middle grade
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.
With a background in paediatric nursing, Julie spent many years literally wrapping children in cotton wool. Every day she witnessed courage and resilience from the tiny people she cared for, which inspired her to write stories to entertain them. A self-confessed science fiction nerd, (she even owns a T.A.R.D.I.S) and cupcake enthusiast, Julie is a middle grade author of The Adventures Of Caramel Cardamom Trilogy and Frankie Dupont Mysteries, independently published through Amazon and Createspace.
Julie is represented by Rebecca Angus of Golden Wheat Literary for her unpublished Middle Grade and Picture Book manuscripts. http://www.goldenwheatliterary.net/
Her independent books have won various awards including: 2015 Bronze Medal in the Wishing Shelf Independent Boo Award: Frankie Dupont And The Lemon Festival Fiasco.
2015 Bronze Medal for Teen Mystery in the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award: Frankie Dupont And The Mystery Of Enderby Manor.
2014 Silver Medal in the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Award : Frankie Dupont And The Mystery Of Enderby Manor.
2013 Gold Medal in the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Award : Escape From The Forbidden Planet.
For more information about Julie, including Australian Curriculum based activities for her books and Youtube trailers, please visit her website at http://www.julieannegrassobooks.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Anne-Grasso-books/287496411357122
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jujuberry37
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/jujuberry37/
YouTube: http://youtu.be/NGlsriYtqHw
Kesta Fleming is a writer and poet, and author of the Marlow Brown chapter book series for seven- to ten-year-olds.
She was born in England but grew up in the Adelaide Hills in a house full of books, bells and music. With a love of stories and a fascination for words she began writing when young. In addition to Marlow Brown, she has had numerous poems, plays, articles and short stories published in The School Magazine and in anthologies.
Kesta is a former teacher and now divides her time between writing for children and her therapeutic work helping people manage stress and anxiety.
She lives in Melbourne with her husband, two teenagers and a Brittany Spaniel.
Marlow Brown #2; Magician in the Making is the second title to Scientist in the Making, with illustrations by Marjory Gardner, published by Celapene Press.
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.
The first story in RJ Simon’s fictional series for middle graders, Ruby Lane, was published mid 2017. It’s a fun adventure story for children and adults who enjoy middle grade reads.
RJ Simon is a multidisciplinary artist and a published illustrator/author and a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Australian Society of Authors, and the Children’s Book Council of Australia. She lives in the Australian bush with her husband, their daughters, and lots of cats! RJ enjoys inspiring people to unlock their own personal brand of creativity, to dream big, and to laugh heartily.
To find out more about Ruby Lane visit RJ’s website, twitter or the Ruby Lane Facebook page…
As Sandra loves to read great mysteries or adventures, it seemed only natural that her passion for writing would one day lead her to writing adventure mysteries too. Einstein is quoted as saying ‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’ Through her stories Sandra hopes to build on children’s imagination to help take them on their journey to the future, wherever it may lead. With literacy and a little imagination, the possibilities are limitless.
Her desire to write continued to grow throughout her teaching career until one day when she decided it was time to leave the classroom and focus on writing full-time. Through her writing, Sandra hopes to help parents and teachers improve literacy in our children. She appreciates the struggle of teaching reading to reluctant readers and understands the importance of hooking children with reading from an early age. Sandra is devoted to writing stories that engage and entice readers with excitement, adventure, a bit of mystery and a whole lot of fun.
These days she enjoys invitations for classroom visits to read from her stories, discuss the writing process or run writing workshops. The rest of her days are spent dreaming up characters and plots for new stories while taking her dog for walks in the country around the area where she lives just outside of Canberra.
Sandra has independently published two picture books and two early readers, and has had seven short stories published across five anthologies, including the Share Your Story – Thrilling Tales for Brave Kids, and Tell ‘Em They’re Dreaming.
The Adamson Adventures is a series of three siblings exploring mysteries and culture in exotic and unusual places. These middle grade chapter books for ages 7 to 12 include Secrets Hidden Below, A Lighthouse in Time, and Fossil Frenzy.
Wendy Haynes has completed a Diploma in Creative Writing at Southern Cross University. Her writing focuses on middle-grade fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories for children, picture books, junior fiction, and YA.
Her first picture book Hayden’s Bedtime, was published in March 2019 and is on the 2019 NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge list. Her new book The Door in The Woods: Book 1 Hollow Woods a middle-grade fantasy fiction series is due out in 2020.
She believes that having a regular writing practice, and understand the device at your disposal, is the key to not only completing a story but in building the skills required to produce a worthy manuscript.
She was a judge for the Port Writer’s In-house competition for the creative non-fiction category in 2018, and one of the judges of the fiction category in 2019. She was one of the judges for the CYA Competition for 2019 and a board member for Hunter Writer’s Centre.
Wendy won first prize for her short story Going Nowhere, at Port Writers In-house competition 2018, and enjoys helping and motivating writers and has developed a mentorship program to help writers tell stories. Armed with a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, she conducts writing workshops on and offline through her business. http://writingforkeeps.com.au/
Being part of a writing community Wendy has volunteered for the roles of the President, Vice President, and Treasurer of Port Writers Inc, a not for profit local writing group bringing writing workshops and presentations, as well as writing exercises to the group.