Jacqui Halpin’s passion for children’s literature started when reading bedtime stories to her children. They outgrew their childhood books but Jacqui never did. Jacqui writes junior fiction, picture books, and short stories (for adults and children). Her short stories appear in anthologies by Stringybark Publishing and Creative Kids Tales. Jacqui has also co-written her father’s memoir, A Long Way from Misery, as she believes it’s important to record the tales of Australia’s older generations before they are lost. While writing and editing, Jacqui loves to sip tea from fine china and eat copious amounts of chocolate. She has a love of bookshops, and should never be allowed to enter the children’s book section with a credit card in her possession. Please visit Jacqui’s website at www.jacquihalpin.com
John Phillips is a self taught artist and musician and has been creative all his life. His skills soon caught the eye of a national company and he was employed full time for many years, producing everything from cartoons, children’s birthday cards, and sympathy card scenes right through to calligraphy and advertising material. It was during this time that John also began landscape painting with some success, but the artist’s first love though is illustrating. “I do have a rather weird sense of humour,” he says, “and I love to capture all sorts of animals in outlandish, goofy situations.”