Those of you who have read any of my Dragonkeeper books will know that the leaves, fruit and bark of the chinaberry tree are one of the few things that Chinese dragons don’t like. It poisons them. This information was recorded in an ancient Chinese book called the Er Ya Yi, written about 1000 years [...]
About 25 years ago, when we were renovating our house, my husband John carved a dragon to put on the roof. This was a long time before I even started thinking about writing about dragons. The dragon has watched over us ever since. John is painting the outside of the house at the moment and [...]
The Melbourne Writers Festival is over and I really enjoyed my sessions. The audiences were big and attentive which is great. And I got to chat to some of my readers afterwards at signings. I also sat in on some interesting sessions by other authors. I particularly enjoyed my panels with other authors. It’s always [...]
Yesterday I went to the reopening of Melbourne’s Chinese Museum, which has been closed for refurbishment for some while. I am always happy to visit the processional dragons that live in the Museum, and now they are all housed together in the new Dragon Gallery. It was also a great opportunity to see the Millennium [...]
Sugar Sugar isn’t the only book I have written that is out this month. Also just published is the paperback edition of The Dragon Companion which is an A-Z encyclopedia of dragons with lots of information about dragons and stories as well. Check out the great microsite on the black dog books website which shows [...]
For those of you who live in Sydney, or might be visiting in the near future, I recommend a visit to the Mythic Creatures Exhibition at the Australian Maritime Museum. I can recommend it because I saw the exhibition when it was in New York. It has displays about dragons, unicorns, mermaids and other mythic [...]
There is a new page on my website. It is called Carole’s Dragon Tour of Melbourne. It is a walk around the city of Melbourne, Australia to view our dragons. Melbourne has quite a few dragons, and I’ve been thinking for a while that I wanted to let more people know about them and devise [...]
Last Friday I was invited to be a member of a panel of authors and illustrators at the annual Dromkeen Literary Lunch. For those who don’t know Dromkeen is a lovely colonial homestead at Riddells Creek in Victoria which houses a collection of original illustrations, artwork and manuscripts from Australian children’s literature. Statues of characters from favourite [...]
I have said many, many times that I am not going to write a fourth book in the Dragonkeeper series. And I haven’t changed my mind about that. However, I have written another Dragonkeeper book. It doesn’t continue the story after Dragon Moon though. It is a “prequel”. It is called Dragon Dawn and is [...]
While I was at the Shanghai American School, I had a look at the beautiful Beijing Opera costumes that belong to the school. When Jacqueline Meijer asked if I’d like to try them on, I didn’t hesitate. Here I am in Imperial dragon robes. Thanks to Jacqueline for sending me the photos.
black snake china climate change cooking dragon companion dragonkeeper trilogy dragons events Fromelles history inspiration jerilderie letter overseas editions pets ramose reading short stories sugar sugar the games the night we made the flag writing writing process writing process special series
BibliOdyssey
Fabulous blog of historical illustrations
Centre for Youth Literature: Writer in Residence Blog
A different writer blogs each month
Lili Wilkinson
My daughter’s blog
Andrew’s Black Dog Blog
My publisher’s blog
Yarra Climate Action Now
My local climate action group (of which I am a member)
Earthsign
The thoughtful and informed climate change blog of a fellow YCAN member
