Oh, my poor neglected website. I promise to do better. Not this week, but hopefully before the year is out. I’m just waiting for the planets to align and for flares to come back in. Inbetween Days is my new YA novel. It’s coming out in September with Text Publishing, and here’s the sublime cover […]
Category: Books
Kid Attack!
I wonder how many of us can remember when we first dared to dream about growing up to be a writer/illustrator? I know I didn’t get past the dreaming part for a very long time. I’m so pleased to share the work of a talented young graphic novelist, Ewan, who’s getting on with the business […]
Perth Writers’ Festival wrap…
I don’t know what it is about writers’ festivals, but I always get on the homebound plane feeling bereft, as if someone’s taken an ice-cream scoop to my lower belly. This post is likely to be brimful of post-festival love, but I’ll try to be professional. Wednesday, 20th: I stepped out of the airport to […]
Rant: Honesty or diplomacy? That is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to band with fellow YA writers To deflect the slings and arrows of adult criticism Or to take arms against shitty writing and wooden people (and glitter) And by opposing it (or them) end them. Sorry, Shakes. If there’s one question I hate to be asked, it’s this: […]
Rant: book bloggers harm literature…
So says the chair of Man Booker prize judges, Peter Stothard. You can read The Guardian article here. I don’t usually weigh in on the arguments spawned by articles like this. I’ve been a journalist and I know how spin works: put a sting in the title, irk the minority, kick back and enjoy the […]
Friday on my mind…
Here’s the final cover art for Friday Brown. It’s gone to print (well, it went to print twelve and a half days ago, but who’s counting?). This book was extremely difficult to write and I still don’t know why. I knew the final scene from the get-go and supposedly the writing is easier […]
Is reading overrated?
This question will be posed to a panel of authors, including me, at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival in August. I imagine the discussion will be decidedly against—like asking a scarecrow if he really needs all that straw. Well, yes. The essence of the scarecrow is in the straw (I’m gunning hard for the Bad […]
A sighting in the wild…
Friday Brown is almost ready to fly. It’s like seeing my youngest off to school. The house is too quiet. I don’t quite know what to do with my freedom. I’ve had this baby swaddled like a papoose for so long and now it’s out there. Think Mork (Robin Williams before he got craggy) launching […]