Stowaway Daze is out NOW!
Stowaway Daze is out now! HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO SAVE YOUR HEROES? When homeless teen Max Stripe’s favourite band performs in Detroit, he brazenly jumps aboard their tour […]
There’s no such thing as an inappropriate question if you’re seven-years-old
It’s Book Week here in New Zealand and yesterday I spent two wonderful hours with Ellerslie School. As usual, my favourite part of the talk is question time: Where do […]
The day R2D2 threw me into a trash can
One of my favourite interviews in my radio career was with Kenny Baker, otherwise known as R2D2. Kenny was a circus and cabaret performer before a phone call came […]
This little shop was the inspiration for my first children’s novel
In my children’s novel My Best Worst Year, the main character Toby often visits his grandma in her second-hand shop named ‘Junk and Disorderly.’ The inspiration for this came from […]
When you accidentally meet the main character from your novel
I was walking along Ponsonby Road in Auckland on a beautiful morning when I ran into an old mate with his ten-year-old son. Here was a kid dressed in […]
Dr Seuss was right – your first draft always stinks!
Here’s a little story to prove it. In 1964, Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was published in the UK. It took over two years to write and underwent […]
The day my teacher achieved the impossible
I remember being at school and having to write a thesis from one of William Shakespeare’s plays. At the time I thought there couldn’t have been anything more boring. There […]
Jack Reads Books Reviews Freakout Island
Thanks, Books Jack Reads for your lover-leee review of Freakout Island. Jack adds – ‘There’s a strong element of mystery in this story too, as everyone slowly realises that both […]
My dog is having a bad hair day
If you’re new to my site, you will find my sketches of our family dog Cooper here. While you’re having a look around, be sure to check out my latest […]