The universe is made up of billions of teeny tiny interconnected stories
The Apprentice Witnesser is open for pre-orders from your favourite bookshop or direct from Allen and Unwin.
OUT ON 1 MAY 2024!
Bastienne Scull is nearly twelve years old and lives a simple life as an apprentice to the Witnesser of Miracles in a small village mostly populated by women and girls. Basti knows that miracle-hunting is a lot like mystery-solving, and her little world is full of wonder and intrigue and unexpected adventure.
Great news!
'The Raven's Song' is out on Audible! Published by Bolinda Publishing and read by the amazing Claire Warrillow.
The Raven's Song was announced as an Honour Book in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book Awards for younger readers! (That's like tied for 2nd!) They said:
"Masterfully written and engaging, each object, action and word choice is purposeful. Pandemics, climate change and conservation, are the backdrop for this story, told in a way that never intrudes on the reader's journey and desire to explore the world. It provides parallels between our own reality and the resulting in an engaging and thought-provoking read."
We are over the moon!
Great news!
09 March - 'The Raven's Song' was shortlisted in the Aurealis Awards Best Children's Fiction
28 March - 'The Raven's Song' was shortlisted in the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers
15 May - 'The Raven's Song' was shortlisted in the Western Australian Premier's Prize for Children's Book of the Year
17 May - 'The Dog Runner' AND 'Across the Risen Sea' were both shortlisted in the YABBA Awards, the CROC Awards and the KOALA Awards.
You may have heard, Zana Fraillon and I wrote a book together from opposite sides of the country. We had never met at that point, but we were Twitter friends and in fact, we planned The Raven's Song on Twitter.
“I don’t think I have ever been as excited about a book as I was in that first crazy planning burst that Bren and I had over Twitter. We were messaging so quickly that my fingers couldn’t keep up, and each new idea resulted in a burst of further new ideas. It was like an explosion of creativity!”Zana Fraillon
We were more than halfway through the book when covid arrived and put a stop to the idea of ever getting together in person, and almost put a stop to the novel because in one character's timeline there was a pandemic and the real thing had made it not fun to write about anymore!
“I remember panicking to my writing crew when covid hit – I honestly thought the book wouldn’t be publishable. Pre November 2019, the idea of a global pandemic that shut the world down was the stuff of science fiction books. It couldn’t possibly happen in a Capitalist world!”Zana Fraillon
But by then we were enjoying working together too much, it turned into a thing that kept us going through lockdown, and so we decided to see the novel to its end. Whether the world was interested in it or not. That novel was The Raven's Song.
Well dear readers, you will be pleased to know the authors did eventually get together with the publishers all in one place shortly before the book launched. And though we imagined it would be like running across a field of sunflowers or fireworks exploding it was actually just like we were old friends meeting for coffee... because we are. Any explosions are all safely contained within the pages of The Raven's Song.
Hi, my name is Bren and I'm a children's writer. I live in Kalbarri in sunny Western Australia where I swim, kayak, hike, run a holiday villa business and try to write the best books in the world!
