This past year has had a lot of ups and downs. On a personal level, it was a particularly difficult year dominated by the death of my mum after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. So I can’t say that I’m disappointed to see the end of 2024. On a professionally level, it was a […]
Term 3, 2024 — WOW, what a term! The busiest speaking term I have EVER had. Yesterday I had my last speaking gig for the term, so I thought it a good moment to reflect. I visited 20 schools and attended 3 festivals. I spoke to so many engaged and enthusiastic students and some pretty […]
What’s true? What’s not? Can you tell the difference? A new podcast from me and fellow author Michael Pryor, that mixes fact and fiction, then tries to sort them out. In each episode we present three remarkable stories to each other. Two stories are true, but one is totally made up. Subscribe to the podcast […]
Teachers, Librarians, Festival Organisers… Lend me your ears. ‘Cause I love talking! In fact, if you give me a microphone and an audience, it can be hard to shut me up. And I am always on the look out for new speaking opportunities — presentations, workshops, keynote addresses… whatever. With only a couple more speaking […]
It all started with the pandemic. We were in lockdown so I couldn’t get out for a haircut. Then promotional possibilities took over. I decided to keep growing my hair and add a beard to achieve a wild aesthetic for the promotion of The Supernatural Survival Guide. Once the publicity was all done and dusted, […]
After two years of lockdowns, school visits via Zoom and cancelled festivals, it’s been so nice to once again connect with readers in person. I was lucky enough to attend two amazing youth literary festivals in the latter part of this year — Scribbler’s Festival and Once Upon A Festival. A HUGE thank you to […]
Who would’ve thought that we could get a year more challenging than 2020? Ah well… with that year having been a practice run, at least I was better equipped to handle 2021. I had two books published this year. .. My entry into the Lethbridge-Stewart range of Doctor Who spinoff novels, Fear Frequency, came out […]
Well, hasn’t 2020 been one heck of a year? Back in January I had no idea that a pandemic was on it’s way, that I would find myself in lockdown, twice, that schools would start cancelling speaking gigs and that I’d have to learn to switch over to virtual presentations. It was challenging, both on […]
Another reading, this time from OTHER WORLDS: Game World. Computer games, robot birds, laser pistols and a car chase… what more could you want? As usual, shot on my iPhone and edited with iMovie. This time I played around with multiple angles and editing. Hope you like it.
As Melbourne continues with Lockdown 2.0, I’m continuing with my vids. It’s been a while since my last reading (You Choose, 6 May), so I thought it was high time for another one. This is the opening of “Chapter One: Zyra” from Level Up!, which is the second book in my YA Gamers trilogy. Hope you enjoy […]
The Covid-19 Isolation continues… and so do my reading vids. This one is from You Choose: In the Realm of Dragons. This is my first attempt at using green screen to create a split screen video in order to have two of me in the same shot. It was A LOT harder than I anticipated. I […]
Here’s another reading. This one is from Beast World, which is Book 2 in the OTHER WORLDS series. Although these books can be read as a sequential series, they are also designed to work as stand-alones. This time, I’ve played around a bit with editing and special effects. I am very much enjoying the process of creating […]
Another week of pandemic induced self-isolation… another video reading. Something a little different this time. It’s only the first scene of my short story “Future Dreaming”, which appeared in the anthology Under the Weather: Stories about climate change (ed: Tony Bradman, Frances Lincoln, UK, 2009). But then I go on to give you my two cents […]
I’m back with another reading video, this time from The RFDS Adventures: Emergency Echo. In this extract, we get to hear about Fergus Callaghan, a pilot with the Aerial Medical Service (the precursor to the RFDS) in the 1930s. Please excuse my Irish accent. 🙂
Life in Australia has become rather strange since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. Social distancing has become a thing, hand sanitising is now the norm, and panic buying of toilet paper has hit insanity levels. But schools have also been affected. Many have closed due to staff or students having contracted the virus. States […]
Happy Publication Day to the new-look GAMERS trilogy. Originally published between 2009 and 2013, they are back with new covers, new titles and new marketing. These awesome covers are by Matthew Lin. All three books can now be purchased directly from Ford Street Publishing. Or you can get your favourite bookshop to order them in. […]
Last week I had the great pleasure of attending Voices on the Coast in Queensland. Organised by Immanuel Lutheran College in conjunction with The University of the Sunshine Coast, it was two days of immersion in books and all things reading, as students were bussed in from surrounding schools to attending presentations and workshops with […]
I love a good literary festival – both as a writer/speaker and as a reader. The StoryArts Festival Ipswich, is one of the best. And I was lucky enough to be invited along. Five days worth of amazing book-related programming for kids. That’s right (write)… FIVE DAYS! How cool is that! The program was divided between […]
Blimey… what a year! 2018 was busy. Real busy! Like, super busy! Lots of writing and touring and speaking. It was all pretty amazing! The big thing was, of course, the publication of the OTHER WORLDS series. Four sci-fi/fantasy/adventure books for kids aged 8 and up. Books 1 and 2 came out in February and […]
A bunch of authors and illustrators touring around Melbourne and Sydney on a mini-bus with a publicist… what could possibly go wrong? Well… aside from being mobbed by an entire school’s worth of kids desperate for the bag of lollies I was about to distribute on Halloween; and being made to impersonate a meerkat on […]
Whilst attending a writers festival in an odd faux Swiss village in Tasmania, named Grindelwald, some of my fellow-writers and I decided that it would make a great setting for a murder mystery novel. One by one, authors are murdered for the mistakes they have made in their novels, their method of demise being in […]
Today I ran a two-hour intensive writing workshop for kids aged seven and up, at Eltham Bookshop. It was all about structure and planning. Several of the participants were interested in using the group planning activities as a basis for their own writing, so I promised to put photos of the whiteboard plans up on […]
In October this year I had the pleasure of touring the Central Coast area of NSW, courtesy of the local branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Over the course of five days I visited seven schools, two bookshops, a library book club and a Teacher-Librarian networking event. And I even managed to squeeze […]
Hands up, who went to this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival? [LOTS, given the crowds of people I saw.] Who had a wonderful, inspiring, creative time? [Insert deafening cheers.] I was there! This was my second year in a row running a sold-out workshop as part of the Schools Program. How lucky am I? The workshop […]
n late May I had the pleasure of going on a promotional book tour in Wagga Wagga and the surrounding Riverina region. I visited six schools in Henty, The Rock, Ashmont, Junee, Coolamon and Wagga Wagga, as well as doing some media and an in-store event with the tour organisers, Gateway Bookshop (if you’re ever […]
Grab your Coal Hill Academy ID, pack your sonic lipstick and strap on your vortex manipulator… it’s time to spin-off through a fracture in the time/space continuum to a live discussion of all things not quite Doctor Who. If you’re a Doctor Who fan, chances are you’ve heard of the SPLENDID CHAPS podcast. This awesome […]
I run quite a lot of writing workshops each year, mostly in schools and libraries, on topics such as character development, story structure, world building and finding inspiration. In recent years I’ve also run workshops on writing interactive stories like my YOU CHOOSE books. All of these workshops have been for kids and teens, who […]
It’s hard to separate a festival from its location. And really, in this case, why would you want to? Goulburn is such a pretty town, filled with wonderful old buildings (one of them being the Mandelson’s Hotel, where I stayed), excellent cafes and a giant concrete Marino nicknamed Rambo. And the Goulburn Reader Writer Festival […]
It’s been an insanely busy couple of months. Book Week is always a busy time of year for children’s authors, but this year things extended well into the preceding and following weeks. I was also presenting on the children’s program of the Melbourne Writers Festival, which was the week after Book Week. Plus, in the […]
Whitsunday Anglican School in Mackay certainly knows how to host one heck of a great Youth Literature Festival. Two days of presentations and workshops with fifteen authors and illustrators, attended by thousands of students from schools all over the region. As one of the speakers, I spent two days feeling like a rock star, speaking […]
Informative and inspiring! Last week I attended my first ever Children’s Book Council of Australia conference. It was such an amazing experience. With a theme of READ: MYRIAD POSSIBILITIES, it was held in Sydney over two days (20-21 May). Authors, illustrators, publishers and teacher-librarians came together to discuss the topic closest to their hearts — […]
I’m gonna be on TV! Channel 9! The Today Show on the morning of Tuesday 8 March (that’s tomorrow). Let me tell you why… Last week I had an amazing time touring around Adelaide to promote the release of my Royal Flying Doctor Service series of kids’ adventure books. I visited schools and bookstores, signed […]
I am VERY EXCITED to announce that the Royal Flying Doctor Service adventures will be officially launched by the Honourable Susan Close, South Australia’s Education and Child Development Minister. The launch will take place on Tuesday 1 March at the Leigh Creek Area School. After the minister’s launch speech, I’ll be talking about the inspiration […]
Do authors ever reach the point of being blasé about their careers? Oh yes, I’ve just had another book published and I’m off on tour again. It’s all so very tiring and inconvenient. Will I ever get to that point? I certainly hope not. I still get so excited every time a new book […]
Ingredients: 34 authors and illustrators; 300+ students; 40 shortlisted children’s books; 4 awards; and, most importantly, cake. It’s a recipe for heaps of FUN! On Tuesday 27 October 2015, a whole bunch of authors and illustrators went along to a celebration of Aussie books that was attended by over 300 students. The location was Sacré […]
I got to spend a weekend hanging out at a convention with Lani Tupu (Captain Crais from Farscape), Paul Eiding (man of a thousand voices, including Max Tennyson from Ben 10), Tom Taylor (author of comics such as The Deep and Injustice: Gods Among Us) and a bunch of other comic book creators. Way cool! […]
Book Week (and the weeks surrounding it) tends to be a busy time for kids’ authors in Australia. Lots of talking about BOOKS! And, of course, the opportunity to meet readers. Great fun! Thank you to all the schools and libraries that have hosted me over the last couple of months. The enthusiasm of kids who […]
Okay… so I’ve been a die-hard, nerdy/geeky fanboy for a lot longer than I’ve been a professional author. Way before my first book hit the shelves in 1999, I was attending sci-fi conventions, joining fan clubs and dressing up in costume. I wrote appalling Doctor Who fan fic (bashed out on a manual typewriter) and […]
Fun! Informative! Educational! Literary! Overwhelming! Awesome! A total BLAST! What am I talking about? Voice On the Coast Youth Literature Festival! I was lucky enough to spend three days at this wonderful festival, organised by Immanuel Lutheran College in conjunction with The University of the Sunshine Coast. Although there were public events either side, the […]
It’s one of those literary events that all kids’ authors talk about. It’s one that everyone wants to attend. And this year I was lucky enough to be invited along as a speaker to the Somerset Celebration of Literature. Held on the Gold Coast by Somerset College, it is open to students from other schools, […]
2015 is shaping up to be a busy one in terms of speaking and travelling. I’ve hit the ground running with my first school visit and a radio interview last week. And there’s lots more coming up. The visit was to Berwick Grammar, where I got to talk to all the Year 8 boys about […]
On Saturday I will participating in INSIDE STORY, an international children’s book event to be held at bookstores in Australia and the USA. Each participating bookstore will host a bunch of authors who will talk about the story behind of one of their books. This will be followed by signings This is an annual event […]
Armageddon was awesome! Let me repeat that, just in case I haven’t quite made myself clear: ARMAGEDDON WAS AWESOME! For those of you who don’t know, Armageddon is a HUGE pop culture expo. Their latest event was held at the Melbourne Showgrounds this past weekend (18/19 Oct). I was lucky enough to be invited along […]
Two exciting announcements to make (well, they’re exciting to me)… I’m going to be at the Melbourne Armageddon Expo on 18/19 October. I’ll be at the Dymocks stand most of the weekend. Dymocks will have my You Choose series and Gamers trilogy in stock, and I’ll be ready with an assortment of pens and stamps […]
As an author, I do lots of appearances — school visits, writing workshops, library talks, lit festivals and bookstore signings. Sometimes, I’ll get a thank you gift from the organisers. I’ve been presented with all manner of interesting and generous gifts — from bottles of wine, to boxes of chocolates; from coffee mugs, to Turkish […]
I’ve had lots of speaking and signing gigs lately — school visits, library talks and bookshop events. National Bookshop Day was particularly fun with the morning spent working the register at Dymocks in Collins St, Melbourne, in support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation; and the afternoon spent meeting readers at Ulysses Bookstore in Sandringham. I’ve […]
Another Studio 3 interview… this time WITHOUT CREAM PIES! I little while back I appeared on ABC3’s Studio 3 programme, talking about my You Choose books while being slammed in the face with cream pies. It was a fun interview but there were so many pies I could hardly stop laughing. I think the producer […]
What would you expect from a national television interview about your latest series of books? A cream pie slammed into your face? No? How about FIVE cream pies? Earlier this week I went along to the ABC3 studios to be a guest on Studio 3, their national morning kids’ show. I was to be interviewed […]
The first two books in the You Choose series have now officially hit the shelves. And the eBook readers. So, of course, there had to be cake. What’s a publication day without cake? 🙂 The books are available in most Australian bookstores, as well as in Big W. If your local store doesn’t have any […]
It’s finally time to reveal the covers for You Choose books three and four. Illustrator James Hart has again captured the spirit of the series with his wonderfully dynamic images. In other news… I went along to Supanova in Melbourne on Sunday to promote the first two You Choose books. I was there along with […]
Okay… so you all know about the You Choose books I’ve got coming out with Random House Australia this year? Interactive kids’ books where the reader gets to make decisions about how the story progresses — like the old Choose Your Own Adventure novels from the 1980s. The first two don’t come out until May, […]
Continuum is an annual science fiction and pop culture convention that is held in Melbourne. I’ve been to every single one so far. This year’s (6-9 June) is the tenth and it’s going to be a rather special one, so let me tell you about it and why you should come along. It’s the tenth […]
Look! I’m in the Chelsea Mordialloc News! This interview was done to promote my talk at the Mentone Public Library this Saturday. You can see the entire edition of the newspaper here. More info about the talk here.
I know this is meant to be my writing blog, but I simply cannot let the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who go by without a post. And so, with the anniversary weekend now over, here are my personal highlights… 1. The special programmingI loved watching “The Night of the Doctor”, “The Last Day”, “The Day […]
On Wednesday 13 November 2013, I was one of several people to perform at the Melbourne Library Service’s event “Not Quite the Big Finish: An Evening of Doctor Who Spoken Word”. I decided to read out a letter to showrunner Steven Moffat, respectfully requesting a writing gig on Doctor Who. 😉 And yes, I was […]
Steven Moffat should let me write an episode of Doctor Who! Why? Come along to Not Quite the Big Finish: An Evening of Doctor Who Spoken Word to find out… ‘cause that’s what I’m going to be ‘spoken wording’ about! The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is fast approaching. And the Melbourne Library Service is […]
Authors promoting other writers’ books! What’s that all about? This coming Sunday I’ll be at Eltham Library helping Steven Lochran celebrate his latest novel, War Zone. It’s the third book in his YA superhero series, Vanguard Prime. We’ll be doing an ‘in conversation’ Q&A session, followed by a short writing workshop. (Details on my Upcoming […]
In August this year, I went on a speaking tour of remote schools in rural Western Australia. I wrote about it in a blog post (see: Touring WA). At Mt Margaret Primary School, I ran two story structure workshops and got kids to help me plot out stories. Yesterday I posted the story that resulted […]
Yesterday I posted about the speaking tour of schools in rural Western Australia that I did last month (see Touring WA). During that tour, I conducted story structure workshops with a couple of the classes at Mt Margaret Primary School. The resulting stories, I felt, deserved to the shared with a wider audience. I started […]
Last month I had an extraordinary experience. Along with three illustrators, I visited remote schools in rural Western Australia to do presentations and workshops. It’s an experience that will live long in my memory. My companions on this trip were illustrators Marjory Gardener, Marc McBride and Den Scheer. Along with our tour manager Peter Scheer, […]
It’s been a long week of speaking gigs — six sessions over four days. With Book Week now over, I can sit back, relax and assess how things went. But only for a short time, ‘cause on Monday I’m at it again. Mooroolbark College was first cab off the rank, with two sessions — one […]
Last weekend I attended Continuum 9. Like those that went before it, this convention was awesome. Lots of great panels, so many interesting discussions and a really friendly, engaging vibe. For me, personally, it was special for a number of reasons. Firstly, I got to launch my new novel, Gamers’ Rebellion (third book in the […]
It’s June 2013! And my new novel, Gamers’ Rebellion, has finally been unleashed upon the Australian reading public. 🙂 It is so VERY, VERY exciting! This is the third book in the Gamers series, finishing off Tark and Zyra’s story (but leaving things open for further stories… just in case ;-)). Its release means that […]
I’ve had a fairly quiet first half of the year in terms of speaking… which is a good thing, I suppose, given how many writing projects I’ve had on the go. But things are hotting up. I’ve had a string of bookings recently, with more on the way. Three days during Book Week have already […]
In November last year I put up a short video called GEORGE IVANOFF SPEAKS about BOOKS. I also noted my intention to put up a few more short vids of myself talking about writing/reading related topics. Well, I finally found a little time to prepare another one. This video was recorded at Doveton Library in […]
If you live in Melbourne and are writing for young people, you should be listening to SYN 90.7FM. Why? Because SYN FM is a radio station run by young people under the age of 25. SYN stands for Student Youth Network. The fact that all the presenters and producers of the various programs are under […]
I have been meaning to put together some video examples of my speaking for quite a while now. The idea being that librarians everywhere will watch them and immediately be compelled to book me for a speaking gig. 😉 Well… I have finally gotten around to it. This is the first one: “GEORGE IVANOFF SPEAKS […]
Trust Me Too, the bumper anthology from Ford Street Publishing, has been launched — three times! First in Sydney, then in Melbourne and most recently in Geelong. The Melbourne launch at Pinces Hill Secondary College was HUGE, with well over 100 people attending. The Geelong launch, held at Waurn Ponds Library, was smaller but no […]
July 2012 saw the release of Ford Street Publishing’s massive new YA anthology, Trust Me Too. I’m very excited about this for two reasons… 1. because I’ve got a story in it — “Gamers’ Inferno”. 2. because it’s got so many stories from so many fab Australian writers. I’m about half way through my copy […]
The 2012 Bayside Literary Festival starts next week. Should be a lot of fun. I’ll be doing a short reading at the opening and participating in three programme items… Bayside Open Readings, Friday 22 June, 7-9pm. Microfiction Workshop: Short and Sweet, Saturday 23 June, 2-4pm. What’s Fit to Print: Issues in Youth Literature, Saturday 7 […]
Earlier this month I had what was probably one of the best school speaking experiences of my career — a four-day tour of schools in the Portarlington/Drysdale region. It was organised by the local Lions Club. They arranged for me to visit four of the local schools — St Leonards PS, Portarlington PS, Drysdale PS […]
This year is shaping up to be incredibly busy with regards to speaking — schools, libraries, bookshops, conventions and even some radio. I’ve already visited St Michael’s PS, Leongatha PS, Hampton Park PS, Mentone Grammar and Embiggen Books, as well as being a guest on two episodes of Southern FM’s Write Now program. Here’s a […]
On Monday 20 February I had the great pleasure of launching the National Year of Reading celebrations at my old school, Mentone Grammar. I even got to cut a ribbon with the school’s Principal, Mr Mal Cater… It’s a lot harder than it looks… especially when the scissors are blunt. 🙂 But Mr Cater and […]
Earlier this week I visited Hampton Park Primary to launch the Carpet Court Storybook Challenge at their school. I spoke to students in Years 3 and 4. They were a great bunch of kids with LOTS of fantastic questions. A photographer from the local paper was there. The result: this little article in Berwick News… […]
Doing interviews is just part of the job when you’re an author. I’ve done lots of magazine and blog interviews… and occasionally, I get a radio or television interview. Radio and television can be a lot of fun, especially when you get along well with the interviewer. I did a couple earlier this year, so […]
It has been a busy couple of months with lots of book signings, speaking gigs and other writing related outings. The definite highlights were the two school literary festivals — Yarra Valley Grammar on 20 October and the Catholic College Bendigo on 25 November. I love doing school visits. They are a great opportunity to […]
On Saturday 17 September 2011, Gamers’ Challenge was officially launched. Many thanks to Ford Street Publishing for organising the event and to Michael Pryor (author of The Laws of Magic) for launching the book. If you’d like to see Michael delivering his eloquent launch speech, check out the video below. While the video camera happily […]
My new website is still incomplete. 🙁 Info missing from some of the pages and some new pages yet to be added. I’m working my way through it slowly, but I keep getting distracted by other things. Here’s a quick round up of what I’ve been up to… I’ve finished going through the proofs of […]
