School holidays are not conducive to writing. In the past two weeks I’ve managed to squeeze in a full half-hour of dedicated writing time – and that was only because there was a conveniently placed cafe near a playground and I managed to convince hubby that I could do with some time to myself. It was just enough time to read back over what I’d written and add about three lines. I’ve employed a variety of strategies to keep the youngster amused and give myself some free time –

STOP the Bully Karen Tyrrell I, like many people, was bullied as a child. Like the protagonist Brian in Karen Tyrrell’s 'STOP the Bully', I was the shy, unconfident, head-down new kid, and an easy target to those ‘testing’ me out. The advice I was given to ‘ignore them – they’ll go away if they don’t get a reaction’ was not only incorrect, but in fact spurred the bullies on to step up their attacks in order to get a response – they do it until they get a reaction when you do

STOP the Bully Karen Tyrrell Bullying is an ongoing problem in schools, and the reasons why some kids are victims and others bullies is often a mystery. In 'STOP the Bully', Queensland author Karen Tyrrell has revealed the mystery of the bullying dilemma from all perspectives, including the victim and the bully. In 'STOP the Bully', Brian, 11, is hiding something. His life is falling apart, Dad abandoned the family, Brian hates his new school, and now an aggressive bully atta