I could not be more thrilled about joining all the madness, mayhem and fun at Supernova Melbourne April 5-7th and Gold Coast April 12-14th!

To celebrate the festive season, Walker Books Australia have 3 sets of Spark, Stray and Shield up for grabs over the next 3 weeks before Christmas.

It’s been a busy week of author events for me, an exciting NZ Book Council initiative called: Speed Date an Author (held at Nayland College) and two library visits with teen book groups.

A busy and exciting weekend at the Word Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival. The Opening Night Gala, Writers Party, Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture with David Levithan and the early release of Shield at the Teens In Peril panel session.

August 8th, 6.30pm at the Circa Theatre in Wellington, I was delighted to hear my name announced at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults when Stray won the Children’s Choice category for YA. Hoorah! I had about 12 flustered seconds from my seat to the stage to try and think of something charming and gracious to say. I was pink-faced and gabbling and completely chuffed. What an honour.

My 6 days in Auckland were jam-packed with visits, meetings and events. I visited 6 schools, delivered 8 talks, lunched with booksellers, attended the New Zealand Book Industry Awards and had a lovely catch up with some author friends.

I am sooooo overdue to post news. Sorry, team. I can’t think back over all the details I’ve missed this year but here are the recent highlights: Stray is a finalist in the Children’s Choice category of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

How could I fail to feel welcome arriving at Richmond Public Library this afternoon when Rachel Lord, the wonderful Librarian for Young Adult Literature had festooned the library with posters galore advertising this week’s Mystery Ink Teen Book Club session?

Tuesday, September 8th, one week after the Christchurch book launch we celebrated the release of Stray at my favourite bookshop, Page & Blackmore. I fell in love with P&B the first time I visited the store soon after moving to Nelson and have been a regular ever since. Stella and the team are the best kind of independent booksellers, friendly, knowledgeable and mad keen on books!

A truly delightful evening of friends, whanau and Spark-enthusiasts, sipping wine, nibbling cake and goodies, celebrating the launch of Stray, book 2 in the Spark trilogy.