2025 has come to an end and with it, the first quarter of this century is over. I feel so incredibly lucky to have spent that time being an author (initially part-time, but full time now for 12 years). No, I’m not gonna reminisce about the last 25 years… it would take too long and […]
The You Choose series of books is the result of my having read lots of interactive fiction over the years. Everything from the Choose Your Own Adventure novels to the Pick-a-Path books to those set in the universe of Doctor Who. I wrote thirteen You Choose books which were published by Random House Australia between 2014 and 2017. I loved writing those books… so […]
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 […]
I am so excited to be announcing this! The first YOU CHOOSE book, The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove, was published ten years ago in 2014. The last book in the series, Footy Fever, was published seven years ago in 2017. And now… [insert drum roll] YOU CHOOSE is returning with YOU CHOOSE MEGA! More […]
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… […]
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 […]
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 […]
I am super excited to reveal the cover for Fear Frequency, my upcoming novel in the Lethbridge-Stewart range of Doctor Who spinoff books. The cover artwork is by the wonderfully talented Adrian Salmon (check out his blog). This is all finally starting to feel real, although I don’t think I will 100% believe it until I’m holding a copy in […]
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 […]
Wow! My short story, “Pure History”, from the Lethbridge-Stewart anthology The Havoc Files: The Laughing Gnome has made it onto the shortlist for this year’s SCRIBE AWARDS. These awards are organised by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers (IAMTW) and are described in the official blurb as follows… “Acknowledging excellence in this very competitive field, […]
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 […]
A couple of weeks ago, one of my writing heroes passed away. Terrance Dicks was best known for his association with Doctor Who. He was a script editor and writer on the classic series. He also wrote dozens of the Target novelisations. And he continued to write Doctor Who stories after the series was revived, his final […]
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 […]
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 […]
Or… why it’s good for this 48-year-old children’s author to play a game that involves exploring and collecting. I’m sure you’ve all heard of Pokémon Go, the hottest augmented reality game for mobile phones. It’s the game that lots of people play. It’s also the game that lots of people seem to be complaining about. […]
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 […]
As a reader, I love short stories. They give me the ability to experience a complete tale in one sitting, when I have limited time up my sleeve. As a writer, I love short stories. They give me the chance to experiment. And I love the challenge of getting a story, characters and setting across […]
Time for cake and Champagne! I’ve hit 100 published books! Today is Publication Day for my latest You Choose books — You Choose 9: Extreme Machine Challenge and You Choose 10: In the Realm of Dragons. In the Realm of Dragons is officially my 100th published book. I cannot describe just how excited I am […]
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 […]
I’m doing a happy dance! Why? Because I’ve got two bits of exciting YOU CHOOSE news to announce today. Whether these morsels of info are as thrilling for you as they are for me remains to be seen… but I’m pretty over the moon about them. So, here goes… [insert drumroll] YOU CHOOSE Books 1-4 […]
IDW Publishing in the US is releasing three volumes of short stories based on the television series The X-Files. These anthologies are being edited by New York Time best-selling author Jonathan Maberry. The first book, Trust No One, is set for release on 28 July 2015. Volumes two and three will follow in 2016. Why […]
You Choose: The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove has made it onto the shortlist for the REAL awards in the category of “Fiction For Younger Readers”. REAL stands for Reading & Enjoying Australian Literature. Books on the REAL shortlist have been nominated by kids across the country. And the shortlist is then voted on by […]
As an author you’ve got to be prepared for the unexpected because… stuff happens! Cool stuff! Weird things! Odd requests! A few weeks ago I had what is probably the oddest writing request I’ve ever received. It was from a team competing in the annual GISHWERS — Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever […]
It’s official! It is with much excitement that I get to make this announcement: there will be another two You Choose books. 🙂 Not one… TWO! That’ll bring the total series count up to SIX! 🙂 Now all I’ve gotta do it write them. Actually, I’ve already started work on book five, tentatively titled Carnival […]
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 […]
Last year was a really good year for me in terms of education writing. I was contracted to write 14 education titles, including school readers, reference books and a couple of chapter books. Most of these books will be published over the course of 2014. I’ve been writing for the education market for many years […]
Yes folks… it’s time to reveal all about that Secret Project I’ve been going on about for ages. So… [insert drum roll] I’ve been working on a new series of kids books called… YOU CHOOSE YOU CHOOSE is a series of interactive books where the reader gets to make key decisions about how the story […]
If any of you have been following me on Twitter or Facebook (and if you haven’t… why not? ;-)) you will have been enduring continuing cryptic comments about my ‘secret project’. Well, if I may paraphrase the Walrus, the time has come… for a partial unveiling. (Don’t you just hate me right about now?) I […]
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 […]
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. […]
Today Australia celebrates World Teachers’ Day, so I thought I’d take a moment to say thank you. Thank you to each and every teacher I’ve had, from official to informal, from primary school to university and beyond. You have all had a huge influence upon my life and the person who I have become. Even […]
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, […]
Last month, a book called Doctor Who and Race was published. I’ve got an essay in it and I’m rather proud of it. The editor, Lindy Orthia, has created a website for the book. I decided that I needed a new publicity pic to accompany my bio on the site — one in which I’m […]
Today I fell off a bike and played on a swing. Let me tell you about it. This morning I dropped my car off for a service. As usual, I took my bike with me so that I could ride home. I rode part of the way along a grassy path that runs beside a […]
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 […]
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 […]
My eldest daughter, Nykita, is in Grade 4 this year. Throughout her school life thus far, she has shown an aptitude for writing and art, as well as a love of reading (she devours books at an incredible rate). This makes me very happy, indeed. I remember when she was in Grade 1, her teacher […]
Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with me will know that I am a Doctor Who fan. And if you’ve ever visited my website, you will know that I love writing about the series. I’m rather excited about my Doctor Who writing at the moment. You see, with the 50th Anniversary of the show […]
This month, I’ve had five new school readers published by Macmillan Education, including two retellings of Aboriginal stories, two original pieces of fiction and one non-fiction book. They are: The Rainbow Serpent Why Crow is Black Me and My Family Making Things What Can You Do? There are still another six readers complete and waiting […]
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 […]
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 […]
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’ve just finished writing four school readers for a new K-3 Guided Reading Program to be published by Macmillan Education in Australia and New Zealand. There were three fiction titles (Hide and Seek, Grandpa Comes to Live With Us and Train Trip) and one non-fic (Changing Weather). All four readers are at Prep/Grade 1 level. […]
Here’s the rather wonderful cover of Outside In: 160 New Perspectives on 160 Classic Doctor Who Stories by 160 Writers. This is a book of essays edited by Robert Smith?, and I’m lucky enough to be included in its pages. The book gets released on 23 November 2012. For more info, check out the publisher’s website. […]
The new edition of Life, Death and Detention has been launched! Many thanks to all the people who showed up to help celebrate the release of my YA short story collection, Life, Death and Detention on 13 August. And a HUGE thank you to Mentone Grammar School, and particularly the Gregory Fish Library staff, for hosting […]
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 […]
Lots of Doctor Who stuff in my near future. 🙂 Most excitingly, I’ve just had an article accepted for OUTSIDE IN: 160 New Perpsectives on 160 Classic Doctor Who Stories by 160 Writers. Edited by Robert Smith? (yes, that question mark is deliberate), the man responsible for books such as Braaaiiinnnsss: From Academics to Zombies, it […]
If you happen to read my DVD/Blu-ray reviews blog, Viewing Clutter, you’ll probably notice that I’m a Doctor Who fan. I review lots of Doctor Who discs, and I’m currently running a DVD giveaway for copies of the recent Doctor Who Christmas Special, “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe”. I’ve even posted My Doctor […]
