All posts by Editor-in-Chief

No Neat Endings

2 February, 2020 Editor-in-Chief 3 Comments

by Dominic Carew

A young man can’t make love. A pedantic father spots a blemish in his new shorts and returns to the shop to demand their exchange. A girl rocks up to a Tinder date wearing a helmet.

In nineteen short stories, No Neat Endings pits its characters against the challenges of modern life, sex, love, work and the world. Continue reading No Neat Endings →

Reviews

Carmel Bird Reviews No Neat Endings

31 January, 2020 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Fabulous to see four collections reviewed by the wonderful Carmel Bird in the Sydney Morning Herald, one of them being Dominic Carew’s No Neat Endings. Yay!

See the review here.

Reviews

NZbooklovers Reviews Hide

2 December, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

The great reviews of S.J. Morgan‘s Hide keep coming. Thank you NZbooklovers for this one. Hide will make a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who likes books with suspense and that special just-one-more-chapter-quality.

https://www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/post/hide-by-s-j-morgan

Uncategorized

What is Cryptozoology?

25 November, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Nean McKenzie, author of Cryptosight, shares some of her experiences of the publication of her first book, an adventure story for 8-14 year-olds.

Staring into thick bush, full of shadows and tangled plants, I’m always aware there COULD be something in there that I don’t know about. It’s probably something I’ve heard of before. But what if it’s something hidden, something unknown? And once I started thinking about this, Cryptosight began. Cryptozoology is a little zone between fantasy and reality. I have spoken to two quite normal people since Cryptosight has been published, who both claim to have seen a ‘black cat’ (the puma that is frequently sighted but never confirmed, all over Victoria). I find this quite fascinating. How do so many people see these things? Do they exist? And if they don’t, why do people think they do?

When I was growing up Continue reading What is Cryptozoology? →

Appearances

Born to Fly at Edinburgh Airshow

10 November, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

What a huge weekend Beverley McWilliams and Timothy Ide had at the Edinburgh Airshow where they signed copies of Born to Fly, Tim showed off his talent as an artist and they both talked all things Harry Butler with aviation fans. The book really is a perfect Christmas present for inquisitive youngsters.

Appearances

NSW Premier’s History Awards

3 October, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

We are thrilled that Message in a Sock has been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards. Congratulations to author Kaye Baillie and illustrator Narelda Joy.

Narelda attended the awards ceremony and had a splendid time. Continue reading NSW Premier’s History Awards →

Title

Hide

24 September, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

by S.J. Morgan

It’s 1983 in Thatcher’s Britain. Alec Johnston has left his comfortable family home in Cardiff and taken a flat with bikers Minto, Stobes and Black. There he meets Sindy, Minto’s strange and vulnerable young girlfriend. When she starts to view Alec as a possible saviour from her abusive relationship, it earns Alec a big target on his back. Continue reading Hide →

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Cryptosight

22 September, 2019 Editor-in-Chief 1 Comment

by Nean McKenzie

Rafferty Kaminski is a 13-year-old who believes in facts. Not like his Cryptozoologist father, who searches for creatures not proven to exist.

When their father disappears in the Flinders Ranges, strange things start happening. Continue reading Cryptosight →

Author

Beverley McWilliams

20 September, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Following a law degree and qualifying as a chartered accountant, Beverley McWilliams worked in corporate tax before running her own consultancy business. But she decided life was too short for facts and figures, and she ditched the rat race to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. Now Beverley happily spends her days surrounded by books: writing, reading, pondering and eating way too much chocolate.

Beverley publishes work in children’s magazines and particularly enjoys writing historical non-fiction. Beverley’s debut picture book Born to Fly was published by MidnightSun mid-2019.

Beverley lives in Adelaide with her husband, four children and a menagerie of pets, who provide endless inspiration.

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Born to Fly

20 August, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

written by Beverley McWilliams
illustrated by Timothy Ide

HB 32 | 282 x 245 | ISBN: 9781925227567 | $29.99
Picture book | August 2019
MidnightSun Publishing
Distributed by NewSouth Books

Born in 1889 on a farm in rural South Australia, Harry Butler was determined to fly. Follow Harry’s remarkable journey from studying the flight of his chickens to becoming one of Australia’s most significant pioneer aviators. Continue reading Born to Fly →

Books

River Stone – the process

9 July, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Guest Post by Rachel Hennessy, author of River Stone

I started writing River Stone in 2015 because, as I talked about at the launch, it helped me re-find joy in writing. I had been living in Melbourne since 2009 but I had lost track of myself as a writer. Writing had slipped into that region of the tedious, the thing I was supposed to do, not what I wanted to do. I’d got caught up in judging everything I wrote against possible publication prospects, rather than enjoying the process itself.

Then came a tutorial with my creative writing first year students. Continue reading River Stone – the process →

Launches

Launching The Day We Built the Bridge

8 May, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

The Month (or more) We Launched the Bridge Book!

Guest blog post by Samantha Tidy, author of The Day We Built the Bridge

What a book birthday! This year, I have launched The Day We Built the Bridge in no less than 5 cities! Now that the dust has settled, and the second shipment of the book has arrived (gosh – 4500 copies sold in 3 days – and in reprint already!) I thought I’d share the joy and gratitude that ‘the bridge book’ (The Day We Built the Bridge, written by Samantha Tidy, illustrated by Fiona Burrows) has brought into our lives. Continue reading Launching The Day We Built the Bridge →

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I Would Dangle the Moon

27 March, 2019 Editor-in-Chief 1 Comment

by Amber Moffat

HB 32 | 260 x 280 | ISBN: 9781925227529
$29.99 | Picture book
MidnightSun Publishing | June 2019
Distributed by NewSouth Books

What would you do if you could pluck the moon from the sky? Would you scoop it up in an ice cream cone, or ride it like a snail shell across the night sky? I Would Dangle the Moon is an imaginative and playful story about all the wonderful things a mother would do with the moon for her child if she could do anything in the world. Continue reading I Would Dangle the Moon →

Author

Amber Moffat

27 March, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

Amber Moffat is a writer and visual artist based in Western Australia. She believes that being able to share stories is the most magnificent thing about being human. Amber is originally from New Zealand and still has strong ties to her hometown of Dunedin. She is an experienced teacher and a fierce advocate for arts education.

At the end of 2015 Amber was awarded an Emerging Writers’ Mentorship by the Australian Society of Authors. The judges said of her work, “This picture book text was absolutely wonderful – lyrical, evocative, poetic, and quite unusual. It had a really unique voice, and the imagery was very striking.”

Amber was the recipient of a Paper Bird Fellowship in 2018, and she completed the final artwork for her debut picture book, I Would Dangle the Moon, during her residency at Fremantle’s Paper Bird Books and Arts.

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River Stone

27 March, 2019 Editor-in-Chief Leave a comment

by Rachel Hennessy

Pandora, of the River People, wants more than her village can provide. When disaster comes to her people, Pan has the opportunity to become their saviour and escape her inevitable pairing with life-long friend Matthew. She wants to make her own choices. Deep in her soul, she believes there is something more out there, beyond the boundaries, especially since she encountered the hunter of the Mountain People.

A story of confused love, difficult friendships and clumsy attempts at heroism, Pan’s fight for her village will bring her into contact with a whole new world, where the truth about the past will have terrifying reverberations for her people’s future survival. Continue reading River Stone →

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