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 […]

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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 […]

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My angle on finding focus in writing …

or why writing is a bit like cinematography. I took the following pics when we were camping a few days ago (yes, I know I’m an abysmal photographer). It occurred to me much later that this series of shots mirrors my approach to writing. It’s funny how the mind works. Sometimes, when I’m stuck, I […]

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‘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 […]

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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: […]

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Friday Brown spreads her wings…

To those readers who’ve enquired about Friday Brown’s availability overseas—Simon & Schuster will be publishing Friday Brown in the US and Canada, and Hot Key Books will publish in the UK, both in 2013. Woo! Hardcover! It took a lot of people to make this happen. To everyone who has championed Friday Brown here in […]

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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 […]

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