The Author

Rebecca TimmisAbout R.J. Timmis

I was born in windy Wellington, New Zealand in July 1982. In 1989 my family moved to Brisbane, Australia where my Dad grew up. My brothers and I went to Loganholme State School for primary school and Chisholm Catholic College for high school, where I graduated in 1999 before heading off to the Queensland College of Art to study animation. I was a pretty dismal animator but the experience taught me bucket-loads about drawing, something I have always loved immensely and which for me, only comes second to writing.

I have always been a huge fan of fantasy and sci-fi, whether in book form, movies, cartoons or video games. My favourite movie is the 80’s Jim Henson classic Labyrinth, plus pretty much anything done by Disney. Some books I adore include The Horse and His Boy by C.S Lewis (a big inspiration for my second novel, The Brothers of Turoc), the Clan of the Cave Bear series by Jean M. Auel and Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.

After uni I completed a course in professional children’s writing, which was a blast! It was during that course I came up with the idea for my first novel, David and the Heart of Aurasius.

After a few years in various jobs, including supermarket check-out-chick, working in a bookstore and being an elf for Santa, I enrolled in a TAFE course in digital design, and a year later landed a great job in web design. I think coding is enormous fun and eventually started my own web development business, Vanilla Web Designs. Running a business means I can work from home and write in between projects (plus I get to work in my jammies – bonus!).

These days I try to spend at least 30 minutes a day writing – sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. There are days I can belt out 5,000 words and other days I can’t manage a single sentence, but I sit down and try anyway. If I’ve learnt anything about reaching goals, it’s that HABIT IS KEY.

When I’m not working, I’m playing lego with my boys or watching something nerdy with my husband (all while eagerly anticipating the release of the next instalment of the Final Fantasy VII remake!).

Visit my author website for more about my writing, to see some of my artwork, or to grab a copy of my books.