The Cool Older Guy Years (37 to now)

2000_Ricardo 2000 – Had my very first book published by Black Dog Books/Longman. It was an educational book called Ricardo Swaps His Lunch (illustrated by Terry Denton). I was on my way as a writer. Quadruple-yay!

2001 – Travelled to the South Pacific to gather stories for an ABC website called Charting the Pacific. You can see it here: http://abc.net.au/ra/pacific/default.htm. Check out the ‘People’ section. That’s where my stories are.

2002 – Coached Will’s under-12 football team into the finals (there were only 6 teams in the competition and 4 made the finals – but that doesn’t change the fact that the boys played with incredible spirit!). Yay.

2003 – Worked with the The Learning Federation on lots of learning tools for Australian and New Zealand schools. If you are in an Australian or New Zealand school at the moment, you might even have seen some of these. This one’s called Wishball – it may be a learning tool, but it is also really fun use!

: Footy (9 books)

: Dog Wars

: Cricket (8 books)

2004 – Had my first trade books published – the Maxx Rumble footy series (8 books), Dog Wars and the Maxx Rumble cricket series (first 4 books). What a big year!

Here’s an interview I did with Natasha Cuculovski about Dog Wars on SBS Radio.

2005 – We went to China and Hong Kong to research one of Jane’s books – Minnie and the Superguys 2 (which hasn’t been finished yet). Went so far north (to Harbin) during winter that it got as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius (or 4 below in Fahrenheit). Here are Will and Liz all rugged up. Brrrrr.

Worked with an Indigenous community in Australia’s Northern Territory, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Deakin University on the scripts for an incredible series of animations. Each animation tells a traditional Indigenous story. The series is called Dust Echoes. You can see all of the animations online at www.dustechoes.com.au. I’m really proud of this series. It’s won some awards and been shown all over the world.

Maxx Rumble: Crunched got short-listed for lots of awards: YABBAs, KOALAs and COOL Awards. Woo-hoo! Don’t forget to vote for my books again some day, okay! :^)

2006 – The Maxx Rumble footy grand final book was released. And so was Maximum Maxx!

The Undys 1: Let the Games Begin I also started work on my first series for Penguin Books – The Undys – and wrote the scripts for 8 more Indigenous stories – Dust Echoes 2. You can see all the animations at www.dustechoes.com.au

Here’s my family in 2006. Aren’t they beautiful! They go, Jane, Wil and Lizzie.

2007 – I write more The Undys and they start coming out! The illustrations are by Gus Gordon and it is published by Penguin Books. Then, about six months after book one, The Undys: Let the games begin, book two, The Undys: Let’s get physical, is released.

And Richard Stubbs interviewed me on ABC Radio 774 in Melbourne.

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Stacks of Maxx came out this year too. It has the first eight footy stories all in one book! Yay!

And Saturday Disney wanted to know all about my Undys too.

2008 – More Undys! Books 3 and 4!

2009 – My first Aussie Nibble – The Newtown Tigers

The fifth and sixth Undys books – One Wacky Week and On the Move

2010 – My first novel for young adults (and maybe some 10-12 year olds too) – Destiny’s Right Hand.

And, would you believe, The Grownups got back together to see if we could still play music. Then we started recording an album!!

: Ted Series (3 books)

2011 – Ted was born! Twice!

And my band, The Grownups, released our first full CD!! (that’s my daugher, Lizzie, on the cover)

2012 – The third Ted book came out

2013 – New-look Maxx Rumbles are released, keeping my favourite little sports star alive after 9 years!

: Soccer (3 books)

2014 – Holy Moley, three new Maxx Rumble books come out. This time they’re full of crazy soccer action. That’s 20 Maxx’s all up!

Why I Love Footy front cover

2015 – Released my first picture book. It’s like my own little love letter to the game of Australian Rules Football and the families who bond by attending matches.

Cover of Pig Dude: He Can Do ANYTHING! And then came Pig Dude: He Can Do ANYTHING! And my brand new mini publishing venture, Billy Goat Books…

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And a couple of other footy-loving authors and I put together a theatre show about both football and reading. And we got prepared for the big event with a solid backyard training run. Have a look…

2016 – I wrote a picture book with my wife/life parter/special friend, Jane Godwin, and super illustrator, Andrew Joyner. It’s this guy.

Bear Make Den cover

And then I wrote a crazy, silly and random book called So Wrong, which is illustrated by the unbelievably talented Wayne Bryant. I’ve never had as much fun making a book. I really love this one.