Not the Plot

Send us Fan Mail Dr Mark Carthew is an award-winning Australian children’s author, poet, editor, musician and educator well known for his books and series celebrating language, humour and wordplay.  His picture books The Gobbling Tree , ill. by Susy  Boyer and T he Thing That Goes Ping! ill. by Shane McG, were both awarded the prestigious Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award.  Mark ha...

Send us Fan Mail Rebecca Green has worked as a journalist, book reviewer and school librarian. She is inspired by the unusual and writes children’s books that celebrate differences. Rebecca grew up in country Victoria reading horse books, dreaming of owning a horse and riding whenever she could. After discovering zorses, the offspring of a horse and a zebra, Rebecca started dreaming about owning o...

Send us Fan Mail Dannika Patterson , a Brisbane-based children’s author, workshop presenter, and former journalist. Her books aim to uplift, empower, and spark wonder, while gently opening conversations about big ideas. In this episode of Not the Plot, Dannika chats with host Teena Raffa-Mulligan about the challenge of finding publishers, the experience of working with an illustrator, her thoughts...

Send us Fan Mail Adam Ouston is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and the recipient of the 2014 Erica Bell Literary Award as well as the manuscript prize at the Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Awards in 2017. He holds a PhD and has worked as a copywriter, editor and bookseller. As a musician he performs as Costume. Adam lives in Hobart, Tasmania. His latest novel, Mine , about a poet trapped down...

Send us Fan Mail Annette Pesek has been drawing and painting since she was old enough to hold a pencil and paintbrush. Upon completing a Maths/Science Education degree at Melbourne University, she attended watercolour classes with Melbourne based realist artist Walter Magilton. After a few years she turned to Botanical Illustration, as she discovered this was her true passion. She then attended re...

Send us Fan Mail Geoffrey Gates is an educator, author and songwriter. After university, he taught in London and Hamburg for nine years before returning to Sydney. Geoffrey’s short fiction and essays have appeared in such literary journals as Southerly, LINQ, and Australian Literary Studies. He was awarded a Varuna Fellowship in 2023 for his third novel The Phantom Surrealist which was recently re...

Send us Fan Mail Catherine de Saint Phalle was born in London, spent her first years in Sussex, England and then lived in Paris and the South of France before moving to Australia in 2003.  She has had six books published in France. Her fifth book with Australian publisher Transit Lounge, The Hurt , was released in August and has been described as ‘a remarkably honest and captivating work of litera...

Send us Fan Mail Veronica Rooke can trace her artistic career back to her first year in primary school when she started writing and illustrating wacky stories and announced she was going to be an artist. At the time no one appreciated her crayon masterpieces, said she was a bit weird and suggested a different career choice might be more appropriate. Veronica chose not to listen to her critics, fol...

Send us Fan Mail Katie Stewart has worked in a variety of jobs, from archaeologist to school library assistant, but illustrating was what she always wanted to do, with writing coming in a close second. So, it’s only natural that she eventually got around to writing and illustrating children’s books, albeit somewhat late in life. Born in the north of England, Katie came to Australia at the age of 9...

Send us Fan Mail K. Q. Watson ’s author bio is intriguing. She describes herself as a ‘one legged Canadian who likes The Dark Crystal more than she will ever like you’ and ‘the cyborg that you don’t take home to meet your parents’. She looks innocuous and gentle, but there are oodles of satanic death metal songs continually playing in her head. Sometimes, when she’s all alone, she thinks back to s...

Send us Fan Mail Justine Robertson has always been an avid reader, tracing her ‎passion back to the moment she was handed her first ‎take-home books at the age of four: Peter and Jane . ‎ That love for reading blossomed into a newfound passion for writing several years ago and her debut novel, Needing, the first in a series of psychological thrillers for young adults, was released in 2024. Wanting...

Send us Fan Mail Australian author Polly Holmes delights readers with paranormal and culinary cozy mysteries bursting with charm, mischief, and a dash of magic. Her stories blend action, humour, and unforgettable characters, creating page‑turning adventures that linger long after the final chapter.  ​When the clues turn darker and the stakes rise, she writes as P.L. Harris, delivering gripping par...

Send us Fan Mail Kat Richardson is a Tasmanian writer, illustrator and editor. Kat’s creative life started in a small country town, surrounded by books, animals, magic and a handful of brilliant teachers who made space for storytelling. She spent her childhood filling notebooks with sentences and scribbles, and daydreaming about making books and says she hasn’t really stopped. These days she helps...

Send us Fan Mail Kylie Howarth is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator from Perth. She was raised in the country alongside her brother, dog, sheep, several orphaned kangaroos and one very cheeky echidna.   Kylie’s obsession with animals also extends underwater as she has braved lionfish in Egypt, piranha and pink dolphins in the Amazon, marine iguanas and hammerhead sharks in th...

Send us Fan Mail Leanne White is an accomplished artist, children’s book author, illustrator, publisher and visual arts educator who teaches painting and drawing to children and adults. She believes everyone can create, they just need the freedom to know they can. Leanne’s own paintings and drawings are often studies of wildlife in their natural habitat and wild creatures, wild spaces and places a...

Send us Fan Mail Tenille Seow is an Australian author passionate about creating accessible fantasy stories for younger readers. When Tenille picked up a popular young adult fantasy novel in 2023, she expected to be swept into the story. Instead, she found herself struggling with difficult character names, strong language, and mature content that didn’t feel appropriate for younger readers. That mo...

Send us Fan Mail Kate Searle is an author, mum and geologist from Quindalup in the south west of Western Australia. Kate’s books, My Soul Treasure and Find Your Treasure , encourage young readers to visualise their inner strengths as precious gemstones in the treasure chest of their souls. Kate is passionate about inspiring children to connect with their inner strengths and creativity.  In this ep...

Send us Fan Mail Author Brendan Colley was born in South Africa, and made Tasmania his home in 2009. His first novel, The Signal Line, won the Unpublished Manuscript Prize in the 2019 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Awards, and was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and The Age Book of the Year Awards. his second novel The Season for Flying Saucers was released recently.  In this...

Send us Fan Mail Kez Wickham-St George is an artist, author, mentor and public speaker with a passion for personal development and a commitment to supporting people from diverse backgrounds on their own creative journey. Kez is widely travelled and draws strongly on this experience in her writing. She is the author of 14 books, writes for a range of international magazines and has co-hosted progra...

Send us Fan Mail Maura Pierlot is an international award-winning author, playwright and filmmaker who creates across art forms for children and adults. Her work typically has an existential bent, exploring the nature of self, belonging, identity and ethics– perhaps not surprising for someone with a Ph. D.in philosophy.  Maura is actively embedded in community initiatives, running The Book Bench Pr...

Send us Fan Mail Kellie Coff, writing as Lellie Lopter, is an international award-winning children’s author, illustrator, and creator who isn’t afraid to write about big feelings and tricky topics.  Her stories encourage children to think big, to feel deep, and to laugh out loud. She champions children’s literacy through her free little libraries project, the Author Pen Pals program, the PLCC Auth...

Send us Fan Mail Sharon Giltrow is an award-winning author of humorous and heartfelt picture books and speculative, adventure-filled middle grade books.  Sharon grew up in South Australia, the youngest of eight children in a one-hundred-year-old farmhouse, which she turned into a library filled with books written by other people.  She now lives in Western Australia with her husband and two childre...

Send us Fan Mail Liv Lorkin is a heart-led children's book author, illustrator and visual storyteller. Since packing books underneath her bed as a child, she’s loved reading, writing and colouring outside the lines. With a blended background in science and a career in design, she creates thoughtful stories that spread messages of hope and joy.   When not immersed in illustrating, she can be f...

Send us Fan Mail Alan Fyfe is a maker of stories and poems who lives on unceded Noongar country. Alan’s poetry and prose fiction has received recognition with a number of awards and listings in Australia and internationally. His latest release, The Cross Thieves, is the second part of a trilogy centred around The Peel Region and concerning housing instability and homelessness.  In this episode of...

Send us Fan Mail Brenton Cullen is a Queensland writer, bookseller and passionate advocate for children’s literature. He writes stories from the heart for all ages, with a particular love for picture books and middle-grade fiction. He has written articles, interviewed authors and reviewed children’s books. His debut middle-grade novel The Prime Minister Problem is released in April by Riveted Pres...