Randomize ME

Ya dystopia with cloning, superpowers and an escape.

I think it has come from the culmination of lots of books I’ve read, including my own interest in science and a desire to provide teenage girls with a heroine they can look up to.

I wanted to show them that girls are strong and much more than the sum of their love interests.

Definitely Mina. She is kind of who I wished I had been as a teenager. She’s questioning and loyal and very strong. She’s a great leader with real power but at the same time she makes mistakes and is trying to figure everything out.

I do have a day job, unfortunately. I would love to be a full time writer and am working very hard to try and make that a possibility. Unfortunately it’s not possible at the moment and means that I have to organise my time very well!

The Vanished will be the next instalment of the Blemished trilogy will be out next year.

I think it’s going to create even more questions for the reader and challenge you to think about the themes. But there is plenty of action to keep everyone entertained and thoroughly looking forward to the third book 🙂

If you like the Uglies, the Handmaid’s Tale or the Hunger Games then you will probably like my book.

Night of the Purple Moon is about kids who never give up after the adults die.

I wanted to write a high concept book with characters you can root for and HUGE stakes.

I am not a thirteen-year old girl but (after some starts and stops) I became very comfortable writing through the eyes of 13-year old Abby Leigh. She is bossy and has a big heart and wants to do the right thing.

I used to work full-time in high-tech marketing communications. I got laid off from full-time work and now do part-time contract work.

At the moment, I have time to write, which I do very early in the morning.

Colony East is Book 2 of The Toucan Trilogy

Michael Grant

Hard Lines: An athlete resists corruption undertaken in his name.

Reading about some headlines in college athletics, it’s almost as if some of these schools have full time staff on the payroll to do nothing but cover up anything that makes the program look bad.

Jake Zarephath, the main character, is all about how I think I’d react in that situation. He’s naive and scared at first, and goes along with the cover up. Eventually he learns that some of the people guiding him are immoral, and that he can’t be a part of it. In the end he finds the courage to make tough decisions.

I hope it’s an enjoyable story, which is all it is. Beyond that, I’d hope they take a closer look and make their own evaluations the next time there’s a scandal in college athletics.

Right now I’m planning on writing a new story starring the bounty hunter / private detective that stole the show in my last book, Primary Justice.

Secrets, souks, seraglios … and spells.

My son brought me a millefiore paperweight from Venice and I was inspired to write a story about charms hidden in the glass tubing that makes up the tiny flowers.

My most favourite part of the novel is the description of the seraglio as Lalita is led through the Gate of A Thousand Promises. I wanted the reader to experience it as she does because she is temporarily blinded by the sun’s glare and so all her other senses come into play.

I needed to convey the horror of what was happening in her life and contrast it with the sheer beauty of the palace surroundings.

My day job? I’m an Australian sheep farmer working with my husband on our sheep property, as well as being the gardener for about 1.5 acres of gardens.

I am hopelessly un-disciplined when it comes to my writing, as I would prefer to be outdoors working than cooped up at the computer. We grow superfine wool for the Italian and Chinese fabric trade and it’s busy. Especially when we’re lambing, shearing, crutching and doing any other of the million things that need doing on a farm.

To compensate, I write at night in bed with pen on paper! The transcribing to computer then becomes the first edit.

I have almost finished writing The Shifu Cloth which is the fourth in The Chronicles of Eirie. Another stand alone, it is set in the secretive Han province of the world and takes up the successive generation’s story, following on very gently from A Thousand Glass Flowers.