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 […]
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 […]
Melbourne has begun its new lockdown, so I’m back to video making. My GAMERS trilogy, published by Ford Street Publishing, returned to bookshop shelves this year with awesome new covers from Matthew Lin. They were published in March, just before the first lockdown, so I’ve not been able to do much in the way of physical […]
With self-isolation being the new norm during this time of viral pandemic, I thought I’d inflict a bit of reading on the unsuspecting Interwebs. Here are a couple short excerpts from my books… The first is a reading from the interactive You Choose: The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove: And the second is a reading from Game […]
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. […]
Okay folks, here they are… the awesome new covers by Matthew Lin for the three Gamers novels… These new editions will be released by Ford Street Publishing in March 2020.
It’s the New Year! It’s the New Decade! It’s time to celebrate and look forward to 2020, which has such a lovely science-fiction ring to it. But it’s also a chance to look back and celebrate the past as well. My BIG publication for 2019 was The Australia Survival Guide, released on 1 October by Puffin […]
Zyra is coming back! Tark is coming back! The GAMERS trilogy is coming back! My first trilogy of novels is set to be rebranded and rereleased March 2020 with Ford Street Publishing. AWESOME new covers have been created by the amazingly talented Matthew Lin. And the books have new individual titles that are a little […]
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 […]
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 […]
Ballots for both the Ditmar and Chronos awards have now been released. And I’m on both! I’m pleasantly surprised and extremely happy. 🙂 The Ditmars are the Australian Science Fiction Achievement awards, decided by popular vote and presented each year at the National Science Fiction Convention (this year it’s Continuum X in Melbourne). They include […]
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.
Since my last post about reviews (see: “The reviews are in”) back in July, there have been a few more Gamers’ Rebellion reviews, as well as a one for Life, Death and Detention. In that previous post I linked to Young Adult Reader Reviews – Australia, where a 13-year-old reader didn’t click with the novel. […]
With the book trailer for Gamers’ Rebellion now up on YouTube, I thought I should post all three trailers for the Gamers books up here in order. Enjoy! GAMERS’ QUEST: GAMERS’ CHALLENGE: GAMERS’ REBELLION:
Gamers’ Rebellion was released last month and is about to have its public launch this Saturday (see: “Gamers’ Rebellion launch”). And it’s been getting a fair few reviews. I was a little worried about the review situation. The first book in the series got lots of reviews. The second got less. I feared that the […]
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 […]
Today… a post about anthologies — those wonderful books that contain short stories by a multitude of different authors. They are perfect for dipping into when you don’t have much reading time; but they’re also great for cover-to-cover devouring. I love writing short stories, so I contribute to anthologies as often as I can. Sometimes […]
At the end of March, just before I was due to head off on holiday, something wonderful arrived in the mail. It was a book! Now, I’m always excited when a book shows up in my post box, but this one was special. Not only was it a book that I had written, but it […]
I find it hard to believe that it’s 2013 already. Tempus is fugiting a little too quickly for my liking (excuse my Latin-butchering). But never mind, we must look to the future. I’ve already written about the past (well, 2012 anyway) over on my Literary Clutter bookish blog at Boomerang Books (see “The year that […]
Okay… so there’s this chain blog post thing that’s doing the rounds at the moment. It’s called THE NEXT BIG THING. Basically, it’s ten questions that are an opportunity for writers to tell people about their next project —a completed book about to be published, a work in progress or simply an idea about to […]
Gamers’ Challenge has just been released as an eBook. YAY! It’s available on Kindle through Amazon. Gamers’ Quest is also available on Kindle, as well as in the Booki.sh format through Readings. Life, Death and Detention is available is a number of different eBook formats (incluing Kindle, Epub, Palm Doc and plain old PDF) all […]
I’ve finally gotten around to editing the videos from the launch of Life, Death and Detention. 🙂 First up, here’s Alison Goodman’s launch speech… And here’s my speech, which includes a few short readings from the book… Yes, the video cuts out before I finish. My camera automatically switches off after a certain amount of […]
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 […]
Two bits of exciting Gamers news to report. Gamers’ Challenge has joined Gamers’ Quest on the reading list for the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. Both books are listed for two age groups — Years 5 & 6 and Years 7 & 8. I’m rather pleased about this. 🙂 Later this year, Ford Street Publishing will […]
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 […]
Gamers’ Challenge got reviewed in the Herald Sun Weekend! And it was a positive review. 🙂 Getting a review in a major, high circulation newspaper like the Herald Sun is great. It brings my book to the attention of many more people… especially parents buying books as presents for their kids. But Gamers’ Challenge has […]
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 […]
It is with great excitement that I present for your viewing pleasure the Gamers’ Challenge book trailer… HUGE thanks to Henry Gibbens for putting the trailer together. I love the trailer he made for Gamers’ Quest, but he’s taken things a step further with this new one, adding a level of dynamism. My thanks also […]
YES! It’s finally happened. After months of waiting, my new novel, Gamers’ Challenge, has been released. It’s available throughout Australia in bookstores — although if your local bookstore doesn’t have it in stock, get them to order it in. If you plan on purchasing it online, please allow me to recommend Boomerang Books. Okay, yes… […]
In the past, I have been known to moonlight as an actor. Look — here’s my ultra serious acting headshot to prove it. About two years ago, shortly after the birth of my second daughter, I made the decision to stop chasing acting work and focus on my writing career. The main reason for this […]
I’m very excited about getting a book trailer for Gamers’ Challenge. It’s currently in production, being put together by Henry Gibbens, who did the trailer for my previous book, Gamers’ Quest. In the meantime, check out the trailer he has put together for Mole Hunt, a new YA science fiction novel from Paul Collins…
A couple of days ago I attended the Macmillan Winter Sales Conference to promote Gamers’ Challenge to the sales reps who will be getting it out into book stores. (If you want to know more about the conference, I blogged about it on Literary Clutter.) Also on that day I received my advance copy of […]
I recently did an interview with The Australian Literature Review website because I’ve got a story in their new anthology Basics of Life (available through Amazon). The interview also covers other things, including Gamers’ Quest and its sequel. It’s now online. And here’s an interview from last June. It’s from Get Cereal, Channel 31’s breakfast programme. […]
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 […]
