Amanda is an award-winning versatile writer with an affinity for dark sci-fi thrillers. Her work has been translated into four languages.
Born in the country town of Geraldton (Western Australia), she moved to capital city Perth (Western Australia) to study Film & Television/Creative Writing at Murdoch University, earning her a BA in Communication Studies. Perth has been her home ever since, aside from a nineteen-month stint living in London (England) where she dabbled in Film & TV ‘Extra’ work. She has travelled the world extensively.
Original Fiction
For her original work, Amanda is a two-time Tin Duck Award winner, and an Aurealis Award and Ditmar Award finalist.
Her works include the best-selling military space opera Aurora series (previously published by Momentum Books/Pan Macmillan Australia), alien contact drama The Time of the Stripes, and new sci-fi novella trilogy – the Spud Compton series.
Her sci-fi thriller Salvation series, consisting of The Subjugate and The Sensation, is published by Angry Robot Books (UK) and is being developed for TV by Anonymous Content and Aquarius Films. There are two more books planned in this series.
The Subjugate was also studied at two German universities (Düsseldorf and Cologne) as part of a program on Australian speculative fiction, in conjunction with the Centre for Australian Studies.
Amanda has a sci-fi/horror short story, ROGUE T.R.A.I.N., in the SNAFU: Punk’d anthology, which is published by Cohesion Press and was recently shortlisted for an Australasian Shadows Award for best Edited Works. She has another sci-/fi horror short story, RESISTANCE, in the SNAFU: Comms anthology, which is free when you sign up to the Cohesion Press newsletter.
Her sci-fi micro story The Great Preservation was distributed through Short Édition’s Short Story Dispenser around the globe.
Media Tie-in Fiction
Amanda wrote the Scribe Award winning procedural thriller (akin to CSI and NCIS), Pandemic: Patient Zero, which was the first novel set in the Pandemic board game universe, and published by Aconyte Books (UK).
She has written in the Marvel X-Men universe – Her novel, Sound of Light, featuring the mutant Dazzler, has been embraced by fans around the globe. Her short story, Eye Of The Storm, appears in the Marvel: School of X anthology. Both are published by Aconyte Books (UK).
Amanda has also written in the Warhammer 40K universe. Her Scribe Award winning short story ‘Reconsecration’ appears in the anthology Inferno! Presents: The Emperor’s Finest and is published by Black Library/Games Workshop (UK).
Screenwriting
Amanda has been developing a suite of screenplays – both features and TV pilots – across several genres, and has worked in TV Writers Rooms.
She has been selected for various screen programs including Tele-Navigator (2024), MIFF Post Script and Direct (2023), First Break WA (2022), and has been a finalist in pitch competitions including the AACTA Regional Landscapes Pitch (2020) and the Universal AU/Screenwest Fast Pitch (2019).
When she’s not working, she enjoys watching films/tv, reading novels and comics, and shaking her booty to rock ‘n’ roll.