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‘Karen is an intelligent and inspiring speaker. Her sessions are always fun, informative, and from the heart.’ – Simone Goldrick, Teacher

School Visits

Karen shares her love of writing and her journey to becoming an author, from her country childhood to her time as a lawyer in the big city to her travels in magical lands. She works with school groups to improve their writing and tell their own magical stories, and then edits and compiles those stories in beautiful paperback books for students to share with parents and friends.

Contact us to for bookings, either live or on Zoom:

  • full term program of weekly 1 hour writing sessions to produce a book of stories, or
  • individual creative writing workshops on a theme of your choosing.

Contact us

Karen is an intelligent and inspiring speaker. Her sessions are always fun, informative, and from the heart.
Simone Goldrick, Teacher

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A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

Madeleine L’Engle

Publish a Book

Karen will be available in person or on Zoom for a whole term, presenting weekly one hour sessions with the class. At the end of the term, we'll publish a book of stories to share with family and friends!

Week 1: Creating Crazy Characters

Everyone thinks and acts differently, and a good writer uses these differences to drive the story. Today we’ll brainstorm new characters, thinking about appearance, distinguishing features, favourite foods, favourite things to do, family background, etc. Then we’ll role play our characters for a fun news interview. Is your character a feisty redhead with a cannibal king father? Is she a clever spider who can write, with a best friend called Wilbur? How did she feel when she met Mr Tumnus under the lamp post?

Week 2: Building Magical Worlds

Another session of wonder and surprises, where anything is possible. First we’ll look at magical places like Narnia, Hogwarts and the 78-Story Treehouse, discussing what makes these places special. Then we’ll take our characters to a desert island, using our five senses to explore the island and finding much more than we expected.

Week 3: A Map for the Journey

Stories have an outline – a beginning, a middle and an end. Today we’ll talk about how to start a story with a bang and hook the reader from the very first sentence. We’ll think about the complication and how it propels the character into the action, getting the story rolling. And we’ll discuss what our main character wants, what might stop him getting it, and how this will drive the story.

Week 4-6: Time to Write!

Sharpen your pencils, it’s time to put it all together. Today we begin the first draft, using the characters, setting and outline we’ve developed over the first three weeks. First drafts are wild and crazy, and often make no sense at all. Punctuation doesn’t matter. Spelling doesn’t matter. We’ll worry about that later. Today we write and write and write!

Week 7: The Second Draft

This is the easy part. We’ve written the story – now we have to knock it into shape. Does it make sense? Does it need anything else? Are the commas in the right place? Would it be better with a new paragraph here or another sentence there? Time to get out our red pencils and scribble.

Week 8: Polishing your Masterpiece

How do you get a story published? What does an editor do? We’ll put the final touches on our stories and hand them over to Karen for a professional edit, and then we’ll talk about the practical process of publishing a book. We’ll wrap it all up with a big celebration. It’s been hard work and lots of fun, and in a few weeks our stories will be published in a real book!

Contact Us
Karen was wonderful, the students found her engaging and informative. Her talk about the inspiration behind becoming an author was insightful and the students found it extremely interesting. The students then attended workshops on character and setting development. Karen shared her experience openly with the students and then I found they were motivated and inspired to create their own characters. The workshops were fun and the students really enjoyed their time with Karen. It really inspired the students to think about their own creative writing and how they could improve their character development.
– JEANETTE DUMBRELL, MCAULEY CATHOLIC COLLEGE, TUMUT

Publish a Book

Every child becomes a published author in this exciting full term workshop program. Includes 8 x 1 hour workshops, story editing, book design, layout and printing. Available in person or on Zoom.


Individual Workshops

1-3 hour creative writing workshops, tailored to the age and size of the group. Topics include Animal Magic, Lost in the Jungle, Once there were Dragons, Steampunk, Zombies, Haunted House, Secret Island, or anything you like.


Full Day Creative Writing Program

Up to 4 separate 1 hour workshops for different groups or 1 x 3 hour workshop in the morning from 9am-12pm and 1 x 2 hour workshop in the afternoon from 1pm-3pm.


To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.

Victor Hugo

Join the adventure!

Karen visits schools all over Australia exploring the major themes in her books – connection, courage, possibility, and wonder. She is passionate about inspiring children to live a creative life. Having four children of her own, she understands that each child brings different gifts to the world and she believes every child should have the opportunity to shine. Karen is also available for school visits via Zoom. The cost of the programs will vary, based on the size of the group. Karen can deliver the Publish a Book program in one intensive week or in 8 weekly sessions over the term.

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Make a Booking

Karen has visited schools all over Australia exploring the major themes in her books – connection, courage, possibility, and wonder. She is passionate about inspiring children to live a creative life. Having four children of her own, she understands that each child brings different gifts to the world and she believes every child should have the opportunity to shine.

The cost of the Creative Writing Program will vary, based on the size of the group and location of the school. Karen can deliver the program in one intensive week or in eight (8) weekly sessions over the term.


Karen was wonderful, the students found her engaging and informative. Her talk about the inspiration behind becoming an author was insightful and the students found it extremely interesting. The students then attended workshops on character and setting development. Karen shared her experience openly with the students and then I found they were motivated and inspired to create their own characters. The workshops were fun and the students really enjoyed their time with Karen. It really inspired the students to think about their own creative writing and how they could improve their character development.
– JEANETTE DUMBRELL, MCAULEY CATHOLIC COLLEGE