Down Under Wonderings

A quick post guys to let you know that last week I signed with new Australian Agent Kelly Mclean. Kelly is hungry to sell my work and sh...

This is a special post for the people who attended my presentations at the Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival.  Thanks so much ...

My Week in Pictures I watch drama unfold on the Internet I did some Beta editing I got sick - ugh I got a nice surpr...

I announced last month on YAtopia that I will be a guest speaker at  The Whitsunday Voices Youth Festival this year - "Words Take F...

Two good friends of mine have joined up for a giveaway! Novelist Deena Shoemaker has a Sweet Evil promotion on her blog You're Ab...

My good friend and critique partner, Wendy Higgins, has her first book Sweet Evil  coming out 1 May - Squee! I will be doing a giveaway t...

Over the past day and a bit, I've been reading a lot on the debate about the scrapping of the Queensland Premier's Literary Award. ...

It's Australian Author Month and Premier Newman has shown how much he appreciates his state's author by scraping the Queensland Prem...

I'm not shy about the fact that I'm a proud Australian and I'd love to see Aussies more prominent in the international literatur...

Last month I held a contest for the best way to describe a novel using other novels, movies or shows. I judged it on accuracy for when I had...

Brenda Drake, Shelly Walters and Cassandra Marshall recently help a PitchMadness contest where agents got to bid on 60 pitches posted on th...

This is a belated International Women's Day post. I've been noticing a trend. There are so many inspiring female YA authors out th...

I recently let my new writing friend Rhiannon Hart  know that I thought her book Blood Song  was a YA version of The Game of Thrones. I don...

I already had a blog set up, but when I saw this interview with Sara Megibow on YA Highway , and in other interviews, it prompted me to loo...

Interviewing an agent, author or editor can make great posts, but a lot of people get stuck on what to ask their interviewees. I did get a g...

To celebrate the launch of my new website " The Weird Writing World of S.M.Johnston " I'm having a giveaway. Firstly I'...

Something is coming. Something will be revealed There will be prizes Come back to Down Under Wonderings on 1 February to find out ...

YA writer, geek and self-professed probably fodder in the event of a zombie apocalypse, Kathleen Peacock, wonderfully gave Australian blogge...

I'm back from my blogging vacation. And I've got a question for you all. Have you ever found yourself staring blankly at the comp...

Some writing friends of mine recently alerted me to an aspiring author attacking a published author on Twitter. An author was accused of bei...