CLEO MAXWELL

ABOUT ME

 

Hi,

 My penname is Cleo Maxwell. The name comes from two of my cats, Cleopatra and her son Maxwell.

For the last fifteen years I have been writing children's rhyming verse.

I am a New Zealander born and bred and I live bang smack in the centre of the North Island in an area well known for forestry and farming.

My stories are a mixture of fantasy, magic, life and events that have shocked or had a profound impact.

I have always loved to read and it is my love of reading that has inspired me to write. I suppose I'm a throwback as I love verse, Pam Ayres and Ogden Nash and I loved Graeme Oakley Books. I believe that reading should be fun for bothe the children and the adults and I advocate story time whole heartedly.

I am a lot older than my photo below but I feel it illustrates the importance of imagination. You can see I had a pet seal as a child. His name was Sammy and during summer we used to swim in the ocean daily where he munched on sumptious gold coloured fish. We shared many adventures and even ran away together. Sammy's long gone and I probably could not even get my foot into those togs but that picture conjures up wonderful memories as do certain books.

As an adult I read Matthew Reilly {and am seriously hanging out for the next Jack West adventure) Chris Ryan, Andy McNab, John Case and the lighter Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell, Belinda Alexander, Jennifer Bacia, Betty Neels, Marion Lennox and Lindsay McKenna. As well as non fiction and I love reading Peter FitzSimons!