For best friends Viktoriya Butler and Steven Reynolds – who write together under the pen name Mette Menzies – a love of storytelling has turned into an extraordinary partnership. These pals are now co-authors of their debut novel, The Watervale Ladies’ Writing and Firefighting Society, published by HarperCollins.
For Viktoriya, the journey began with a course at the Australian Writers’ Centre. Enrolling in a creative writing course, Viktoriya found the tools and confidence to transform her long-time passion for writing into something more serious.
“This course was fundamental in shaping me as a writer,” Viktoriya recalls. “It taught me about character, voice and structure, and how to create stories that keep readers turning the pages well into the night. Most of all, it gave me the foundation I still draw on today.”
Taking writing seriously
Viktoriya had always been drawn to writing, but in her late 30s she realised she needed to break out of a rut. “I wanted to start taking writing more seriously, and I’d heard great things about the Australian Writers’ Centre. Lisa Heidke was teaching the course – she’s such an incredible writer – so I knew it was the perfect fit.”
That decision gave her the clarity and structure she was looking for. “The course helped me write with emotional connection and authenticity. It shaped the way I think about voice and how to invite the reader into a story that feels alive and intimate.”
Two years after the course, Viktoriya was still receiving encouraging emails from Lisa, checking in on how her students were progressing. “It showed how much the AWC team cares about writers,” she says.
The spark of a story
The idea for The Watervale Ladies’ Writing and Firefighting Society came during a trip to the Clare Valley in South Australia. Steven says: “It’s about four very different women who find themselves in a writing group in the fictional town of Watervale Downs in the South Australian wine country. Tilly is a young ambitious lawyer pulled back from London for what she thinks will be a quick property transaction in the town. Bev is an elderly landowner and savvy businesswoman with a secret past, who Tilly must try to convince to sell her property. Fenna is an ageing television star, recently divorced and hiding out from the prying media, intent on creating her own idyllic enclave on a hill overlooking the town. Jane is the local librarian struggling with the realities of being middle-aged and still childless with a journalist husband who seems to want a very different life.
“These women don’t realise it at first, but each of them is ‘stuck’ in a particular way. They’ve followed a path that they thought would lead to happiness, and they’ve all ended up in quite a different place. This is the story of how they get unstuck, with the help of each other.”
Writing together
Viktoriya says: “Writing as Mette Menzies was our way of honouring the partnership behind the work while allowing the story itself to take the lead. Every sentence in this book was shaped together: read aloud, tested, debated, and rewritten until it felt true to the characters and the emotional core of the story.
“Steven and I have very different writing strengths, which turned out to be a real advantage. One of us might focus on emotional nuance while the other refined structure or dialogue. It became a creative conversation that was always evolving and always in motion.”
But what did that look like on a practical level? Steven explains that the duo did a lot of work on their characters upfront. “Once we understood who they were, we plotted the whole thing out in fine detail. Of course, that plot unravelled as soon as we started writing because, as so often happens, we came up with fresh ideas as we were writing, and we learned even more about these characters on the page. A detailed outline can feel like a safety net, but it can quickly become an entangling web if you’re unwilling to let it go. When new insights and ideas emerge, and a better story comes into view, then ditch the plan and follow that energy.”
When it came to putting the words on the page, Steven says they tried a few different approaches. “Sitting together at the keyboard doesn’t work at all, because you end up editing every sentence as you go and it’s very difficult to get into that ‘flow’ state where good writing happens. We tried writing a chapter each which was fun, but the work lacked a consistent voice.
“We decided that one of us would need to ‘hold the pen’, as it were, for the initial drafting. It could happily have been either of us, but I had more time outside of work, so I took that role, which I refer to as ‘throwing clay on the potting wheel’ and it was about as elegant. Those very messy first draft chapters were then read aloud together, discussed, revised, rewritten, and honed together and repeatedly over the course of writing the manuscript. There isn’t a sentence in the finished book that we didn’t ultimately write together. This isn’t the only way to do it, but it’s the one that works for us.”
He adds: “Writing can be a lonely business, but there’s something magical about working as a pair. We can create entire worlds over a few glasses of wine!”
A dream realised
When they heard about their book deal from HarperCollins publisher Catherine Milne, they knew their hard work had finally paid off. Viktoriya says: “It was a very surreal moment …. A couple of days later, once it had started to sink in, we had a quiet glass of champagne and then got to work. For both of us, the idea that this story, born from friendship and care, would be out in the world was, and still is, both humbling and energising.”
Both Viktoriya and Steven work full-time in corporate roles, so writing fits into evenings and weekends – often over FaceTime if one is travelling. “It’s not glamorous,” Viktoriya laughs. “A lot of edits were done while I was in Singapore, red pen in hand, with Steven on screen beside my salt and pepper tofu.”
Still, deadlines and discipline have served them well. “A contract is a powerful motivator,” Viktoriya admits. And for Steven, limited time keeps him productive. “If you’ve only got a few hours, you have to get on with it. No procrastinating!”
Looking back, Viktoriya credits her AWC course with giving her the tools and confidence to start the journey. “It gave me the skills I needed, but more importantly, the belief that I could do this,” she says. “I’d absolutely recommend the Australian Writers’ Centre to anyone looking to deepen their craft or simply find the courage to start.”
