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 […]
2023 was a good year for my writing. I had a novel, four school readers and an essay published. One of my books won an award (I also made it onto a couple of short lists) and another one of my books went overseas. I wrote a few things and did heaps of speaking. Yep… […]
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, […]
Random Vanishing Info This is the final blog post in my series examining all the stuff that got cut out of The Supernatural Survival Guide before its publication. In this installment, I’ve collected together some bits of info from the book’s final section EVERYTHING ELSE (ALL OF IT WEIRD). Chapter 17: Nothing is what it seems, […]
Spooky Stuff That Disappeared Another blog post in my series examining all the stuff that got cut out of The Supernatural Survival Guide before its publication. In this installment, I’ve collected together my favourate bits that disappeared from the book’s third section FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. First up, here’s a bit of historical info that […]
Abducted information THEY CAME FROM OUTTA THIS WORLD… MAYBE is the first (and longest) section in The Supernatural Survival Guide, and contains lots of information about UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), including reports of aliens abducting people. Well, I’m not sure about alien abduction, but I had to abduct and remove some info from this section […]
The Hazel Edwards Interview The first completed draft of The Supernatural Survival Guide contained an interview with well-known Australian Children’s author Hazel Edwards. It appeared along with the Fact File about the Westall UFO Incident in Chapter 2: Look! Up in the Sky! In 1966, Hazel was a new teacher at Westall High School and […]
The Deleted Chapter Early drafts of The Supernatural Survival Guide contained a chapter that is no longer there. Yes, that’s right. I ended up cutting out an entire chapter. This was originally going to be the final chapter in the BEASTLY STUFF section. But in the end, I decided that its focus on mythological creatures […]
Cutting Words The first completed draft of The Supernatural Survival Guide was several thousand words over the ideal word count. What can I say? I was so into the topic and my research was uncovering heaps of really cool info… and… well… I got a little carried away. So there was a great deal of […]
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 […]
Here it is folks… the cover for THE SUPERNATURAL SURVIVAL GUIDE, which will hit bookshops on 28 September 2021! Meanwhile, the covers for the first two GUIDES have been shortlisted in the Australian Book Designers Association awards in the Children’s/Young Adult Series category. The first book was a collaboration – Bruno Herfst and Tony Palmer […]
What does an author do when there’s a snap Covid lockdown? Make more videos, of course! This time around I’ve gone for short (under 10 seconds), sharp little promos for The Human Body Survival Guide that can be used on social media. I’ll be uploading them to Instagram, Twitter and FaceBook… but I thought I’d […]
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 […]
Hold on to your tinfoil hats folks… it’s time to research everything spooky, weird and unexplained. That’s the focus of the new SURVIVAL GUIDE that I am currently working on. I will be covering cryptozoology, UFOlogy, ghost hunting and a range of other topics. I will be approaching the subject matter from a sceptic’s starting […]
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 […]
Yes folks, it’s announcement time… I am officially revealing that my next book is The Human Body Survival Guide! This follow-up to The Australia Survival Guide, is keeping the feel and approach of the first, but with a very different topic. It is particularly focused on all the gross stuff. So this book is full of poo […]
The Australia Survival Guide, my first foray into commercial non-fiction, was published by Puffin Australia on 1 October 2019. And I was nervous. Seriously nervous! After all, I’m known for writing fiction, mostly science fiction, fantasy and OTT action/adventure. Yes, I’ve written loads of educational non-fiction, but that’s a completely different market. So this book […]
Here they are… my 4 short book trailers for THE AUSTRALIA SURVIVAL GUIDE, which will be in bookshops from Tuesday 1 October. I had way too much fun making these. Huge thanks to my wife, Kerri, for directing them. And a shout out to my daughter, Lexi, who features in the beach trailer. And I’ve […]
We have more venomous snakes than you can poke a stick at. We have creepy-crawly spiders that can sneak up on you. We have crocs and sharks with really big teeth in our waters. We have raging bushfires and unexpected floods. We have an often harsh environment with bushlands and deserts to get lost in. […]
