I’m still prone to procrastinating. Like now – blogging when I should be writing … or at least editing. That’s because I’m a moody writer – always have been, always will be. For me, words splatter onto the page with sweat, tears and occasionally a bit of blood. Deadlines and word counts are necessary evils, ones that occasionally mess with my muse. Yet despite this intuitive approach, I still manage to churn out an enormous amount of work, perhaps because something deeper, darker, is driving my output.

January usually comes and goes in a frantic ‘How could summer holidays already be over, where’s that damn school supply list’ kind of way.

But this year it was different. Very different.

Many people with mental health problems don’t seek help — hardly surprising, given the stigma that still surrounds the issue. In fact, rather than ask for help, we curate our lives, presenting our best selves online and face-to-face, creating the illusion…

I can’t recall why I put up my hand last year to write reviews for Reading Time, the online source of news and book reviews for the Children’s Book Council of Australia. But I’m glad I did. I often find that the level of praise heaped on a work is disproportionate…

2019 came in with a bang, thanks to a few kidney stones that announced themselves in mid-November on the closing night of my play in Sydney. No matter what age you are, it’s easy to take your body for granted until it doesn’t work properly.

This year has been insanely busy but also very productive and rewarding. I launched my debut title, The Trouble in Tune Town, which went on to win two awards, most recently the ACT Writing and Publishing Award (Children’s), and was also named Finalist for…

I didn’t set out one day to write about mental health issues facing young people. The feeling crept up over months, years perhaps, with a certain sense of inevitability. So many teens I spoke with were living on the fringe, that netherworld between perception and…

What a whirlwind two weeks it’s been on The Trouble in Tune Town blog tour. A big thank you to Romi Sharp, Just Write for Kids for picking up the title for Books on Tour and making it a helluva fun ride.

What better way to start a report than with a confession: although I hoped to be deliriously productive during my KSP Fellowship, I was happy just to escape my absurdly hectic (and noisy) household. The good news is I managed both.