I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Writing fiction is not the daydreamer’s paradise that films and TV let you believe. It’s hard...

One year ago today, on 1 November 2018, my first novel came out. Nothing much happened on the actual day but, symbolically, it was moment...

The more manuscripts I write (I’m up to my seventh), the more I refine my process. Not that it’s a planned thing. The process is dictated...

I often get overwhelmed by the number of things I need/want to do each week. There’s paid editing work, novel writing, family stuff, exer...

I’m one of those writers who reckons you can’t write the first sentence of a novel until you know the last. The first line, I think, shou...

I woke up this morning thinking,** as I often do, that I must get back to work on my current manuscript-in-progress. It’s been far too lo...

I used to be quite involved with the Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne. At the time, a lot of our audience tended to be younger peo...

Last month I wrote about the benefits and challenges that I’ve found in being part of a writing critique group. Today I’m going to look a...

Joining a writing group is probably the best thing I’ve ever done for my writing. I’ve only ever been in one group, which I joined in 201...

I have a running list of books that I want to read. Problem is, it keeps getting longer and I wonder if I’ll ever get through it. But I g...

For the past two weeks I’ve been editing the manuscript for This Thing of Darkness. What an experience! Kristy Bushnell, my editor, has d...

This Thing of Darkness is my first YA novel. Before this, I’d written three adult crime fiction manuscripts that remain unpublished. The ...

Welcome to my blog. For my first blog post (ever!) I thought I’d share a bit about why I write YA. Truth is, I hadn’t intended to become ...