My latest newsletter is available to download from my Contacts & Newletters page. Don’t forget if you would like future editions emailed directly to your inbox please subscribe at the bottom of this page.

On Sunday the 27th of November at 3:30pm I will have the pleasure of chatting with Claire Halliday at the Bentleigh library. I would love to meet you there. It is a free event but you need to book here.

Who knows what we’ll end up chatting about, but I’m sure it will be fun. I’m so enjoying sharing The Near Daphne Experience with everybody.   

My latest newsletter is available to download now from my Contacts & Newletters page. If you would like future editions emailed directly to your inbox please subscribe at the bottom of this page.

I had the great pleasure in being a guest at the Dymocks First Tuesday Book Club at the wonderful Rivoli Theatre in September. What a privilege it was to share the stage with such an amazing line-up of authors. We marvelled at Dave Knoff’s icy heroics, were inspired by Anthony Klarica, then taken on a journey by Lyn Yeowart and entranced by Kylie Orr. Now if you want to be intimidated, be the third speaker to appear after two professional motivational speakers, but it all worked out in the end. During my talk the spirit of Marianna (the mother in Daphne) may have inspired me to take the audience on a wild ride with a lot of laughs (I had to explain my microphone phobia and it went downhill from there) and gasps! It was lovely to meet so many book lovers after the event. Thank you so much to the fabulous Dymocks Camberwell and their wonderful staff for organising such a marvellous event.     

   

It was such an honour to be part of this wonderful weekend in one of my favourite places. The glorious Jo Canham and her team put on such a very special festival. Fascinating panels with brilliant writers and very appreciative audiences in a beautiful location. It certainly achieved its aim of being a weekend, “where real connections are made, friends are found, and the writerly community is strengthened / reinforced “.

A special thank you to RWR McDonald for being such a thoughtful and entertaining host. It was so much fun to share a panel with the fabulous Maya Linell and Ellie O’Neill. I met so many wonderful authors, some of whom I hope will become proper friends. Somehow Jo created such an inclusive, warm festival. And the showbags were an unexpected, wonderful treat! I hope no KidLitVic presenters are reading this, as I’ll have to raise the standard a bit! A lanyard and free pens don’t quite cut it in comparison.   

If you missed out on this festival or just wish to relive it, some sessions are available to stream here. And get ready to go to next year’s. I’ll be back! I had a brilliant time!!! It really was a three exclamation mark experience. *Check out RWR’s insta for photos of the most disdainful looking cat ever. She really has the ‘she who must be obeyed’ look down pat. It’s hilarious.     

My latest newsletter is available to download now from my Contacts & Newletters page. If you would like future editions emailed directly to your inbox please subscribe at the bottom of this page.

The 17^th July 2022 was one of the most exciting days of my life. My first adult novel was published, Thank you to everybody who helped me celebrate the launch of The Near Daphne Experience. Special thanks to the fabulous Anne Gracie, Affirm Press Sales Director Keiran Rogers, Jaye from Mary Martin books and Erica for the fabulous food from the Gasworks Café. A good time was had by all!

I’m thrilled to announce that the fabulous team at Affirm Press are publishing my debut novel The Near Daphne Experience to be released on the 28th of June 2022! This book was so much fun to write! I fell in love with my characters and feel quite nervous about how the world will greet them. It is difficult to categorise but I’m calling The Near Daphne Experience a romcom with bite. Or maybe a thromcom, being a thriller romcom!

This book was my escape during Melbourne’s lockdowns, It was either go stir-crazy or write a book! An old idea itched at me and I chose to slip back in time to 2001 when we sipped cosmopolitans sharing straws without fear, danced to Kylie’s I can’t you out of my head and still looked for possible loves in the classified ads of newspapers. It was a joy to write for adults and unleash any murderous tendencies. I hope the readers love the book as much as I loved writing it.

It will be available at all Bookshops from the 28th of June or you can pre-order now.

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I’m not sure what happened to 2020 and 2021! Like the rest of the world they’re lost in a daze of  lock downs, anxiety, masks, and restrictions and then just when the end appears in sight another variant arrives!

I’ve really missed getting out and about to share my love of writing and stories with readers young and old and just meeting people in real life. We had so much fun promoting The Day Rudolph’s Nose Turned Blue at bookshops and festivals and do plan to be back out and about later in 2022.

I am lucky to be a writer which is a solitary profession anyway, although it feels a bit different when it is enforced solitude! I had no idea how much I usually go out! But I’ve been busy after being commissioned to write some young readers as well as a number of nonfiction titles for Engage Literacy a division of Capstone US.

It was so much fun writing these two titles. One set in space (the title is possibly a giveaway) and the other about goods and services. I’m especially pleased with that one as I think I’ve managed to make it fun and not boring. The books were released in February 2021 and are available in Australia through the usual online bookshops.

KidLitVic Meet the Publishers also took up a great deal of time. I ran a mini KidLitVic in 2020, and 2021 we ran the full conference on line. Huge thanks to Sarah Reynolds, Nicky Johnston, Coral Vass, Julie Grasso and the volunteers. And the wonderful, generous publishers. So many zoom sessions with the potential to go wrong, but everything ran amazingly smoothly. Of course my internet connection decided to keep dropping out in the very final session, but nobody knew except me frantically pushing buttons.

The lockdowns also gave me the time and impetus to tackle a project of mine that has been sitting on the back burner/ lying in the bottom drawer/dwelling in the depths of my computer. Finally, I finished and polished it. I don’t want to give too much away at the moment but there will be some exciting announcements in the next few months. Sometimes good things really do happen in the publishing world.

Wishing everybody out there a wonderful, healthy 2022!