A thrilling week for me! On Friday I flew to Brisbane for the 2011 CYA Conference. I’d heard so much about this conference over the past few years and have been keen to go, then this year I had a huge added incentive. Back in June, I entered into the published authors section of the [...]

Recently I ran a Show Don’t Tell Creative Writing workshop for a fabulous group of year nine elective students. I was thrilled to see them blossom from shy at sharing and writing to becoming fully engaged and those pens flew across their notebooks. I promised to check out some writing resources for the group, and [...]

Catriona Hoy is about to launch her brand new picture book George and Ghost. To celebrate and publicise her latest book baby, she’ll be touring the blogosphere from Monday 7th March ’til Monday 14th March. I’m excited she’ll be visiting me at my blog From Hook to Book on Saturday 12th March to talk all about George and Ghost, picture [...]

I was honoured this week to be invited to Brighton Grammar School to check out a research study by The Crowther Centre to compare the differences and possible benefits of working with digital text/e-books – using Apple iPads – compared to working with a physical book. The thrilling part for me is that they’re using my [...]

Exciting news for September. I’ve launched a writing blog – From Hook to Book.   The blog is designed to follow my writing journey. And all writing journeys begin with an idea – the hook that tempts the reader in. The premise that begins the journey and takes the writer all the way from the hook through [...]

How do you research a place that no longer exists? My WIP begins in a tiny Scottish coal mining village gone from existence some fifty years plus. A common enough story in Scotland. Mighty bings that once dominated the backdrop of such villages have all been removed and little remains as evidence of the hundreds [...]

…the release of two new titles from Gilt Edge Publishing NZ. The Barnyard Dance is a rhyming, rollicking yarn full of fun and brought vividly to life by Richard Hoit’s bright full colour images. Cora and the Firestorm is the dramatic story of a lioness racing a firestorm to get back to her cubs. Superb [...]

Passports… check Tickets… check Excitement… double and triple check (with so much brimming about.) After months of planning, I’m all set to fly to Scotland to begin a research trip for my WIP – an historical novel. Without giving too much away, the story begins in a tiny mining village in Lanarkshire in the early [...]

Batty has just been released by Blake Education in their exciting new Gigglers Blue series. Gigglers are short easy-to read stories full of fun and humour and very popular with kids of all reading levels. Batty is my very own “vampire” book – only not scary, but funny.  Q:Why didn’t the girl go out with the vampire? A: [...]

Has been a long time coming… And I’m THRILLED to finally say, I have one. So thrilled, I have to share. I sort-of had my own room for quite a long time, but it was the dining room – an extension of the lounge. A lovely, bright and inspiring aspect to be sure, and a [...]