I have strategically taken the photo below so that you can’t see the mess in case it hurts your head. I don’t actually need it geographically speaking, but it’s a visual cue that’s supposed to make me spring to my desk and work. You can see the map of the region I’ve got up on my wall in the photo below. I’m currently working on a Young Adult novel called Molasses. I think my only other agenda was it had to make me laugh. I spent four years at a co-ed residential college and I wanted to write a book that was set in one. It’s a uni novel, a love story, and it’s taking a look at sex and intimacy in the hook-up age. I’ve got a new book just out called Summer Skin. WHAT IS YOUR LATEST BOOK OR CURRENT PROJECT? What’s important, though, was once I started it I didn’t give a toss about what the outcome was going to be, and that was good because it meant I didn’t hand it over until it was well and truly realised. That book was Raw Blue, and it was the first I had published. I gave up on getting published and decided to write the book I was dying to write.

It lost me the agent, who didn’t want Australian. I tried again, this time writing something more Australian. I worked on it for another two years and then sent it to a well-known agent in London, who loved it and put it up for auction. I knew it, too, but for some reason I kept going. I’d been wanting to write a novel for a long time, but that was the first time I’d felt empowered to do it. I worked in kitchens a lot during that time, which was more physical work than mental, and I think the free headspace plus reading Stephen King’s book On Writing created an explosion of energy that meant I not only started my first novel, but I also finished it.

She is proud to be an ambassador for the Stella Schools Program and a contributor at White Horses surf magazine.Ī while back I quit my career job and my partner and I travelled around Australia for a couple of years, living out of a four-wheel drive. She lives on Sydney’s northern beaches with her family, where she surfs most days. Her Young Adult novels have won and been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards, the Western Australia Premier’s Awards and the Gold Inky. Raised by her mum and grandma under the big skies of Capricornia, she grew up riding horses, went to a small country school where shoes were optional, and was always allowed to read at the dinner table.

Raw blue by kirsty eagar