Beautiful new graphics!

Love the new graphics on my blog site! Thank you Jason (and cube web solutions!) A great get together of children’s authors this week over dinner at a local Thai restaurant, but with the sad task of saying farewell to the very gifted and innovative Karen Robertson (of Treasure Kai fame), who is going back…

The importance of books and reading

Great to read Tony Abbott’s spirited endorsement of books and reading in his article ‘Books shape ideals, dreams’ in today’s (Wed) Australian, page 12.  It’s encouraging to know that the Leader of the Opposition believes that ‘the book symbolises our aspirations to learn, to teach and to understand. I salute the book, without which a…

My Life as a Time Traveller

This article has now been published in Write4Children, the journal of the University of Winchester, see link: www.write4children.org and click on Vol 3 Issue 2. I spent some time in Winchester while researching and writing The Janna Mysteries, and I loved my visits there, walking in Janna’s footsteps. In those times (1140s) the royal treasury…

Old fortifications at Middle Harbour

Today I joined an engineer and a rep from NPWS to meet with architectural students at UNSW to see their brilliant (computer) presentations on a variety of sites connected with the fort at Middle Harbour which is undergoing renovations.  Through a variety of programmes, the students presented detailed plans of the sites as they are, along…

Manly’s fairy penguin colony

Yesterday I met with the wonderful penguin protectors along with reps from NPWS and the Manly Environment Centre to talk about the book I’ve been commissioned to write on Manly’s fairy penguin colony. I am so impressed by the knowledge and care for the penguins shown by everyone associated with this project. And I am…

Back from beautiful Bateman’s Bay

It’s been a while since we visited our favourite site near Bateman’s Bay – I’d forgotten how beautiful those forests are. Chilly cold, but really fun sharing it with my beautiful granddaughters, Chloe and Amy. Too cold for swimming but they were very inventive keeping themselves amused, and taking a trizillion photos of all the…

A Ring Through Time

It seems a long time ago that I finished writing this novel – a time-slip love story set on Norfolk Island with a flashback to the 1850s and the brutal 2nd penal settlement there.  But we’re making progress!  Today I sent back the revised copy edit, and I’ve also seen the really beautiful cover planned…

Finding Treasures

Trust the universe and see how it conspires to help you! I discover the truth of this over and over, most recently yesterday. For various reasons I’ve been feeling fairly flat creatively for some time. Yesterday I walked past a new Vinnies and, on impulse went in to see what I could find. I usually…

CBCA north

CBC north’s first meeting of the year was so inspirational as author and playwright Wendy Blaxland described her writing journey, successfully publishing a heap of children’s books as well as writing plays for the greatly beloved Marion St. Youth Theatre founded by her parents.  She finished her talk with a memorable quote from Guillaume Apollinaire: ‘He…