About Me - The Short Version

Nick Cross is an award-winning writer, illustrator, blogger and all-round techno-ninja. As well as writing several full-length novels and graphic novels, he has had more than ten short pieces of short fiction published. In 2010, Nick was a winner of the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices competition with his zombie horror comedy Back from the Dead, and in 2015 Nick was the honours winner of the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for fiction. Nick also fulfils the role of Blog Network Editor for Words & Pictures magazine, and blogs for writers at Notes from the Slushpile.

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About Me - True Facts and Outrageous Lies

True Facts

Outrageous Lies

I was born in 1972 (I know! How old!) I spent most of my childhood playing computer games, designing computer games with my friend Simon and reading Fighting Fantasy game books (which were an early kind of interactive story) As a teenager, I appeared on the TV quiz show Blockbusters with the late, great Bob Holness I went to university in Brighton and somehow came out top of my computing course with a First Class degree Whilst in Brighton, I wrote and appeared in lots of very low budget student TV programmes I didn’t get a job designing computer games, but instead wrote software for mobile phones My wife and two daughters are voracious readers, and consume books much faster than I can buy them I now work for a dictionary publisher, helping to make their technology work!

I have twice been elected President of the Universe I also used to be a zombie, but cured myself with a warming cup of Lemsip for Colds, Flu and Undeadness I am a black belt in ju-jukebox, the ancient martial art of compiling playlists At work, I like to make up new words and include them in the dictionary when no-one’s looking As a child, I enjoyed licking radiators until I got my tongue stuck in a thermostatic valve, and had to be rescued by a team of paramedic plumbers I have an intense phobia of Twiglets I am a part-time superhero for two hours every Wednesday evening (but only after putting the bins out) I once met astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who told me about his plan to build a hotel on the Moon (No wait – that one’s actually true!)

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About Me - The Longer Version

As a children’s author, it’s important to know exactly when you decided you wanted to write for kids (I don’t know why, it just is!) Some authors will talk about creating their first novel while sitting on the potty, or writing The Hungry Gaymez in crayon on their nursery wall. For me, children’s writing came a lot later – at the age of 31.

It was 2003, and the BBC News website was running a competition to find the next J.K. Rowling:















Naturally, I was convinced that I was:

    A) Brilliant
    B) Sure to become rich and famous

Sadly, I didn’t even get the chance to enter the competition, because it closed early. But I did then write a Young Adult book all about a boy who becomes the next J.K. Rowling and, frankly, hates the whole experience. I’m told this is called “satire” but unfortunately (like most first novels) it was a bit rubbish.

Let me tell you a small secret – no-one is a brilliant writer when they start out. They might have great ideas, but they’ll need a whole lot of practice to make those ideas work on the page. The absolute best thing that a writer can do is keep persevering. Even after fifteen years, I’m still learning new stuff about the craft of writing.

My second book was much, much better and even won a competition! The first three chapters of my zombie horror comedy Back from the Dead were selected for the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices anthology in 2010. This lead to me getting an agent, almost getting published and eventually losing my agent again. At the time, coming so close and then falling back was the most disappointing thing ever, but I’m over it now (no, really, I don’t need a tissue. There’s just something in my eye).

Remember what I said about perseverance? Well, I must be one of the most pig-headed, most persevering people ever, because I just keep on writing stuff, whether anyone wants to read it or not. I’m very grateful to Stew Magazine for publishing my short stories, and I have a shiny new novel that I hope someone will be clever/crazy enough to publish in the near future.

Thank you for reading this far – you are officially a true fan!

Nick.