself.bsky.social
Instagram: @muninnherself
Twitter: @muninnherself

Tell me what inspired you to write your book?
My latest book, The Beginning of Everything, was conceived during Lockdown. I was thinking about people in books who ‘run away from home’ and the kinds of characters those tend to be – young, usually, and with no control over their lives. I wanted to write about someone in mid-life who feels she has to escape.

What came first the character or the world?
The character I guess. My books are always about people and relationships. I usually have a pretty good idea of what my protagonists are like before I fill in the background.

How hard was it to get your first book published?
Well, it took a while. I’d been submitting to agents and publishers since 2012, and my first book (The Bookshop of Second Chances) was sold in 2020. But I’d written various books in that time, and I only submitted The Bookshop once.

How long did it take to write?
First draft, probably six months. My new book took longer, because I wrote it in 2020, mostly, and there was no reason to stop because we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything!

Do you have a writing playlist? If so do you want to share it?
As I learned as a student after accidentally putting Sonic Youth lyrics in an essay, I can’t write and listen to music. Music is important to my characters like music though, and my US publishers did a playlist for The Bookshop.

How many publishers turned you down?
I generally submitted to agents, because not many publishers have open submissions. So I probably submitted to three publishers on open submission with various books over the years, and signed with one of them.

I submitted to probably forty-five agents over ten years, which compared to a lot of writers’ backstories is hardly any. It’s quite hard though, pyschologically, submitting. Even if you don’t mind being rejected, which I didn’t. I never even got a request for a partial manuscript from an agent in all that time.

I’d rather write a book than submit that book, which is probably one of the reasons it took a while.

(Interestingly, it’s not noticably easier to get an agent when you’re published, some of those queries went out subsequent to the publication of my first book and selling my second. I still got non-responders as well as rejections. I did eventually get an agent though!)

What kind of reactions have you had to your book?
Amazingly positive, especially from my US readers. I don’t write particularly complex or dark or mysterious books, so once they’re sold I don’t expect them to polarise opinion or anything, but it’s still astonishing to think people in other countries are reading about people I invented for fun.

Even negative reactions are interesting. I don’t read my one and two-star reviews but I am aware of what some of them say. Some people really hate swearing.

The Beginning of Everything

What’s the favourite reaction you’ve had to your book?
I really like it when people ‘get’ what I’m doing. As I say, my books are not complicated, but I do generally have a point, and reasons for doing things a particular way. Sometimes you can tell from a review that the reader has fully embraced this. Of course it’s always nice when someone enjoyed a book, or if they say it made them cry (sorry) or whatever. My books are not sad, but sometimes I guess they’re emotive. Someone said last month that The Bookshop was ‘possibly the loveliest book’ they’d ever read and I’d have to be pretty blase not to enjoy hearing that!

What can you tell us about your next book?
I’m editing something at the moment, it’s about a youngish widow. I like writing about people in their middle years, people with history, and how they deal with changes in their lives. In some ways it’s easier to be brave when you’re more than halfway through, but at the same time people do get stuck. Also as I get older I am more convinced that however much you grow and develop as a person, in a lot of ways you’re probably not very different to how you were at thirty, or twenty-five; you’ve just had more practice.

Do you take notice of online reviews?
Only the good ones! As mentioned above, I only read my four and five star reviews. No book is for everyone, and reviews are often as much about the reviewer as the book. I’m quite happy with that (I’m a reader too, after all, and I don’t love every book I read), but I don’t need to take in anything negative, as those are the things that get stuck in my head.

Would you ever consider writing outside your current genre?
Certainly, whatever serves the story! I write various things, fantasy is the main one apart from my published genre.

What did you do before (or still do) you became a writer?
I’m a freelance editor and I used to work in house as an editor for a travel publisher. It’s the only job I’ve ever had, basically. I really love editing. Helping people with their books doesn’t pay much but it’s a great job, and perfect for a picky sort of person with lots of random knowledge.

Which author(s) inspire you?
Jeanette Winterson, Iain Banks, Mhairi McFarlane, Natasha Pulley, Kate Atkinson, Hilary Mantel, Susanna Clarke, Georgette Heyer, Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Elmore Leonard, Dorothy Sayers, Douglas Coupland

Which genres do you read yourself?
I read lots of non-fiction, actually. And I love a bit of lit fic. But I’ll pretty much read anything that sounds good!

What is your biggest motivator?
I’m not sure about this. I just like writing stories. I would prefer not to have to go back to an office job, so that’s quite motivating!

What will always distract you?
Social media. Working from home can be lonely, I like to chat to my online pals. But then I start scolling and then it’s an hour later. You know how it is.

How much (if any) say do you have in your book covers?
I guess if I hated something there’d be extensive discussion, but luckily I haven’t hated anything. I don’t like to be awkward, and I know how hard designers work on covers, so I consider my feedback very carefully. My publishers know what they’re doing. My main input has been on the US covers – tweaking how characters look.

Were you a big reader as a child?
Ha ha, yes. Eight books (the number I was allowed on my library ticket) a weekend for several years. I was pretty voracious.

What were your favourite childhood books?
I love Joan Aiken and Diana Wynne Jones, so Midnight is a Place is one, and Charmed Life and Witch Week. I loved Mary Norton’s Borrowers books, too. And historical fiction – Rosemary Sutcliff’s Eagle of the Ninth and Song for a Dark Queen. I loved A Traveller in Time, too, by Alison Uttley.

Do you have a favourite bookshop? If so, which?
We don’t have an indie bookshop in my town, but my friend runs Folde in Dorset which specialises in nature books and is a lovely place!

What books can you not resist buying?
Books about prehistory, usually. I love learning about the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

Do you have any rituals when writing?
Nope.

How many books are in your own physical TBR pile?
Let’s just say if it wasn’t three piles, ‘for safety’, it would reach the ceiling and beyond. There are things in it that have been there for thirty years. You can’t force yourself though, you have to wait for the right moment to read something.

What is your current or latest read?
I just read the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin. Brilliant. I read the whole lot in about four days.

Any books that you’re looking forward to in the next 12 months?
The new Natasha Pulley

Any events in the near future?
I’m doing my first public in person event at the Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival this week!

and finally, what inspired you to write the genre you do?
I just find people really interesting. Relationships fascinate me. And there’s nothing unrealistic about a ‘happy ever after’, it just depends where you stop the story.