Website: www.writing-for-children.com
I'm Coordinator of Australia's Queensland state Chapter of SCBWI (the international 'Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators') and on committees of the Children's Book Council of Australia and Book Links (Qld) Inc.. One of Book Links' projects is to develop a Children's Literature Centre in the city of Brisbane, where I live.
I'm a passionate writer rather than just an author. I love writing for children: picture books, stories for mid-grade kids and 'young adults', non-fiction, poems and verse - but apart from children's books, I also enjoy writing non-fiction for adults and older children ...plus pages for my website, blogs, scripts, articles, emails, and even lists of 'things to do'. Occasionally, I also illustrate.
If there's any way I can help anyone, it's always a pleasure to pass on what I can and great to make new friendships.
The slide show includes my picture book, 'Kangaroo's Visitor gets a Surprise' (which has been exquisitely illustrated by Gail Breese), and the cover and a page from my calligraphy book, published by Allen and Unwin and under a different title by Unwin Hyman/HarperCollins in the UK and NZ. The Celtic style paintings are preliminary designs from a new speculative project I'm working on. 'What goes around' is an idea for a book of inspirational sayings with stories to match. 'In the Beginning was Delight' and the calligraphed poetry and other pieces are to show ways to work with and enjoy words.
Videos:This YouTube video is a reading of my picture book, 'Kangaroo's Visitor gets a Surprise'. Please leave me a comment if you like it, or a child does. Thank you!
Other Videos: I hope you will also enjoy the 6 videos you'll find under the heading to this page - View my: Videos. They show my ideas for helping children develop a love of books, writing, reading and creativity ...but you can also view them purely for entertainment!
They were originally made for a presentation when I was a 'featured writer' for a chat session on the 2006 Fandangle Magazine Virtual Book Fair, organised in America.
The theme is 'providing and increasing pleasurable book and word experiences for children (rather than focussing on texts) to help them develop a love of books and words, and to spark their imagination, curiosity and creativity'.
Even if you are not involved with a child's development, hopefully you'll find the series entertaining, interesting and stimulating, and you'll enjoy looking at my selection of old books, documents, quirky book structures and word art. They include filmed items from my collections and show some techniques for calligraphy and making artists' books, amongst other things.
They also give a taste of what I can talk about and let people handle and pass around at workshops and talks.
They follow from one to the next and last about 8 minutes each. I hope you can watch and enjoy them all in sequence to get the 'complete story' - initially, at least.
My bio: After training and working as an ecologist, museum curator and teacher, I studied calligraphy, bookbinding, printmaking and other book arts at art colleges and through the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, and for a Diploma of Professional Children's Writing. Originally from England, I exchanged jobs with an Australian in 1979 and emigrated in 1982
Now married with teen-aged children, I write, illustrate and give talks and workshops full-time.
