I didn’t set out to write books. It wasn’t really on my mind. As a five-year-old, my greatest ambition in life was to live inside a giant cake. I remember sketching in crayon the giant oven that was going to bake it, and the buckets of lollies and other surprises that would get baked into […]

A lot of kids ask me: Where do you get all your ideas? I think that’s because when you read a book, there are so many little word pictures that it’s hard to imagine just writing that from scratch. And the truth is, (awkward pause), I don’t. Er, write from scratch, that is. I’ve included […]

So you’ve just finished the last chapter of your book. (Gasp!) You slump back in your chair, exhausted and elated. After all this time! Then you glance around, slightly bothered that the rest of the world hasn’t stopped turning to watch this momentous event. Undeterred, you physically pat yourself on the back. You’re not really […]

For me, the most imaginative part of writing a book is creating a new world. This is a universe plucked out of your mind. And it’s all yours. But nice guy that you are, you’re going to share it with your characters. By that, I mean you’re going to slap them right in the middle […]

Lots of different pieces make up a story, but one thing is always there. Conflict. Nothing gets a story moving faster. When characters clash, it stirs up their emotions and pushes them to do things they wouldn’t normally do. Both make for good reading. So I thought I’d write a little blog about it for […]