​Tunnel
The Bronze Medal


Take me inside my head is spinning
you ripped my shirt and spilled my tea
your freshly cleaned bedroom linens,
you picked up the pile and threw em right at me
you wanted to know...

I don't think you're feeling rested.

Being an author means doing a lot of interesting and exciting things you have never done before.
A big one for me in 2019 was being asked to do the opening 20 minute speech for the 2019 Salisbury Writers Festival.

It felt like a particularly big deal, considering how many times I have attended the festival as part of the audience. It is a place where I have learnt so much about being a writer, and to be asked to speak was pretty incredible! :)

I  decided to provide a transcription of my speech here, which is about my long and difficult road to publication and the books I loved growing up.
I hope you enjoy reading it! :)

​
So .... this was a pretty unusual one for me! Last week I had a photographer come round to my house and take a million pictures of me while I posed on the couch with my book!

I've definitely never had that experience before!

It is definitely exciting seeing my book in the local paper! :) Even our cat Bro is excited!

There has been a lot of local Adelaide press about my debut being picked up y Walker Books US for publication over in America. It is pretty exciting and heartwarming!!

Thank you GLAM Adelaide for running this article!!

You can READ IT HERE!!

​I was very pleased to get the opportunity recently to speak with the lovely Dani from the Words and Nerds Podcast!

If you'd like to listen to the interview you can CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Aside from that, Dani's podcast is truly excellent with loads of awesome author interviews, so definitely take the time to check out her back list of episodes!!

This isn't a sentence I ever dreamed I would write!

My debut novel, MAKING FRIENDS WITH ALICE DYSON, is going to be published in America!!!! 

I can hardly believe it. To be honest this piece of extraordinary news still feels very surreal to me. 

Candlewick Press will be publishing my story in the USA, and I just couldn't be more over the moon!

I feel so lucky to have had the most amazing 2019 so far.
Not only was my debut published by the lovely Wakefield Press, but they also signed my second novel for release in 2020!!

And now on top of that, ALICE is going all the way to America with Candlewick!
​It truly feels like a dream come true. 
:)

​Welcome to another entry into my YA Author Interview series for 2019!


I am so very excited to have the lovely Helen Scheuerer here for an interview for the SECOND time, to celebrate the upcoming release of her final novel within her fantastic YA fantasy series, the Oremere Chronicles!

I am a big fan of this #LoveOzYA fantasy series, and I definitely recommend it!!

I hope you enjoy reading Helen's answers to my questions as much as I did! :)

Being shortlisted for the Readings 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize has just been so amazing!  Every time I think about I feel so excited, and to be honest the whole thing has been very unexpected!
I feel really proud of it :)

As part of the shortlist, I got the opportunity to write a guest blog post for the Readings blog, WHICH YOU CAN READ HERE, where I talked about some of the themes behind the book and how anime really influenced me when I was writing.

I hope you enjoy reading it! :)

So..... 2019 is shaping up into quite a freaking awesome year for me!
I will be honest, the last bunch of years for me have been quite a struggle. My mum died and since then things have been hard. On top of everything else that was going on, was that I wanted to be a published author very badly but nothing was happening.
But I feel like things are finally shifting for me, and that has been a complete relief. It is nice to feel like life is moving again, that I am feeling happy!

In 2019, my very first book came out, Making Friends with Alice Dyson, and it was shortlisted for the Readings 2019 YA Book Prize (so amazing!) and I was also recently awarded a residency to spend a whole week writing at Varuna!!!!

And now, I have also signed a contract with the lovely people at Wakefield Press for my second YA novel, Taking Down Evelyn Tait!

I am so excited to bring this story out into the world in 2020, and also so grateful that life has been so kind to me lately! 
My biggest takeaway from all this is that persistence is more important than talent, and hard work pays off!! :)
Don't give up!
:)

I was really excited to be interviewed by Shelley Carter for her Underground Writers Author Interviews series!!

FOLLOW THIS LINK to check it out! :)

Thanks so much for having me Shelley! :)
I really enjoyed answering these ones!