Seven things I'd like my readers to know about me, by Rebecca Raisin

3 November 2021

Rebecca Raisin writes an exclusive piece for Female First

To celebrate the release of her latest novel, Flora's Travelling Christmas Shop, we asked author Rebecca Raisin to take part in our 'seven things' series, letting readers in on some interesting trivia and facts all about her!

Here's what she had to reveal...

1. I always set my books in exotic locations that I’d love to visit. When it comes to doing the research on the location it feels more like I’m planning a holiday than it does work. Usually I get so taken by a place we end up travelling there. At the moment I’m writing about Van Life, and I would love to buy a van and hit the open road! And if I could transport myself to Lapland at Christmas like my latest character Flora, then all the better!

2. I’m not a morning person, but I do write more energetically in the first half of the day. I try to stay away from social media for the first few hours so I’m more productive with my word count. Once lunch rolls around all bets are off and I seem to procrastinate more, and the word count slows down.

3. I love Christmas. It’s the best time of year! I really enjoy writing festive reads. I usually get myself in the mood by listening to Christmas carols and scrolling on Pinterest searching for snowy Christmas pictures to get me in the zone. A few years ago I surprised my family with matching Christmas PJs and now it’s become tradition - the gaudier the better. It’s the one time of year we have some time off as a family and there’s nothing better than playing board games, feasting on festive food and hanging out with the people I love most.

4. I’m a Francophile. I’ve always loved France and wrote The Little Paris Collection, a series of three standalone books set there. Writing those was an absolute joy for me! I spent a lot of time searching for unique experiences or secret gems that most tourists wouldn’t have heard about so that the stories seemed more authentic and the reader would learn something new about the place.

5. I want to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We were all set to do 10 days of the ‘Way of Saint James’ when Covid hit and we had to cancel. It’s been a dream of mine to go ever since I read a book called The year we seized the day. It’s a memoir about two Australian writers who set out to do the pilgrimage without much training beforehand. It was such an authentic account, and made me realise just how much of a challenge it really is. It’s still on the bucket list and maybe one day we can do the whole route rather than the ten days we had settled on due to work commitments.

6. I’ve been learning Bahasa Indonesia for over a year. I’ve always wanted to learn another language. I tried all the apps, and tried to learn French but never progressed very far. We visit Bali regularly because it’s so close to where we live and we were picking up the language in bits and pieces but losing it all when we returned home. I decided to take lessons and a year a bit on I can have a full conversation as long as they don’t speak too fast! I can’t wait to return there and speak with all of my Indonesian friends.

7. I am a voracious reader. I finish a book almost every night. I’d prefer to read than watch TV. I read every genre, and am partial to books about royalty. I especially love reading about the Tudors. I also really enjoy memoirs about people undertaking big things, like walking the Camino, or doing something that pushes the limits.