I caught the writing bug when I was about seven years old and haven't stopped writing since. I worked as a teacher and a journalist and then - when I was 40 - I decided to start writing for children. I've had many stories, articles, poems and plays published by educational publishers in New Zealand, Australia, UK and USA. In 2006 I had my first book published in the trade market - selling into shops and libraries. The next year, It's True...You can make your own jokes was a finalist in the non-fiction section of the NZ Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Since then, I've had two books published in Scholastic's My Story series - one about the Rainbow Warrior bombing and the other about the Erebus tragedy. In 2009 Walker Books published my picture book Your Mother Didn't Do That!