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… […]
As the Melbourne Lockdown continues, I want to continue making vids. But, I don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over again. So I thought I’d try something a little different. A set of short videos about drawing… even though I am REALLY BAD at drawing. I’m hoping that they might encourage […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
FIVE YEARS! Five years in a row! I am absolutely floored! The REAL awards shortlist (which feeds into the YABBAs in Victoria, the KOALAs in NSW and the KROCs in the Northern Territory) has been announced and You Choose: Alien Invaders From Beyond the Starsis on it, in the “Fiction For Older Readers” section. It is […]
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 […]
OMG! OMG! OMG! A You Choose book has made it on to the REAL awards shortlist for the fourth year in a row. How cool is that? And what an amazing honour! The REAL (Reading & Enjoying Australian Literature) awards are a group of state-based awards for children’s literature that are nominated and voted on […]
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 […]
Today the latest two YOU CHOOSE FLIP ME books have been released into the wild.Creepy Crawly Chaos / City of RobotsandExtreme Machine Challenge / In the Realm of Dragons
January 29 will see the release of another two FLIP ME! You Choose editions… The first will bring together Extreme Machine Challenge and In the Realm of Dragons. And the second has Creepy Crawly Chaos and City of Robots. This will complete the set of FLIP ME!, 2-in-1 You Choose books. Very exciting!
I still can’t quite believe it, but You Choose: Alien Invaders From Beyond the Stars has been named as an Honour Book in the KOALA Awards for the second year in a row. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all those who voted for it. And, of course, thank you to the organisers for […]
Time to take a specky, kick a goal and read a book… oh… and eat some Tim Tams. ‘Cause today, You Choose AFL: Footy Fever hits the shops! I always celebrate a new release with food. And with a book about the most famous of Aussie sports, what could be better than the most famous […]
I’ve been keeping this a secret since November 2016… but I can finally reveal details of the next You Choose book. It’s a footy-themed story that’s been licensed by the Australian Football League. And it features real-life AFL players (as well as a ninja, a Footy Godmother and a group of grumpy old men who […]
Three years is a row! I find it hard to believe, but that’s the situation– I’ve made it onto the REAL Awards (Reading & Enjoying Australian Literature) shortlist for the third year running, thanks to my YOU CHOOSE books. The REAL awards are a group of state-based awards for children’s literature that are nominated and […]
I often joke that my mind is as cluttered as my desktop, which is why I’m rarely able to concentrate on just one project at a time – too much stuff churning around the abyss within my head, clamoring for attention. Unless I have a really short deadline that forces me to concentrate on just […]
Happy Publication Day for the latest YOU CHOOSE FLIP ME books. The release of YOU CHOOSE books one to four in 2-in-1 FLIP ME editions was a success! So now, here are books five to eight in the same format. Yay! Sadly, I forgot to organise cake, which is how I usually celebrate a Publication […]
Remember Transformers? Robots in disguise. More than meets the eye. Toys. Animated television series. More toys. Animated feature film. Even more toys. Series of a live-action blockbusters. And the toys keep on coming. As a teenager in the 1980s, when Transformers first crossed my radar, I dismissed them as silly and childish to my friends, […]
I’m part of a breakfast cereal promotion! Well… my books are. Which is pretty cool. Kellogg’s are running a book promotion with some of their breakfast cereals from 1 January to the 8 April 2017 in Australia and New Zealand. Buy two specially marked boxes of cereal and you can get a free book. There […]
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! What better way is there to celebrate than with the release of two new YOU CHOOSE books? Books 11 and 12 hit the shelves today. Rather than celebrating with cake, which is what I usually do, today I’m working my way through leftover German Christmas biscuits and chocolates. 🙂 And I […]
On Thursday 3 November, You Choose: Alien Invaders From Beyond the Stars got an Honour Award at the KOALAs, NSW’s annual children’s choice awards, in the Fiction for Younger Readers category. How cool is that? Even cooler… the other Honour Award went to Jacqueline Harvey’s Alice Miranda at Camp. I feel very privileged to be […]
Time to unveil the AWESOME covers for the upcoming You Choose books – Creepy Crawly Chaos and City of Robots. As always, thank you to the talented James Hart. These books will hit the stores on 3 January 2017!
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 […]
Last Saturday I went to my first ever AFL game. But why in the world would a committed non-sports person like me go to a footy match? I’ve never followed the AFL. I’ve never barracked for any team. I’ve never had any interest in watching sports of any kind. Frankly, I’ve never really had much […]
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 […]
With books 9 and 10 in the You Choose series due for release very soon, it is with much excitement that I begin work on books 11 and 12. 11! AND! 12! I’m still pinching myself just to make sure it’s not all a dream. Although it all begins with scribbles in a notebook, things […]
‘Twas a big day today. I had fungus extracted from my ear and an award nomination announced. Exciting times! As I was sitting in a specialist’s office, getting a fungal infection vacuumed out of my ear (whilst watching the entire disgusting affair via ear-cam on a large flat screen TV), the REAL shortlist was being […]
James Hart has done it again. Get a load of these wonderful covers. That’s ten YOU CHOOSE covers that he’s now illustrated… and he still manages to bring something fresh and exciting to each and every new one. Thanks James… you’re ACE! Everyone should go and check out James Hart’s website.
01/12/15 New editions… Just in time for Christmas shopping… Two books in one… Released into the wild… Happy Publication Day to the FLIP ME YOU CHOOSE books.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Happy Publication Day to YOU CHOOSE books 7 and 8. Super Sports Spectacular and Trapped in the Games Grid hit the stores today. To celebrate I baked a Soufflé Cheesecake. Okay… so it may have fallen apart when I took it out of the cake dish, but it still tasted YUM! I made it yesterday, […]
Lots of lovely reviews have been floating around about the YOU CHOOSE books, so I thought I’d share some recent ones here on my blog. I’ll start with my favorite review. From the Weekend Advocate in NSW, it focuses on nostalgia … The ReadPlus website has published reviews of quite a number of my books. […]
It’s publication day! Books 5 and 6 in the YOU CHOOSE series have hit the bookstore shelves. With the start of this series last year, I decided that I needed a little publication day tradition. And so, on each publication day I’ve gone out to buy a small cake or pastry, photographing said culinary delight […]
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 […]
Time for another cover reveal — You Choose 8: Trapped in the Games Grid. Artist James Hart has picked up on the TRON influences to create this rather AWESOME illustration…
It’s time for a reveal. James Hart has done it again — another awesome cover! I feel so lucky having an artist who really gets the books, working on the illustrations. So here’s the cover for Super Sports Spectacular. The book will hit the shelves in August 2015. Can’t wait!
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 […]
2015 has arrived and it’s time to reveal the covers for the next two You Choose books. Due for release on 1 May, they are Night of the Creepy Carnival and Alien Invaders From Beyond the Stars. As with the first four books, the covers and internal illustrations are from the awesome James Hart. I […]
Okay folks, it’s announcement time! I am VERY EXCITED to reveal that there will be a seventh and eighth book in the You Choose series! They have been tentatively scheduled for publication in late 2015. Working titles are Super Sports Spectacular and Welcome to the GamesGrid. The whiteboard is ready and I’ve begun to take […]
It just occurred to me today that I haven’t posted any links to reviews of the You Choose books. The first two books came out in April, the second two in June, so I think it’s about time that I did. The response has been pretty good. Here’s a small selection of quote and links… […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s PUBLICATION DAY for books three and four of my You Choose series — Maze of Doom and The Haunting of Spook House. These two books, along with the first two in the series, are now available in all good bookstores. Actually… they’re probably available in the bad ones and the indifferent ones as well. […]
Last week an interview with me was screened on the ABC3 television programme Studio 3. The interview involved me getting slammed in the face with five cream pies while I answered questions about my You Choose books. Only four of the cream pies made it into the final version, with the fifth pie being edited […]
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, […]
The first two You Choose books, The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove and Mayhem at Magic School, get released on the 1 May. The next two books get released in July. Finally, I can reveal the titles of those two books… Maze of Doom and The Haunting of Spook House Covers and internal illustrations are […]
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 […]
