CATEGORIES

Lisa Forrest, author of Inheritance Tell us about your latest creation… My latest creation is a YA fantasy novel set in the circus called, INHERITANCE. I started my career as an author of YA fiction but my last book, BOYCOTT (a non-fiction account of the controversial months before the 1980 Moscow Games when PM Malcolm Fraser tried to stop [...]

Tiffiny Hall, author of Red Samurai Tell us about your latest creation… Red Samurai is book 2 in the Roxy Ran trilogy for readers aged ten and up. Roxy is now the White Warrior. She has a secret crush she is desperate to keep secret plus the school bully to deal with. Roxy’s sister, Elecktra, has always been [...]

It’s heartening to see the partner publishing arm of the kids publishing industry is not only thriving but consistently providing ways for rising Aussie authors to produce their work. IP Kidz, an imprint of Interactive Publications, is one such entity and Robert Vescio is one such author. His new picture book, No Matter Who We’re [...]

One of the perks of my job specifically and the interwebs more generally is that I get to seek out, muse over, discuss, and then write about brilliant, off-the-wall, quirky, and fun concepts. That job admittedly comes with a veritably enormous amount of envy. How, I often wonder, do people come up with such insightful, [...]

In recent days I’ve spotted at least two articles extolling the death of ‘whom’. And as inappropriate as it is, I’ve got to admit that I’m rather relieved and even a lot happy. You see—and this is something that’s entirely uncool to admit as a writer and editor who’s supposed to know and do better—the [...]

Some of my childhood highlights as a city slicker were the infrequent visits to my Grandparents’ farm, tucked away in the volcanic hills of the Blackall Range. Learning how to milk cows and churn their cream into golden, waxy pats of butter produced a memory that prevails today, even if the skill has waned. Nostalgia [...]

Kelly Doust, author of The Crafty Minx at Home Tell us about your latest creation… The Crafty Minx at Home: 50+ handmade and recycled objects for beautiful living is about the things closest to my heart: living the handmade life and appreciating the beauty of vintage objects. It also shares the joy in making things yourself and sharing [...]

The volume of literary genius Australia possesses is staggering. Distill this down further to talented kids’ authors and illustrators and you’d still fill oceans, which is why I love showcasing our home grown children’s books. But it’s impossible to ignore the magnitude of offerings from overseas too. So every now and then I’ll give you [...]

It is rare to find a book written in a language which so beautifully conveys its imaginative essence; or one with a title which is so exactly right. O’Malley’s writing is often lyrical and evocative and he can take the reader and his characters to places far removed from the gritty world in which they [...]

I’d heard lots about writer and researcher Charlotte Nash. Not only had we completed the same post-grad writing and editing course, we also had mutual friends. But it took until last week for me to meet her officially, when she joined Write Club, our informal but occasionally productive support-meets-gossip group. It turns out Nash, who [...]

There are few more terrifying ways to awake—in the developed world, at least—than because a possum is ferreting about on your bedside table. As melodramatic as it sounds, I have a book to thank for rescuing me. Or at least for waking me up before who knows what befell me. Suffice to say, I’ve added [...]

Presents for bibliophiles are always difficult to find. The eternal, unanswerable question is: Which book to buy them when they’re likely to have already read it and everything around it? List masters Buzzfeed have compiled a handy list of complementary gifts, for those who have read everything. Their recommendations include the: iPhone book doc, from [...]

Mary-Lou Stephens, author of Sex, Drugs and Meditation Tell us about your latest creation… Sex, Drugs & Meditation is my meditation memoir. It’s the true story of a woman with a talent for self-sabotage who learns to sit still, shut up and start living – and loving. Where are you from / where do you call home? I [...]

Confession: The day I received Working Title Presses’ latest release, An ANZAC Tale, I was assailed with nostalgia and immense trepidation. How does one do justice to one of the most unjustifiable periods of human history? Ruth Stark and Greg Holfeld have done it and done it admirably well. The result is a meticulously researched [...]

The problem with writers penning runaway bestsellers is that they’re the outliers but they’re viewed as the benchmark norm. Quibble however you will over the quality (or lack thereof) of their work, but JK Rowling, Dan Brown, and EL James are the notable exceptions to the authorial rule: They might have made so much money [...]

Allison Rushby, author of The Heiresses Tell us about your latest creation… The Heiresses sees triplets Thalia, Erato and Clio—estranged since birth—thrust together in glittering 1926 London to fight for their inheritance, only to learn they can’t trust anyone—least of all each other. Where are you from / where do you call home? I’m from Brisbane, but lived in [...]

I’ll keep this blog brief because my others have a habit of getting, well, long. And instead of writing what I think, I’m hoping to pick your brains (in the nicest possible way, of course—that’s not an entirely pleasant visual). I’m on the hunt for innovative ebooks. As in, ones that represent new and engagingly [...]

Combine some adorably cute animal photos with some lovely, heartfelt, poetic text. What do you get? Corinne Fenton’s new picture book, Hey Baby!. Actually, it came out late last year… I’m just a little behind the times. My review copy arrived last year and I immediately read the book to my then three-year-old daughter (now [...]

Janeen Brian, author of Meet Ned Kelly Tell us about your latest creation… ‘Meet Ned Kelly’ is a look at the Australian bushranger who lived in the early days. His story is told in rhyme and tracks Ned’s life from boyhood to his death at age twenty-five. Was Ned Kelly a Robin Hood type hero or was he, [...]

There are two authors in my reading life whose work is best read after having heard them read it themselves. They are also two authors whose restrained, understated, off-the-wall approach to observation and storytelling continues to blow my mind. Both of those authors also happen to contribute to one of my—if not the—favourite podcasts of [...]

I can’t help but follow ‘yo’ with ‘mama’, but I’m happy to try to rectify my ways. Especially when it involves a kid-led solution to a long-running English Language awkwardness. It appears that Baltimore’s best young-uns have devised a gender-neutral solution to the age-old issue of the English language requiring gender-specific pronouns. That is, how [...]

Diane Hester, author of Run To Me Tell us about your latest creation… RUN TO ME is a chase thriller with a twist. Shyler O’Neil is still struggling to come to terms with the death of her son two years earlier. Believing she did not do enough to protect him, she retreats to her family’s old cabin in the [...]

Let me begin by saying that I am a devoted fan of the old fashioned, hard-copy book made from the remains of dead trees. I love the feel of them. I love the whole tactile experience of holding them. And yes, I love the smell of them (both the musty old book smell and the [...]

The mature thing to do when you both have enormous, suffocatingly impending deadlines as well as knee surgery and an enforced lay-off coming up would be to save up a good book for the latterly mentioned respite. I, of course, did nothing of the sort, head-in-the-sanding it ostrich style to pretend that I didn’t have [...]

On Saturday I went to Richmond Library for the launch of a rather amazing new picture book, Gracie and Josh. It was a launch that had everything — lots of people, a fabulous book, a chocolate cake and even Hazel Edwards. What more could you want? Gracie and Josh is written by Susanne Gervay and [...]

ABC delicious. magazine has been a part of my life since it first came out in 2001.  It seemed to herald a new era in Australian food publications with it’s fresh photography and modern, exciting, but accessible recipes that didn’t require a trip to the gourmet store for every dish.  Each new month I was [...]

I’m not big on wind. Of all the meteorological marvels on offer, it’s the least appealing to me, perhaps because I endured a few too many tropical cyclones and missing roofs as a child. So when The Windy Farm blew onto my shelves, I instinctively hunched my shoulders and wondered what on earth could be [...]

Cathy Kelly, author of The Honey Queen Tell us about your latest creation… It’s my fifteenth novel and it’s called The Honey Queen. They say that to make the perfect pitch, you have to be able to describe your story in twenty-two words and I can’t…so let’s start: I’ve got about five main characters and the first to [...]

Rachael Herron, author of Cora’s Heart Tell us about your latest creation… Cora’s Heart is the story of Cora, a farm-girl who’s been hurt too much in the past, who safeguards everything–except her heart. Mac is a large-animal veterinarian who has already risked it all and lost everything that mattered. When a secret is revealed, Cora has to decide [...]

Bookseller Greg Field is an inspiration. While he closed the NSW bookstore he has run for 10 years, Sunset Books, last week in the face of tough economic realities, Field has also posted the first third of his new mystery novel on global story sharing community Wattpad and launched an app business. His is a [...]

Do you have an all time favourite book character you secretly aspire to be more like? Discover Janeen Brian’s… Q Who or what was your favourite book character as a child? If you could incorporate that character into one of your own stories, which would it be and why? How would you adapt that character [...]

Today we delve deeper into the dynamic world of industrious children’s author, Janeen Brian. She’s releasing more books per month than I’ve had pie floaters  and I hear that one of her poems, “What did you learn at school today?” is being published in The School Magazine’s Blast Off this month. Does this lady never slow [...]

Emma Jacks is a schoolgirl. She’s also a special agent in the Under 12s division of the super-secret organisation called SHINE. Codename — EJ12. Mission —stop the evil plans of the nefarious organisation known as SHADOW. EJ12: Girl Hero is a series of kids’ books by Susannah McFarlane. My nine-year-old daughter Nykita loves these books. [...]

I have never felt so exposed by a picture book as I did when I first laid eyes on Meet…Ned Kelly. The piercing stare of Australia’s most infamous bush ranger peering from the slit of his armoured headgear sliced through to the very marrow of my bones, anchoring the outlaw’s stare there as if to say, [...]

Jackie French, author of Dinosaurs Love Cheese & The Girl from Snowy River Tell us about your latest creation… Dinosaurs Love Cheese: for every child who loves dinosaurs — and cheese. The Girl From Snowy River: World War I is over, but it still haunts the mountains. Flinty McAlpine lost a brother when the Snowy River men [...]

Hugh Lunn, author of The Big Book of Lunn Tell us about your latest creation… The Big Book of Lunn contains the biggest selling book ever about an Australian childhood: “Over the Top with Jim” — plus the sequel about young love in the 1960s: “Head Over Heels”. Where are you from / where do you call [...]

Jennifer Skiff, author of The Divinity of Dogs: True Stories of Miracles Inspired by Man’s Best Friend Tell us about your latest creation… The Divinity of Dogs is a book of stories where people describe the moment they learned something profound about life from an experience with a dog. It is also part memoir, including stories where [...]

Granta‘s theme ‘Betrayal’ offers scope for many things, from love to war, from politics to survival, and more. As usual, the pieces included come from authors around the world and their contributions are unexpected, innovative and excellent. Janine di Giovanni, who has reported on wars for more than twenty years, begins ‘Seven Days in Syria’ [...]

The longlist for the 2013 ALS Gold Medal has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Lola Bensky (Lily Brett, Hamish Hamilton) Darkness on the Edge of Town (Jessie Cole, Fourth Estate) Questions of Travel (Michelle de Kretser, A&U) Montebello (Robert Drewe, Hamish Hamilton) The Engagement (Chloe Hooper, Hamish Hamilton) Cumulus: Collected Poems (Robert Gray, John Leonard Press) Like a House on [...]

Technology-induced complete loss of zen means only one thing: retreating to the stationery cupboard and re-reading some fave books. I’m too time poor to revisit whole books, especially after spending over six hours yesterday trying to get a PDF to a readable stage on my iPad Mini. It’s an issue I blogged (read: ranted) about [...]