A Touch of Magic
Audience: Primary students
Duration: 60 mins

In this session I talk about where ideas come from, the background to my books, and discuss the writing process as a whole. Twenty minutes before the end of the session I engage the students in either a dragon drawing workshop or a writing exercise workshop.

History Alive
Audience: Secondary students, Girls reading Little Paradise
Duration: 60 mins

This session is centred on my YA novel Little Paradise, which is based on my mother’s life during World War Two. I talk about how to meld fact and fiction, historical writing and where the difficulties lie, and where my ideas come from. I also touch on the background to World War Two in Australia and China and especially Melbourne and Shanghai where my story takes place.

Chinese Painting workshop
Audience: Primary students to early secondary
Duration: 60 mins

In this workshop, students learn the philosophy behind Chinese brush painting. They learn how to paint birds with just a few brush strokes and the bamboo plant. At the end of the workshop students will produce finished paintings of their own.
This is a very rewarding workshop especially for those students who consider themselves not good at art.