‘A novel is an opportunity to do multiple pieces of business. A short story is the perfect opportunity to do one piece of business in a fresh way really well.’

‘An expert can break all of this down and help a writer work through suggested areas of improvement, one layer at a time.’

‘Every footstep taken on this continent connects each of us to an impossibly vast story, and for me poetry can often be the best way to comprehend that relationship to place and time.’

‘Children are on the cusp of their lives, they’re only just setting out on their own grand adventures. To offer possibility and hope in our stories can inspire and empower children for the rest of their lives. What an honour for a writer to have this chance.’

‘Sometimes we resist an idea because it doesn’t feel original or brilliant enough, but it’s only when you commit to it, and spend some time exploring it, that you find your connection, start inhabiting it, and then the magic starts to happen.’

‘The more you pitch, the more comfortable you become with rejection, with no response, and with pitching again. Editors want to hear from you, and rejection is never personal!’

‘Research allows us to write about subjects which we are not already experts in… It allows writing to be imbued with the kinds of details which bring the reader into the worlds we’ve created and make those worlds fascinating.’

‘A good opening sentence is simple, raises questions or is surprising in some way. It is an invitation to the reader to enter the story; how you present that invitation is important.’

“We writers need to be near-virtuosic in our language because it’s a matter of how a story is told as much as what the story is.”