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You know that feeling when your brain is buzzing, the lights are flashing and the world is greener than ever and you can’t sleep because you just have to write it all down…. And often you can’t because there are too many ideas and smells and images and nowhere near enough words? So you just…

Five Parts Dead When Tim Pegler (whose 2010 novel Five Parts Dead remains a favourite of mine) tagged me to share 7 lines from page 7 or 77 of my current WiP, I was keen to see what snippet I would find. Little did I know it was really a challenge – a dare to…

Every writer I’ve met (and that’s heaps) secretly wants to write a picture book (including me). I think it’s something to do with the magic of distilling a story into a small number of perfect words and then having an illustrator perform even more magic on them. Recently at SCBWI ANZ Conference 2014 I attended…

One of the sessions I attended at the Australia-NZ 2014 SCBWI Conference gave the advice “love your publisher”. It was definitely a love-fest at this month’s inaugural Walker Books Australia (WBA) Author-Illustrator Conference. And what was not to love? It was a time for catching up with old friends – too many to name –…

Catching up with distant friends (so many wonderful writers and illustrators hail from Perth) and making new ones. The 2014 Australian-New ZealandSCBWI Conference might just be the most inclusive place on earth. The Illustrators Showcase. It was spectacular. I still have a severe case of artistic talent envy.Professor Ernest Bond’s Session Going to the Common…

One of the best things about the writing process is the writerly friends I have made along the way, so I am especially pleased to be tagged by Rebecca Newman, writer for children and editor of the wonderful Alphabet Soupblog where you can find book reviews and stories by young readers and writers.On my one and only…