I hosted a workshop on short story writing at this year’s Open Book Festival. Some of the greatest writers in the world are known for their short stories – Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Franz Kafka, Nadine Gordimer – and South Africa is home to some of the best.
I love short stories, writing and reading them, and wanted to share some tips for aspiring writers.
Continue reading “Notes from my Open Book Short Story Workshop”
Continue reading “Open Book Festival: RSVP for my Short Story Workshop”
21 September 2015
My YA masterclass returned to Open Book again this year and to my absolute delight, was one of the first events to sell out. Last time we tackled How to write a YA novel, so this year I decided to narrow the focus a little bit.
Continue reading “Open Book Festival: Worldbuilding workshop”
13 September 2013
Cat Hellisen, Sarah Lotz and I hosted our first Young Adult masterclass at the Open Book festival on Wednesday 11 September 2013.
5 February 2013
Whenever I’m out and about, trying to sell books or talking to kids about pursuing a career in writing, the question inevitably arises about why I write YA.
I’ve made it pretty clear in the past that I didn’t specifically set out to write YA. My first novel had young people in it, and as a result, became branded as YA. To be honest I had never even heard the term before then, but rather assumed that books marketed towards the teen market were simply that – teen books. I grew up devouring L.J Smith and R.L Stine after all. I had no idea they were called YA.
