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 […]
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 […]
My first picture book, Meet… the Flying Doctors, illustrated by the talented Ben Wood, hits bookstores across Australia today. I’m celebrating with some baklava. 🙂 This is a non-fiction, historical picture book that tells the story of Rev John Flynn and the formation of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. On a recent trip to Alice […]
The Royal Flying Doctor Service saves many lives, but medical assistance and outback rescues are not all they do. They also educate. They visit schools and kindergartens, and talk to kids. Today I had the great pleasure of meeting RFDS educator, Tom Ryan and sitting in on his session at Olympic Avenue Kindergarten. He had […]
I love picture books. I have read LOTS of them to my daughters over the years and I’ve also read LOTS of them for my own pleasure. There is something about the story telling power of words and pictures combined that is utterly magical. I have long harbored an ambition to write picture books. After […]
Books 3 and 4 in my RFDS series hit the shelves today – Medical Mission and Fast Flight. I’m celebrating, as always, with cake (it’s my little Publication Day tradition). A LOT OF CAKE! I have a Russian background (you’d never guess with a name like Ivanoff), and this past weekend was Russian Easter… so […]
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 […]
The first two books in the RFDS ADVENTURES were released last week. Although the next two books won’t be released until May, I can reveal the covers. With thanks to artist Maria Penna, here they are…
The first two books in the RFDS ADVENTURES take flight today. Remote Rescue, set in the South Australian ghost town of Farina, and Emergency Echo, set in the remote West Australian town of Mount Magnet, hit bookshop shelves across the country. Continuing my tradition of celebrating each Publication Day with cake, I’ve got some of […]
Since March I’ve been sitting on some news. I’ve been desperate to shout it from the rooftops, but I’ve had to wait until my publisher was ready to announce it. Well, that time has arrived. I can finally reveal the project I’ve been working on is a new series of kids books about the Royal […]
