Rewriting: the basics
When we talk about the writing process, most attention is usually given to the planning and the first draft stages. This is natural – starting at the start is logical. With all this talkspace given to plotting, dialogue, characterisation, pacing, structuring and prose details, sometimes we neglect to discuss...
Name Dropping
It’s been a time and half, really, over the last week or so. First was the Sydney Writers’ Festival with all of its well-earned hooplah. I met Garth Nix, Morris Gleitzman, Belinda Jeffrey, Judith Ridge, Bernard Beckett, Sean Williams, Deb Abela, Jacquie Harvey and Richard Newsome, as well as...
Teen Book Video Awards
Id like to direct everyone to an exciting new development from the wonderful people at Random House. The Teen Book Video Awards are a fantastic opportunity to win $1000 for yourself and $1000 of books for your school, just for making a 90 second book trailer! Teachers, this is...
Twitter wishes
Spotted on Twitter: ‘Oh Aubrey Fitzwilliam, how I wish you were real…’...
Sydney Writers’ Festival
I’m appearing at the Sydney Writers’ Festival Schools Days on 17 and 18 May, along with Belinda Jeffrey, Bernard Beckett and Cassandra Clare. Come along – I’ll be glad to to meet you, sign books, or just have a chat after the presentation....
A Book from a Bygone Era
I was browsing Project Gutenberg, as you do, and came across a gem: The Empire Annual for Girls from 1911, a hundred years ago. Now, for those of you who don’t know, these publications were around for years, often associated with British comics for young people. They were chockful...
Doorways Trilogy download
I still have many people asking me about my ‘Doorways Trilogy’ (The House of Many Rooms, The Book of Plans and The Unmaker) even though it’s been out of print for some time. Second hand copies are hard to find, too. So I decided to do something about it....
‘Word of Honour’ gets a gong!
I’m extremely chuffed to announce that Word of Honour has been included on the Children’s Book Council of Australia ‘Notable Books’ list for 2011. I’m in exalted company – James Roy, Fiona Wood, Sonya Hartnett, Melina Marchetta, Cath Crowley, Kirsty Murray and many, many more. See the full list...
Series, series, series
Look around the bookshops and the libraries and you’ll see series all over the place. On some streches of shelves, you could be forgiven for thinking that EVERYTHING is part of a series....
Houdini
Today, March 24, is Harry Houdini’s birthday. I have an interest in all stage magic, and Houdini looms large in the history of this fascinating mode of performance. He had a wonderful combination of swaggery, showmanship, self-promotion and cleverness. He thought carefully about his potentially lethal escapes and practised...