2. What is your nickname?
Too embarrassing to repeat here...
3. What is your greatest fear?
Losing my partner.
4. Describe your writing style in ten words.
Evocative, quiet, emotional, descriptive, honest, authentic, pared back, character-centric.
5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Curious, imaginative, persistent, caring, fulfilled.
6. What book character would you be, and why?
Wombat from Mem Fox and Kerry Argent’s Wombat Divine.
7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
Right now I am researching the Australian Gold Rush for a YA novel, so I am enjoying learning all about life in 1867 – it might be fun to go back and see the goldfields in that year. But just for the day!
8. What would your ten-year-old self say to you now?
Do you mean it? Did our dream really come true?
9. Who is your greatest influence?
Personally, my mum. Professionally, the writers I have most admired since I was a kid: Wendy Orr, Libby Gleeson, Sally Odgers.
10. What/who made you start writing?
I think it was always my path in life. I was born with the gene for reading and writing! I’ve always loved reading stories and so writing them seemed the natural progression. After I wrote my first ‘book’ at age six, I just kept on going.
11. What is your favourite word and why?
It changes, but right now I really like ‘flibbertigibbet’.
12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Profiles in Children’s Literature by Jacqueline Schachter Weiss – a great big compendium of interviews with kid-lit authors on their writing lives. I find it utterly fascinating.
