Award-winning author Belinda Murrell shares her insights into the industry after publishing over 35 books.

“Early on in my writing career, I wasn’t quite skilled enough to control a longer and more complex YA narrative. There’s a lot involved in writing strong and impactful stories for teens – their bullshit meter is finely tuned so we as writers have to make sure what our writing will resonate with their core truths and that takes a lot of practice and craft.”

There’s plenty happening around the state this March.

So you better get pencilling!

‘[Making a bestseller] is the mysterious combination of all those factors: the right time, the right place, a compelling story and the role of the publisher in making the most of opportunities.’

‘Write from the heart – write what scares you, what interests you; write out your most embarrassing thoughts. This is the stuff of common humanity.’

I didn’t want this book to end, just so you know. It was one of those books where the main character grabbed me in the first chapter. Then, I didn’t want to let her go. The Fall of Butterflies is about Willa, a small town teenage girl from What Cheer, Iowa (no that’s not a typo, […]

This book is for those who dare to dream. And who set out to achieve those dreams. Songs That Sound Like Blood is the story of Roxy Redding – a small town girl who plays a mean guitar and has the voice of an angel. She lives with her dad and regularly performs with him […]

When Ben Silver’s parents whisk him and his younger sister, Olive, away for a “holiday” he has a suspicion there is more to the story than what they are letting on. The premise for Tristan Bancks’s book Two Wolves is quite intriguing – parents kidnapping their own kids. You want to immediately know why they […]