Made Up Statistics
16% of people think a placebo was a government official in ancient Sumer. 4% of ants are actually small sticks. 8% of people have no nail on their little toes. 14% of Renaissance painters were allergic to cheese. 28% of people have faces that cannot be caricatured by cartoonists....
Writers Write: My Favourite Book 11
Justin D’Ath Justin is the author of over 30 books for children and young adults, including the hugely popular Extreme Adventures series. I grew up in a house of books – well, three houses really, since the family moved twice as it grew larger; and the books went with...
A New Book: 10 Futures
I can finally divulge details of the top secret project I’ve been working on for some time. 10 Futures is a series of linked stories which explore humanity’s next hundred years. Ten story segments, ten possible futures, each with its own challenges and opportunities – overpopulation, worldwide financial collapse,...
Writers Write: My Favourite Book 10
Leanne Hall Whenever I’m in a second-hand bookshop, the first thing I always do is go to the children’s shelves and look for a copy of Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler. But I’m not looking for just any copy; it has to have the original...
Writers Write: My Favourite Book 9
Ian Irvine Today’s Guest Blogger is Ian Irvine, one of our foremost fantasy writers and the author of the best-selling ‘Three Worlds’ sequence. We didn’t have TV until after I finished the HSC, in 1968, and my primary form of entertainment from the age of 4 was reading. I...
2011 Round-up
As is customary, here’s my round-up of professional whatnots in 2011: two books published – Hour of Need in May (the last book of ‘The Laws of Magic’) and The Extinction Gambit in December (the first book of ‘The Extraordinaires’) wrote two books (‘The Extinction Gambit’ and a top...
Writers Write: My Favourite Book 8
Penni Russon Today’s Guest Blogger is Penni Russon, one of this country’s most admired writers for young people, with works as varied as the lyrical ‘Undine’ trilogy and Girlfriend Fiction. I have just excised a 300-word introduction listing all the books I won’t be talking about – for to...
Writers Write: My Favourite Book 7
Holly Harper The first time I saw a Goosebumps book, I fell in love. I was eight, and the fact that the title was written in blood-like lettering and contained the words ‘Dead House’ meant that it was instantly the coolest thing I had ever laid eyes on. And...
Guest Blogging
For the month of December, I’m Guest Blogging as Writer in Residence over at Inside a Dog, the website of the Centre for Youth Literature. Pop over and peruse my mindful meanderings. ...
Writers Write: My Favourite Book 6
Tristan Bancks I wolfed these Paul Jennings’ stories down when I was about nine years-old. Unreal was so different to anything that I had read before....