I love writing for children. I love teaching kids about writing. But I especially love talking about writing with other authors who write in the kids/YA space. One such author is international bestseller Amie Kaufman, who has hit the New York Times bestselling lists...
Talk to kids about history and you can often watch their eyes glaze over in real time as they consider facts, figures and dates. But mention historical fiction? Then you get a very different response. You only need to scroll through the Your Kid's Next Read Facebook...
Old habits are hard to break and, while I'm not co-hosting So You Want To Be A Writer podcast this year, I still get an itch every now and then (okay, I admit, quite regularly) to interrogate another writer about their creative process and their work. I do love a...
As this blog approaches its 11th birthday, I can see a certain pattern in my posts. Each year at around this time, in response to reader enquiries, I write a 'how to achieve your writing goals this year'. I particularly liked this one, which is now five years old but...
As the NSW school term begins, and we look down the barrel of potentially weeks and weeks of trying to keep kids engaged with and on top of their school work, I know that many parents are tearing their hair out. With two high school-aged boys, I'm lucky that the...
About 200 episodes of So You Want To Be A Writer podcast ago, I created this lovely little round-up of insightful interviews with Australian children's and YA authors. I have decided that it's high time for an update*. If you're hoping to be a published children's or...
Action. Adventure. History. Mystery. When you think of an A.L. Tait story, are these the kinds of words that come to mind? They are for me. Hilarious? Rib-cracking? Not so much. (Though Book Boy's review of the first draft of the first Mapmaker Chronicles manuscript...
In case you missed it, the latest round of #writeabookwithal is over and I have finished the first draft of my latest manuscript. It is, brace yourselves, the 15th first draft fiction manuscript that I have written. Fifteenth. Four were written before my first...
Last week I found myself compiling a list of books about writing for a young writer I know. She's 15, enthusiastic, stymied by the parameters of writing for school assignments, hungry for information, encouragement and advice. I tried to give her book suggestions that...
