Hello! I am Jayne Case – Tasmanian mum of three gorgeous boys. I live in regional Tasmania (aka The Sticks), and love camping, exploring, bushwalking and going on adventures of all kinds in our beautiful wild nature. I am a woodworker, gardener and avid listener of audiobooks. I listen to books at 1.5x speed, and I feel like this might be my superpower, if I was forced to think of something!
My Favourite books when I was a kid were the Jolly Postman by Janet and Allen Ahlberg, anything by Allison Lester, and Jeannie Baker- her vibrant, evocative artwork kept me enraptured for hours. Roald Dahl, Famous Five, Milly Molly Mandy then JK Rowling featured heavily too as I got older.
My mum made sure we were regulars at the library and our library-book shelf was always well stocked. Her exceptionally energetic reading of Hairy McLairy is now heading into the second generation, with my kids now getting to experience it too.
My dad used to read to us every night. Lying on the floor in front of the fire with him reading to me and my three siblings make up some very special core memories for me.
My Kids are HUGE Harry Potter fans, but also enjoy Ahn Do, David Walliams. We have recently discovered the Wingfeather saga, which everyone is enjoying.
I recently made my own childhood dreams come true when I became an author.
In June 2025 I published my first children’s picture book – Counting on You – A NICU Story.
My third son has some extra health and medical needs – and when he came along, I wholeheartedly and irreversibly became an Official Medical Mum. Lots of my days are now taken up with appointments, therapy, Auslan, medication mixing, speech therapy, advocating, learning new medical terminology, audiology, tube feeding and washing syringes.
My journey to becoming a self-published children’s author started when my tiny guy was born, and we experienced the whirlwind of NICU life, and all the complexity it brings, especially with two older sons, who were 5 and 8 at the time.
At week 36 of my pregnancy, we discovered something was up with my baby’s kidneys. We were sent to another hospital straight away, but living in regional Tasmania, we needed to transfer to Hobart for high-risk obstetric care.
What we thought would be a day trip for appointments and scans, turned into a 6 week long NICU and Ronald McDonald House stay. We had to pull out two older sons out of school and ‘relocate’ south for the duration.
Hobart is three hours’ drive from our house, it was nearly Christmas, and it is no exaggeration to say our family’s whole world turned upside down. Our little country bumpkin ADHD kids were so out of place in the city, and it was somewhat of a hair-raising experience on top of everything else that was going on!
We were as far away from our serene, planned homebirth as you can possibly get. This was the start of adopting the mantra and lifestyle changes of doing whatever it takes to keep our littlest love healthy and safe.
He suffered major complications immediately after birth, due to his lungs not developing as they should. Over the first few days the NICU team stabilised his breathing before getting onto the surgery to help his kidneys.
At 8 days old he had his first surgery. He had 5 more surgeries over the next 18 months. The damage to his kidneys in utero means he’ll always be a kidney kid, and require ongoing monitoring, management and support.
During our NICU stay, I looked for a children’s book for my big kids, but I couldn’t find anything that explained the NICU experience in a way that would make sense to them as siblings. There are lots of beautiful story books about NICU, but they all seemed to be from the perspective of the baby or parents – beautiful keepsakes to be read when the baby was older, but not helpful for what I needed at the time. When I couldn’t find what I needed for my big kids, I realised I was going to have to write it myself.
I sat with the idea for a while, then when my baby was about 5 months old, the story came to me in the middle of the night, kind of like magic! So, I sat in my ensuite at 4am and wrote my first children’s book in the Notes app on my phone while my family slept.
It took another year or so to get the book out of my Notes app and into the world. I took my time, I did a Self-Publishing course (by the incredible Laura Feldman), because I knew I needed to do it properly.
Do you have an idea for a book but not sure what to do about it?
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Self-Publishing made so much sense – especially because it seems to bypass the repeated rejection that seems to go hand in hand with traditional publishing. I knew the world needed this book sooner rather than later, and I wasn’t patient enough to go through the motions of any other style of publishing.
One of my favourite parts in my Self-Publishing journey was finding my illustrator – Tika Savitri, online. There was *a moment* when my eldest son (who is the inspiration for the main character) and I were looking at her previous work; we looked at each other and *just knew* she was perfect for this book.
Tika did an incredible job of creatively bringing gorgeous personal and nostalgic touches to the book. There are oak leaves throughout the book, which is meaningful for our family, a special blanket that was with us in NICU and even hearing aids on my middle son’s character.
The book is based in Hobart and features our beloved home away from home – Ronald McDonald House.
As a way of supporting other NICU families and getting my book into their hands directly when they need it, I offer the option on my website to ‘donate a copy’, where I send the donated copies straight to NICU wards and families staying at Ronald McDonald Houses throughout Australia.
I love that this is a classic example of the freedom that comes with self-publishing.
One of the hardest parts of being an author and self-publishing – for me – has nothing to do with the actual process, and everything to do with the subject matter. I wrote a children’s book about mine and my family’s biggest traumas, now I must think about it and relive it and ‘advertise’ it every day, to support and advocate for other families going through similar things, Yikes!
I am a huge believer in sharing stories as a way of creating comfort and support, of encouraging empathy for our own and other people’s stories.
So… My advice to aspiring authors is DO IT!
Write the book!
Imagine me saying this loudly and passionately, whilst grasping your shoulders!
N.B. If you’re writing difficult or personal stories that stretch you to your emotional limits (like I did), please seek support, don’t go through this without the support of a decent Psychologist or Counsellor. The world needs your stories, yes, but we need your health and mental wellbeing MORE.
I am also very passionate about the fact that there is no such thing as too many books. For example – there are plenty of NICU books in the world, but no two are the same. This goes for every subject and genre out there.
We need as many different perspectives and stories as we possibly can. It’s not about competition, it’s about heartfelt connection, healing stories and sharing our human experiences in order to understand our world.
If you want to write another NICU book (or any book), I will be your biggest cheerleader!
My ultimate goal with Counting on You, while supporting NICU siblings and families, is also to raise awareness for NICU life. I’d love to introduce non-NICU families to a world they will hopefully never have to experience, that’s how we develop empathy and understanding.
I hope my book provides comfort and support, whilst also educating and normalising different stories for children. I believe that learning about and listening to other people’s stories is a powerful way of becoming better, kinder humans, and the world needs more of those.
And before you ask, yes, I do have books two and three drafted in my Notes app, and neither of them are NICU related, so watch this space!
You can find and follow Jayne on Instagram and Facebook @threeharveys
To find a stockist, purchase or donate a copy of Counting on You – A NICU story, head to Jayne’s Website threeharveys.com
Article & images kindly supplied by Author Jayne Case
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Jayne is from Tasmania, Australia and in her article below you will discover how she turned her family’s NICU journey into a comforting children’s book, ideal for NICU siblings. Learn about how the Ronald McDonald House became the Case families home away from home, what it’s like to become a ‘medical mum’ and all about Jaynes positive experience of self-publishing. But, first…
If you’re interested in sharing your self-publishing story for our Indie Author Diaries blog series, get in touch today!
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Jayne is a mum from Tasmania, Australia who turned her family’s NICU journey into a comforting children’s book, ideal for NICU siblings. Jayne shares her positive experience of self publishing.
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