News

Blacky In Brazil, Being Here and the All Saints Festival

It's always a thrill when you hear of an overseas deal, but especially when it means you will be published in new territories.

So I was delighted to learn that my trilogy for Younger Readers - the Blacky series -  is due for publication in Brazil. This is my first time in South America and ensures that my writing is represented throughout the entire continent. It will probably take a long time, but I am looking forward to getting my authors' copies and seeing Blacky, Marc and Dyl in Portuguese.

Being Here [just to balance the good news] has been put back to February 2011. This is not because the manuscript isn't in good shape. It is. But my editor, Jodie...

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Words In The Wet Festival in Darwin

This has to be the best festival I have been involved in!

It was brilliant to catch up with some good friends - Michael Gerard Bauer, Scot Gardner and Simon Higgins - as the four of us visited schools in the Top End, including Alice Springs. Michael and I did a live broadcast from NTOEC to remote communities. They could see us but we couldn't see them, which was slightly unnerving, but great fun. In all, we visited twelve schools and on behalf of all the writers I would like to thank staff and students for making us feel so welcome. I'm already hoping to be booked for next year.

Other news: the manuscript of Being Here, my latest YA novel has been re-written ...

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Melbourne Visit: October 2009

I was in Melbourne at the end of October for Booktalkers, Bring The Funny, an event organised by The Centre For Youth Literature. Fellow writers David Metzenthen, Penny Tangey and Kirsten Murphy were also there.

On the Tuesday we were at Carey Grammar School where extracts from our books were performed by a bunch of very talented actors. Trust me, it is a strange feeling to see a character you created walking around a stage! All of the writers were impressed with the quality of the performances and the students at Carey seemed to enjoy it as well as the talks we provided afterwards. On the Wednesday students visited the State Library for more performances and ta...

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What's new?

2010 promises to be a busy year for me.

To start with, there are two books due out early in the year. Blacky Blasts Back: On The Tail of the Tassie Tiger is due out in January and is the third in the Blacky the Farting Dog series for younger readers, 9-12 years old.

This time, Blacky and his mates, Marc and Dyl, have to travel to Tasmania to complete their biggest mission yet. Click here to check out the progress of the book.

Then there is my picture book for Omnibus that comes out in January. It is part of the Mates series and is called The Heart of the Forest. I...

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