FAQ

How many books have you written?   17.

Where do you get your ideas from?  Real life and the movie screen in my head called Imagination. I also use a few author tricks like taking something important away from the main character and having them try and get it back.

Are any books based on your life? They all are to some extent. The most autobiographical are the Danny books – each story is based on something real that happened to me.

Where did you get the idea for The Tuckshop Kid? I was travelling around New Zealand and I won a  chocolate milk in a competition. After saying, ‘How cool is that!’ I thought, ‘Imagine if winning a drink changed somone’s life.’ After more thinking about who would love to win free drinks I came up with Matthew. It was easy to write about a character who loved food!

Do you have a new book coming up? Yes. My Awesome Story will be out in 2012. It’s about a boy who doesn’t like writing but ends up writing an awesome story. Well, at least he thinks so!