Interview with The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose author Josephine Moon

Australian author Joesphine Moon recently shared her Autism identity with the world and now brings readers her most heart-warming tale yet, featuring an all Autistic cast. The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose is a joyful and moving tale of a woman’s commitment to fulfilling a friend’s dying wish, while finding her own inner strength and power and sharing it with others along the way.

Amaze spoke to Jo about the all-neurodivergent cast, the importance of colour, her writing process and more!

What are some key themes in The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose?

Phoenix Rose champions friendships of all kinds (in-person, online and animals too), diversity, kindness, community and bravery.

What was the response from your publisher when you pitched to them an all-neurodivergent cast?

I am a really lucky author in that my publisher genuinely loves my work and really ‘gets’ my stories. She was completely supportive of the pitch and had so many wonderful things to say about my first draft that it made me quite teary. There are a few neurotypical characters in there, of course, but most of the characters who are involved in this road trip are neurodivergent because we are everywhere in real life and I wanted us to be visible in popular culture too. Anytime I have read a story with an Autistic character it has had exactly that—one Autistic character, who is generally struggling on their own as ‘the odd one out’. I really wanted to change that.

In the book we meet Phoenix two months after she discovers she’s Autistic – How much of her journey understanding herself as Autistic mirrors your own?

One of the greatest things for me about discovering my Autistic identity was the absolute joy and sense of belonging I have found in fellow neurodivergent individuals. Prior to that I felt really alone, then suddenly (through community) my understanding of myself expanded and I could start to rewrite my beliefs and know that there was nothing ‘wrong’ with me (there never had been) and that I belong to an amazing, diverse and vast community. It really normalised my experience and educated and validated me far more than any neurotypical professional ever could. It was that whole experience of the support and welcome from the Autistic community that I really wanted to celebrate in this book.

Colour seems to play an important role in Phoenix’s life – Is this similar to yourself?

You know, I think it is more than I might have believed prior to writing this book. (I do seem to have a real thing for white horses—six so far.) I tend to favour predominantly block colours and avoid patterns (polka dots, in particular), which can make me feel queasy. I definitely wore blue almost always through childhood, teenage years and into early adulthood. Then one day I noticed all the blue and told myself I “should” diversify my wardrobe (to be more like other people). Often, when I think about a book that I have read (or listened to) I do see a colour in my mind that represents the whole story. Phoenix reads to me as ‘a yellow book’ and I was so happy to see its sunny presence on the cover.

This book is your eighth fiction book – Do you find your writing process evolves much between books these days, or do you feel you’ve found your rhythm?

The process itself (the mechanics of putting a book together, scene by scene) doesn’t really change much but each book is very different in how the story and I work together. It’s never totally easy but some books just turn out to be enormously tricky and I find myself rewriting tens of thousands of words over and over again, while other books simply unfold smoothly. Unfortunately, I never know which way it’s going to go when I’m first getting into a new project and if it turns out to be a difficult book then I have to battle a whole lot of my own doubts and disbelief about whether I can finish it at all. Phoenix actually flowed through without too many complications. Initially, it took me a long time to find the right place to start Phoenix’s story and I wrote many different openings that I then deleted. Fortunately, once I found the right starting point the rest unfolded nicely.

You describe this book as one that you feel you’d been ‘born to write’ – Did you learn anything about yourself whilst writing this book?

I have learned so much about myself in the past two years, alongside writing this book, but most of that had nothing to do with the book itself, though it did influence my writing and Phoenix’s thought processes. I think one of the biggest things I have been processing is how much internalised ableism I have carried my whole life, towards myself. I have been so critical of myself for not being able to do or be the things I thought I should, or that others expected. This has been a significant reckoning and one that will probably continue for the rest of my life. It’s also just one of the reasons I am so passionate about early identification. We need to know who we are as early as possible so that we know how to look after ourselves.

What do you hope non-Autistic readers take away from your book?

Ultimately, my job is to engage my readers and transport them out of their world and into someone else’s. First and foremost, I hope readers love my characters and enjoy the road trip. If they leave with more than that, and continue to reflect on neurodivergence and how we cater to it (or not), then that’s a bonus. I think one of the reasons that art (in all forms) is so powerful is because people can stumble over it, without intention, and it takes them by surprise. Sometimes, art plants seeds of ideas that might one day in the future flower into something bigger. In that way, my stories might live on beyond the pages of the book.

Additionally, what do you hope the Autistic community takes away from your book?

In writing this book, I was keenly aware of the ache so many of us might have to see ourselves, finally, reflected in popular culture in a way that respects and treasures us for our unique gifts to the world (rather than being the punchline of a joke or a tale of woe). But, I also knew that I couldn’t possibly represent the full depth and breadth of the diversity of the Autistic community in one book alone. I hope that, if an Autistic person can see parts of themselves reflected in Phoenix Rose, or even if they can’t, that they might feel genuine hope that the tide is turning and we are becoming more visible and more valued and our stories will keep rising into mainstream arenas.

And a fun one – did any of your pets in particular support you through writing this book?

They certainly gave me inspiration for the animal characters in this novel, making it much easier for me to write their personalities onto the page. All the cats in the book have shared personality traits with my own, the Shetland pony has many characteristics of my deaf, geriatric Shetland pony, Sparky (especially his love of coffee), and Henry the dog looks like my mum’s old dog and has the same fierce loyalty and protective qualities. My animals help me by making sure I get up and leave my desk and head out into the sunshine and fresh air many times a day. The cats keep me company in the night. The dogs make me laugh and feel protected. And the goat! Seriously, goats are some of the funniest animals I’ve ever come across. They all bring me joy, comfort, laughter, calming and essential tactile sensory goodness. I am so grateful to have them with me.

About Josephine Moon

Josephine Moon was born and raised in Brisbane, and had a false start in Environmental Science before completing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and then a postgraduate degree in education. Twelve years and ten manuscripts later, her first novel The Tea Chest was picked up for publication and then shortlisted for an ABIA award. Her bestselling contemporary fiction is published internationally. She now lives on acreage in the beautiful Noosa hinterland with her husband and son, and a tribe of animals that seems to increase in size each year.

Her new book, The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose, is out now. You can find her work at josephinemoon.com