About

Hello story lovers! I’m Stef Gemmill and I write children’s books on issues that matter.

Here is a ‘bit about me’ and why I love to write adventurous stories of hope with heart.

I also live and create my stories on the traditional lands of the Wadawurrung and Eastern Maar people and pay my respects to their past, present and emerging leaders.

 
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A little different...

As a child growing up in small towns in NZ, I struggled to follow the crowd and was happy doing my 'own thing'. I'd lose myself in books and drawings - my imagination carrying me away to magical places, where animals talked and children ruled the world. And I liked corn on the cob.

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First publication

And here I am again, being different. At age ten, I wrote a play called Drag-On, about an isolated, feminist dragon on a quest to save the dragon race, discovering her nuclear-powered flame breath on the journey. She enlists Kermit the Frog and Michael Jackson to save the world. The eighties were crazy times. Someone saw its potential as the play was performed at the Pumphouse Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand and published in an edition of the 1981 NZ School Journal.

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Rock journalist

I followed my father's advice and got a very dull day job in London, but followed my dreams as a writer at night. Did I mention being a true fan of eighties heavy rock? Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Van Halen, DIO, Twisted Sister. I combined my love of the mosh-pit with writing and got my foot in the door as a music journalist for magazines such as BEAT, Mess + Noise and Fasterlouder. It also meant free passes to many gigs. Me and my pals had a lot of fun in the process as you can see...

 
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Children's book author

Then I married the singer of a band, had a baby and swapped the sweaty mosh-pit for toys and tantrums, turning my pen to writing children’s stories.

My debut picture book, A Home For Luna, is a story of a shipwrecked cat fleeing from danger, finding family in an unexpected place. This book has underlying themes of homelessness, change and migration and won the 2020 International Rubery Book Award - children’s category.

In My Dreams is also published by New Frontier Publishing and Toy Mountain published by EK Books.

I have also have several middle grade novels in progress

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