About Me

Me as a writer

I started writing when I was a kid, and as an avid R.L Stine  reader (whilst the other kids were reading the thrills and chills of Goosebumps, I was devouring Fear Street in which there were lotsa dead teenagers), in the second half of primary school I was writing horror stories about teenagers meeting grisly deaths. You can probably see where my influences came from, but it’s still probably a bit weird, right?

I’m not so much into that anymore. As a grown up I always felt I was doing something wrong when it came to writing. Like I shouldn’t still be writing about teenagers and young adults and the anarchy and mortifying moments they experience as they try and make it from day to day. I should be writing something more literary, something that could change the world. But where’s the fun in that? The characters are usually serious and somber and reflective and though it is most definitely important stuff, it's not me. I’m not like that, so when trying to write those characters, they just don’t want to be written. Well, not by me.

I have since decided that Junior Fiction/Middle Grade, Young Adult and writing for kids is definitely where my heart belongs, and though sometimes I write a grown up piece with a message, my big passion is writing comedy, where my characters often say the wrong thing and embarrass themselves constantly merely through the trials of puberty and growing up. It’s a tough time, teenagehood. But it can be a lot of fun.

Me as a (published) writer

I’ve had a multitude of publications—literary journals, magazines and local newspapers, I was commissioned to write a short film for Ponto Combo Productions which we filmed and everything (NOTE: When filming all day on a beach, wear sunscreen or be a painful lobster the next day and get laughed at), was a quarter finalist in the 2006 International PAGE Screenwriting Awards and had a highly successful screenplay reading of my TV Pilot, Playing Grown Ups. You have no idea how cool it was to see actors reading my words and scenes and BEING those characters. It was aMAzing. I have feature articles, movie reviews, arts reviews and interviews published in newspapers and magazines and just recently had a series of articles written about me as a local girl out in the big wide world (I’m home now after 6 months in America and Europe) oh and I won the Gippsland Award in the 2010 Fellowship of Australian Writers Awards. How cool is that?

Me as a regular person

I am an animal freak, especially dogs and yes, if you come out of the supermarket and find your dog being patted and talked to by a strange woman, that’s probably me. I can’t help it. Some women get all clucky and want to talk to every baby they come across, me—I have to have a chat with every dog.

I love going to the movies and just hanging out with mates, listening to music in the car and singing at the top of my lungs when no one’s listening. I love going and watching the ice hockey - come on Melbourne Ice! And when I find classes, I enjoy learning Ballroom Dancing and LOVE Swing Dancing. I do Dance Aerobics when I’m home alone and no one can see me. But when it comes to normal dancing? Where there are no steps? You don't want to see that. I also love love love musical theatre and am psyched to go to my first Roller Derby some time this year (2011). To watch, not to participate, I mean. I'd like to leave withOUT the bruises.

I can’t wait to get out there into the world and experience other cultures and am hanging to travel Europe. I have a plot which involves getting on the wrong Euro-rail train and ending up in the wrong country, and have every intention of doing it myself when I get there.

EDIT: I have RETURNED from said Eurotrip and I didn’t even have to try to make things go wrong.  It all started with a voodoo bracelet. No. Really, it did.

If you want to know more about me or just feel like shouting out hello, I’d love to hear from you. I love love love meeting other book lovers—so please drop me a line here! Or here, here or here. Or here.

Or through Twitter or Facebook.