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: YA Fiction
The Writing Process Blog Hop
I’ve been tagged by Dianne Touchell (Creepy and Maud 2012), one of the most authentic authors writing for young adults today. Di will be publishing her new YA novel with Allen & Unwin in 2015 and you can read about her writing process here. I’ve also been tagged by Rosanne Hawke (Marrying Ameera, Shahana, Mountain […]
On book angels…
A couple of days ago I posted a vague tweet about ‘book angels’ and promised to follow up. I’m always interested in the stories behind stories, so here’s some insight into mine. I’ve been lucky with the people I’ve met on my writing journey—either that, or the YA/children’s writing and publishing community is populated by […]
Young writers, strap on your boots…
Young writers aged between 14-17, check out the SA Writers’ Centre Teen Bootcamp being held during the October school holidays. You’ll find the program here and below is a quick overview of my session on Wednesday, 2nd October. Registrations are closing soon! Plotter, pantser, necromancer One of the questions most commonly asked of a […]
Sing it back…
So, the biennial, immersive, memorable Reading Matters 2013 conference is over. This is not a comprehensive, professional recap (see Danielle Binks’ posts here and Zac Harding’s here for that)—this is more a view from the trenches with tasteful photography. Ahem. I prepared the shit out of this event (that’s what I have to do to […]
In which I namedrop…
It’s Reading Matters 2013 next week! Imagine the little bumblebee-girl in Blind Melon’s ‘No Rain’ video clip (you’re lost, you dance to a different beat, nobody understands you) then, by chance (or by purchasing a ticket), you stumble into a field (or the RMIT building) and discover your people. It’s a pretty awesome lineup […]
Rant: fear is the root of my writers’ block…
I’ve suffered through many stages of writers’ block over the years. With each project it has manifested itself differently, like a virus that changes its biology just to thwart my immune system. Just when I figure out how to beat it, it pops up again in another form, each time stronger and more elusive. Each […]
‘The Next Big Thing’ meme…
Thanks to Paula Weston and Fiona Wood for asking me to sign up to this. I wasn’t going to participate in this meme because so many other wonderful authors are on the brink of a new release and I’m barely out of the gate, but here we go – it sounds like fun. Here’s my […]
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: […]
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 […]