adventure
Cameron Macintosh is an author and editor based in his home town of Melbourne. He studied Psychology and Italian at Melbourne University, and Professional Writing at RMIT. He has worked in educational publishing since 2001, editing hundreds of primary literacy books and teaching materials for teachers and students.
Cameron has now written more than 80 books for primary and early secondary students. In 2017 he crossed over into trade publishing with the release of the first book in his Max Booth Future Sleuth series – a humour-filled sci-fi series for 7 to 10-year-olds. Titles in the series include Tape Escape, Selfie Search, and Stamp Safari, which was released in August 2018 (illustrated by Dave Atze, published by Big Sky Publishing).
In the few minutes per week that he isn’t wrestling with words on the laptop, Cameron loves playing the guitar, reading music biographies and drawing angry-looking owls.
As a mother of four boys, Kelly Jarris has been lucky enough to see the diversity in each child, which is how the characters came about for her first book, Wonderful Wishes. Kelly also writes and appreciates stories from life experiences, with her recently released picture book, Imagine Our Special Place. Her sister’s journey with terminal cancer inspired Kelly to write a book that touches on sibling bonds, imagination and feelings of the unknown. The story has been described,
“Their imagination takes them out of their reality into other happy places”.
Kelly’s sister’s take on what she was facing inspired her to write a book that would touch on sibling bonds, imagination and feelings of the unknown. Imagine Our Special Place is about two sisters who go on a journey together in the sky, meeting the Queen of all the rainbows, riding its arch-like a waterslide, sipping tea from a cup made out of the golden sun and having a tea party with a pink fairy. Parents can read this book knowing the deeper meaning and children can channel their creative thinking throughout the story.
Kelly has a background in veterinary nursing and was once an Australian wildlife rescuer.
Lauren Hackney lives in Manly; a seaside suburb of Brisbane, with her husband, two creative boys, chickens, fish, cockatiels and their recently adopted dog. Together, they love exploring, travelling, trying new things, laughing and being amongst nature. Another pastime of theirs is storytelling. Whether it be a bedtime story, a campfire story or a road trip story – they love discovering where the stories lead.
For many years, Lauren worked in aviation, but she now takes stories on high-flying adventures through the power of magic and imagination.
Her first book is The Lolly Shop – a delicious collaboration with her two sons.
Susan Day is passionate about children’s literature. She created ‘Astro’s Adventures’ early-reader chapter books and has written many other titles, including ‘Clarence the Snake from Dunolly’.
‘Astro’s Adventures’ is based on a group of dogs who belong to a secret organisation created to save other dogs from neglect. Their plans are often thwarted by the evil genius, Speed Bump Charlie, a wicked alley cat, and his sidekick, Furball.
Each book Susan creates encourages and promotes the wonderful art of story-telling, and encapsulates her deep understanding of dogs and cats. As each character is based on a real pet, readers will immediately see their own pets portrayed within the pages, and will laugh along with their whacky antics.
Susan developed the ‘Resilience Warriors Workshops’ to help children develop the skills they need to combat depression and anxiety. These workshops are based on her very successful book, ‘Astro is Down in the Dumps’.
Susan shares her country home in Central Victoria with four dogs from the ‘Astro’s Adventures’ series: Rocky, Stella, Alfie and Digger. As well as, Furball, the villainous kitten, three rescue guinea pigs, a three-legged huntsman spider named Trevor, and a very patient husband.