• The Beginning

    I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. When I was nine years old, I started telling bedtime stories to my Godsister about creatures from another world called Shadows. Every one in our world had a Shadow of their own a world away, the stories went, a counterpart. This was the missing piece of them which explained the loneliness that all humans felt at some point. The stories about Shadows became a novel, which I wrote and redrafted all through school at Belmont Intermediate and then Takapuna Grammar.

  • Today

    Now there are six novels in the completed Shadows Series and the books have been loved by readers all over the world. I've also run school talks, writing workshops and book launches where attendees have gotten to draw what their own Shadows would look like! We also serve ludicrous amounts of apple crumble, because it's quite an iconic dish within the books.

Testimonials for Shadows:

  • 'An avalanche of momentum that grips you from start to finish... five stars.'

    -Katie Collier

  • This was amazing. First, I just love the concept behind the Shadow world. Every occupant is nonhuman, and they range from familiar mythological creatures like satyrs and phoenixes to more unusual creatures like the half-parrot/half-dragon Cirrus. These all come together in a civilized society very like ours, with some adjustments for things like aerial traffic. And that’s before the story even gets into what, exactly, the Shadows are and why that matters.'

    - Aelvana

  • 'This is a tale of love, loss, longing, and how these forces both transform us against our will, sometimes into someone far darker than we are prepared to accept we are capable of being, while also giving us the opportunity to forge ourselves anew, in ways we never dreamt possible. It is a journey, and one that I highly recommend you take.'

    - Jason Conran

Writing Workshops