Katie Furze writes children’s non-fiction and fiction including picture books, short stories, articles, plays, readers and novels from her home in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She has a master’s degree in creative writing and is fascinated by science and nature. Her books include PEKAPEKA, Secret Forest Bat (2025), RURU, Night Hunter (2024) and TUATARA, A Living Treasure (2023) all illustrated by Ned Barraud and published by Scholastic NZ. You can also read her work in The New Zealand School Journal or in The School Magazine in Australia. Katie has also written stories in anthologies and readers and plays for educational publishers. She loves spending time in nature and you’ll find her outside whenever possible. What is your writing day like? When and how do you create? Even if it is just a sentence or two jotted in my journal, I write every day, wherever I am. I like to process my thoughts, ideas and first drafts the old-fashioned way with a pen on paper. When my children were young, ...