Book Week Costumes
Book Week is coming up soon in Australia. My social media is full of posts from parents asking about costumes for their kids. As an author, I would love for kids to dress up as one of my characters, so here is a handy guide in case your child would like to dress up as...
What I’ve Read – July 2022
It's the second half of the year. In July, I got back to reading some awesome picture books, as well as an audiobook, a book I picked up at a writers festival three years ago, and a chapter book. How to Make an Avocado Fly by Mikayla White was the first book on my...
Creating Dragons in Sale
One of the things I love about dragons is the variety. They come in so many shapes and sizes and abilities. Creating dragons is a lot of fun, and my How to Create a Dragon workshop is one of my favourites. This morning I had Young Writers Group at the Sale library and...
Something Exciting Arrived!
I received some awesome mail today. Check it out: These are my proof copies of My Mummy is Evil! I'm not sure if I've posted much about this picture book here, so here's the short version of the story (more will come later). Back in 2012, I wrote the first draft of...
What I’ve Read – June 2022
I can hardly believe the year is half over! The weather has been absolutely freezing, however I haven't had as much opportunity as I would have liked to just curl up in front of the heater and read. As in May, I spent a lot of time driving, and was able to enjoy some...
Baby Name Lists
This afternoon, I ran a workshop at Monash Library in Mount Waverley. We were having fun with the murder mystery writing prompt when one of the participants asked for suggestions for a name. She had an idea of the character, and wanted a name that would have been from...
Random Objects in Sale
This morning was the second regular Young Writers Group at the Sale Library. At my face to face sessions, I like to play with writing prompts that are unexpected. This morning, I collected a number of random objects and put them in my 'Mystery Box'. Items included:...
Keeping Warm in Monash
It's freezing at the moment. Even driving to Young Writers Group in Mount Waverley today, I was blasting the heater. What better writing prompt, than to find out creative ways to stay warm. This was the first question today: List creative ways to keep warm. Here is...
What I’ve Read – May 2022
May was a quiet month for reading. I read two audiobooks and a chapter book, as well as making progress on some longer reads. One thing I enjoy about doing the Young Writers Groups the fact that each one is at least an hour's drive away from home, so I can enjoy...
Mentor Texts
This afternoon at Young Writers Group, we were discussing mentor texts, only that's not we called them. If you've never heard of a mentor text, essentially it's a book or piece of text that can serve as a good example of a piece of writing. I set the participants a...