Frances Prentice began dreaming of being an author when she was 8 years old and discovered she could write poetry and stories. At this time, she had decided she would become an author ‘one day’, but always knew that she wanted to ‘do life’ first.
Frances has always read extensively, enjoying reading middle grade fiction even after becoming a fully-fledged adult. She has been known to read while walking, bike riding, train and bus travelling, flying, being driven (despite occasional car sickness) and breastfeeding. She still reads to herself at bedtime. Her favourite authors include L.M. Montgomery, Noel Streatfield, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ivan Southall, Colin Thiele, Jackie French, and John Flanagan. She likes some other modern authors too, but the books she loved in her childhood are her ‘comfort food’.
Frances has five living children and one in heaven. One of the great pleasures of motherhood has been reading to her children from a young age. Always, Your Sister, has been loosely based on the life she has experienced with her husband and children on a small cattle farm.
On her journey to this, her first traditionally published novel, Frances had some success with shorts stories and poems published in online competitions and anthologies, which encouraged her to keep writing. In 2024 she self-published a junior fiction chapter book entitled: Guinea Pig League: Captured! which was jointly authored with the Creative Crew – a group of Year 5 students. Frances also has a teen fiction novel being published in 2025 under the new Rhiza Shorts series entitled Holding Back.
Frances currently homeschools her two youngest children, is involved in a homeschool co-op, tutors students in literacy, and runs a creative writing group. She is also developing her own phonics and handwriting programs. You can contact her via her website: www.exploringliteracy.com.au or her email: frances@theprentices.net.
Frances’s books with Wombat | Rhiza include:
Always, Your Sister
Holding Back