My seven-year-old son, Brendan, is the inspiration for my children's stories. We take turns telling each other stories. He loves it when I tell him a story, but often he'll add things to the story and so we really make it up together.

Brendan loves soccer and riding his bike. He loves dragons, trolls and horses with wings like Pegasus. We have a cat called Fiona Furrball. All these creatures go into our stories at one time or another. Brendan is in the stories as well, talking, playing, fighting and tricking the different creatures.

The theme of the children's stories I write is coping with situations in an imaginative, fun way.

I'm a researcher, writer and archaeologist and I often go to different places to dig up artefacts and write reports. Brendan comes with me to these places in the stories I tell him and he elaborates on them. In this way, he can be in charge and cope with the situations we face together.

As well as as my academic writing, I've had some poetry published in a US anthology. Brendan's enthusiasm for stories has spurred my interest in children's fiction, and I'm currently working on two more stories for children.

Written by Kathleen McConnell and published by Ginninderra Press:

Available from Ginninderra Press, PO Box 53, Charnwood, ACT 2615.