July 17, 2014
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Are You Seeing Me?, ASD, Authors, Autism, Autism Fiction, Autism Writing, AYSM, Books, Brothers, Daughters, Disability, Fathers, Fiction, Inspiration, New Books, New Release, New Work, New YA Lit, Random House, Random House Australia, Random House New Zealand, Siblings, Sisters, Sons, Twins, Writing, Writing Books, YA Lit, Young Adults
With Are You Seeing Me? having just hit the shelves in Australia, I’d like to share with you some insight into what inspired me to write the novel.
Anyone who’s spent any time with me knows I am Dad to a set of twins: one girl, one boy. My daughter is ‘neurotypical’, which is how people in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) community sometimes refer to regular, everyday kids who do not have autism. She is amazing. She plays trumpet, creates short animated films and adores The Hunger Games. My son, who is three minutes younger than my daughter, is diagnosed with autism. He is amazing, too. He is awesome at Minecraft, swims like a champ and enjoys Pixar films. They will officially be teenagers in 2014.
Are You Seeing Me? is a gift to my daughter. She was due a book – my previous novel, Kindling, was a gift to my son. (By the way, all of my books are gifts for my beautiful
wife). When I first started considering what to write, I kept coming back to a message I held dear for my daughter: ‘You should never feel like you must be your brother’s keeper. Love him, as he loves you, but live your own life to the full.’
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May 15, 2014
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Arguwrite
#WeNeedDiverseBooks, Another, Are You Seeing Me?, Authors, Autism, Autism Fiction, Autism Writing, BookCon, Books, Children's Books, Difference, Disability, Diverse Books, Diversity, Fiction, Kindling, New Work, Novels, Other, We Need Diverse Books, Writing, Writing Books, YA Lit, Young Adult Books
First, the good news:
The recent #WeNeedDiverseBooks Twitter coup was an admirable rebuff of the longstanding hegemonies in children’s and young adult fiction. It doesn’t look like a flash in the pan either, so that’s good too.
Now, the bad news:
The whole exercise has further illustrated – dare I say, reinforced – the pecking order of minorities in both the book debate and the wider society looking on.
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April 6, 2014
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August 2014, Authors, Book Covers, Books, Coming Soon, Earthquakes, Fiction, Jackie Chan, New Books, New Work, New YA Lit, Novels, Publishing Deal, Random House Australia, Sea Monsters, YA Lit, Young Adults
Behold the cover for Are You Seeing Me?, formerly Master Disaster, formerly Finding Fault, formerly The Mantle. How did a novel with this much schizophrenia finally make it across the line? I’ll let you know in a little while…
In the meantime, dream of earthquakes, sea monsters and Jackie Chan.
Are You Seeing Me? will be published by Random House Australia in August 2014.
August 11, 2013
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Loose Shorts, News
Authors, Exciting Press, Front Covers, New Fiction, New Work, New Writing, Short Fiction, Short Stories, Writing
Exciting Press are publishing my brand new short story, It’s Only Natural. And they’ve given it a cover and everything!
Details of the release will be forthcoming shortly – in the meantime, gaze upon the image above and let your imagination wander into the limitless realms of what characters and dialogues and happenstances may reside within…
Or you could say ‘Bugger that!” and just wait for it to come out.
March 13, 2013
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Arguwrite
Authors, Books, Daily Words, New Work, Numbers, Quality Not Quantity, Word Counts, Words, Writers, Writing, Writing Books
Writers love to tell you their word counts.
“Just did 500 words before breakfast!”
“Got my 1,000 words done for the day!”
“30,000 words done on the new novel!”
We take great delight in passing on the numbers we produce. I have been no exception. If you trawled back through my Facebook and Twitter posts, you would find statements similar to those above (though probably not without profanity).
Well, I’m here to tell you that’s all in the past. Aside from those punching the keyboard, no digits will ever again offer any implied measure of my authorial efforts. And if my colleagues on the shelves have a high regard for the craft – as I know they do – they will avoid any future reference to word counts, too.
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November 17, 2011
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Authors, Books, Concentrate, Darren Groth, New Work, New YA Lit, Simon Groth, Teaser, The Brothers Groth, The Text Prize, Wake, Writing, Writing Books, Writing Collaboration, YA Lit, Young Adults
The Brothers Groth – Simon and Yours Truly – had an auspicious start to their collaboration with novel, Concentrate, being shortlisted in the 2009 Text Prize (although it still has yet to be contracted by a publisher…WTF).
The draft of the second B-Gro work, Infinite Blue, is underway and promises more YA lit of the highest order. Here’s a blurb:
Infinite Blue
The Brothers Groth
Skye Sandalford’s boyfriend, Clayton Drummond, is earmarked for greatness. Nineteen years old and propelled by size eighteen feet, he is the prototype of a swimming prodigy. But his destiny won’t only be defined by world records. Powered by ‘Team Drum’ – comprising career-plotting mother, Blythe, God-fearing father, Len, and an entourage of consultants – this good looking, articulate Aussie dubbed ‘Wake’ can transcend the boundaries of sport and fire the imagination of a world in search of heroes.
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Myperbole 