Celebrating two decades in print

Today marks 20 years since my first piece of writing was published, which, quite frankly, is terrifying. I was 12 years old and in Grade 6 when I was selected to take part in a ‘Newshounds’ program run by our local paper, the Maroondah Mail. Four students from local schools were chosen to write one article perContinue reading “Celebrating two decades in print”

Anatomy of a Novel Part 6: The paper anniversary

When my husband Tristan and I first started dating three years ago, we had a ‘food-for-stories’ deal – he’d make me dinner and in return I’d read him the next chapter of Dragonscale, the long-running young adult fantasy novel I’d been writing off and on since 2007. We each thought we got the better endContinue reading “Anatomy of a Novel Part 6: The paper anniversary”

Behind the Scenes: Part 7 – Publication

In this series of posts, I’m going to be taking you behind the scenes of Greythorne and the process I went through to write it. Click to read Part 1 (The Idea), Part 2 (Plot and Structure), Part 3 (Setting), Part 4 (Characters), Part 5 (Writing) and Part 6 (Revision). Well,  I can hardly believeContinue reading “Behind the Scenes: Part 7 – Publication”

What’s the deal about pre-sales anyway?

As of last week, Greythorne is now available for pre-order. I wrote a little while ago about the culture shock that comes with a book contract and being thrown into the big scary world of sales figures and royalties. One thing I didn’t understand was the importance of pre-sales, until an author friend shared thisContinue reading “What’s the deal about pre-sales anyway?”

Dealing with rejection

One of the hardest things about being a writer is, of course, dealing with rejection. It can be pretty gut-wrenching when that manuscript you’ve slaved so hard over is returned to you with barely a comment (or, even worse, vanishes into the void without a trace). So central is rejection to the publishing experience thatContinue reading “Dealing with rejection”