Michelle’s hotly-anticipated ghost story, DARK MATTER, has been published in the UK to massive critical acclaim. “Dark Matter is brilliant” enthuses bestselling novelist Jeffery Deaver.  “Imagine Jack London meets Stephen King. The novel virtually defines a new genre: literary creepy. I loved it.” “Compelling… direct… relentless” writes Helen Rumbelow in The Times.  “Dark Matter is…

It has been announced that Michelle has won Britain’s most prestigious writing prize for children’s fiction, The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. The award has been given annually since 1967, and is decided by a panel of authors and the reviews editor for The Guardian’s children’s books section.  It is similar in status to the American…

The land is one vast Forest, peopled by small clans of hunter-gatherers. They have no writing, no metals, and no wheel.  They don’t need them.  They’re superb survivors.  They know every tree and herb in the Forest.  They know how to make beautiful, deadly weapons from flint and bone.  They know the animals they hunt…

I want the reader to feel that they’re right there with Torak and Wolf. And that means research. However, it’s vital not to include too much in the stories, so I’m careful only to put in a tiny part of what I’ve learned: maybe as little as 1%.  The challenge is to put in just…

Since I was a child, I’ve read everything I could find about wolves, and the wolf talk which Torak uses is as close as I can get to real wolf talk.  For example, when he asks Wolf to play, or muzzle-grabs him when he’s a cub, that’s how a real wolf might invite play, or…

To get ideas for what the Seal Islands might be like, I went to the Lofoten Islands of north Norway, and stayed in a rorbu (a fisherman’s hut built on stilts over the water). I was there at the time of the midnight sun (when the story takes place), and spent several days roaming the…