"Lulah's my friend. We're on a wavelength. We could guess what the other's thinking. If you're on a wavelength, it might be the same as saying the words out loud. And I was thinking them, wasn't I, when she followed Samson out there and down the path. Even if she doesn't hear me, there are others that do. Secret others. Silent ones who pass like a cloud too close to a mountain top, felt but not seen."

Ari and Lulah have been best friends almost forever. Living next to each other, they share every little secret. At least they did, until Ari began dating Samson, and Lulah started to slip away from her — and developed a secret life of her own. One that Ari knows nothing about. Now Ari thinks Lulah might want to come between her and Samson. Ari fears that in her jealousy she will bring harm to her friend. For as the seventh born of the seventh born, Ari has the gift of second sight. She didn't ask for this gift, and when her little brother's annoying friend Colin Bucket dies, she hates it more than ever — because Ari is certain that her gift has sent Colin to his death…

Nette spent her early childhood in a small country town in Victoria, moving to Sydney when she was 11. She didn't adjust well to life in a city high school and her memories of this time are still with her and are reflected in her writing. After school, she 'floundered around for several years trying to work in office situations', but eventually gave up and went bush. For 12 months she worked on a sheep station, had another go at office work, and then decided to train as a teacher.

The first story she ever wrote was for her daughter, who didn't like going to school. When Nette looked for a book about a child in a similar situation, she couldn't find any so she decided to write her own. 'It was my way,' says Nette, 'of saying things that I found easier to put into written words. I still use writing in this way - if I have something that needs to be said, then I try to write a story about it.'

Nette has to plan carefully to fit her writing into her busy life, even going so far as to allot time in her diary for thinking about the next book. 'It's important to me,' she says, 'that I spend time thinking about the way the book will go, what the characters will be like, how it will begin, how it will end. All these things go chugging around in my head for quite a while before I sit down and start with words on paper or a keyboard.'

Nette went through the same process in preparation for her novel for teenagers, Hothouse Flowers, a book which she describes as being about suicide and mental illness, youth and age, living and existing, and the value of life.

Other works by Nette published by HarperCollins include: A Proper Little Lady - shortlisted for the 1990 Children's Book Council of Australia Award (Picture Book); Square Pegs; The Friday Card; The Web - Honour Book 1993 Children's Book Council of Australia Award (Younger Readers); Hiccups; The New Kid; A Frilling Time; Seeing Things; Four Eyes - Notable Book 1996 Children's Book Council of Australia Award (Younger Readers); a number of books in the Surfside High series; The Foundling; and Clouded Edges.

This is a truly wonderful interview, which explores the ideas of "colonisation by stealth" of Australian children, and the importance of Australian authors writng about subjects for Australian children.

Interview by Stuart Beaton.