Blog

We went to some great museums while we were in Austria. Here were some of our favourites: Technisches Museum Wein (Vienna Museum of Science and Technology): the Husband particularly liked this museum. It had exhibitions showing transport throughout history (including...

I love reading novels of all different genres. I also love to watch a wide variety of movies and TV shows including cosy mysteries, comedies and superhero stories. In fact, the only types of stories I don’t like to read or watch are those in the horror genre – I’m not...

One of my favourite subjects at school was history. I have always been fascinated by how people in the past lived, dressed, worked and had fun. I have never written a historical novel but it is definitely on the list of things I would like to achieve in the future!...

Street markets are often filled with an assortment of many weird and wonderful things, made by all sorts of people from different walks of life. Much of our time spent in Salzburg, Austria was spent wandering around the street markets, both the pretty markets next to...

We visited lots of cafés while we were staying Austria.  Cafés have always been, and still are, my favourite places to write. I wrote almost the entire first draft of the third Figgy book, Figgy Takes the City, at a café near my house. The café workers got to know me...

One of the most common pieces of advice I give to other writers (or to those who would like to write) is to go on lots of walks. Long walks if you can. Walking is good exercise of course, and since I’ve never been a big fan of running or gyms it’s a good way to get my...

I love including animals in my stories. Firstly, because I love animals – they can be sweet, sassy, friendly, grumpy, shy and caring, just like humans. In my novel Figgy in the World, Figgy’s best friend is her goat, Kwame. Figgy shares a lot with Kwame and although...

The main reason we travelled to Hannover, Germany was to attend a family wedding. Big events are important to include in stories because they are excellent ways to increase dramatic tension. Even the lead up to big events can be exciting – the people going to the...

When we arrived in Hannover, Germany, one of the biggest things I noticed was that it was hot. Very, VERY hot. I mean, we’re used to the heat in Australia. That’s why we spend a lot of time at the beach and in swimming pools. But it seemed like the Germans were not so...

The first part of our trip to Germany and Austria was, obviously, travelling there. Our first destination was Hannover, Germany. And our mode of travel was three aeroplanes. Some stories don’t include any transport at all – for example, in my book Blossom, the entire...

What do you need to pack for a holiday? Your passport, swimmers, underwear … Well, travel journals have always been very high up on my packing list. And my journal was one of the first items I packed when preparing for my trip to Germany and Austria. I have written in...

Hello! My name is Tamsin, and I’m excited to be your blogger throughout March. The most common question kids ask me is what inspires my stories. Of course, you can be inspired by anything and everything, including the people in your life, a day at school, what you had...

Red hot writing tip alert!! How do we feel when a story goes EXACTLY as we EXPECT it to?  How do we feel when a character behaves EXACTLY as we EXPECT them to? Exactly. We feel BORED. AND AS WRITERS BEING BORING IS SOMETHING WE WANT TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Now how do...

Sometimes when you start writing a story or drawing an illustration, it's so scrappy and rough that it's almost impossible to imagine how it will possibly end up being a finished book. A lot of work happens in between. So just for fun, here is the first EVER...

I LOVE coming up with names for characters. My notes app on my phone is filled with random character names that I think of while I am out walking my dog. When I was writing THE TURNERS it took me AGES to come up with the name of the main character LEO LENNOX. A...