P.J. MacMillan

Background to my name:-

The pen name P.J. MacMillan comes from two sources. Firstly P.J. is short for ‘pyjamas’ as the Gertrude character comes from many years of bedtime story telling to my daughters about the adventures of a young girl and her two magical dragon friends.

Secondly the MacMillan name comes from a family association with the MacMillan clan and to remind my daughters, who were born and raised in Scotland before our family moved to Australia, of their Scottish heritage.

My Background:-

The publishing of the Magic Vision series did not come about from an inner desire to become an author, but from a fathers attempted to help his daughter with her reading. She struggled at the commencement of primary school until she was found to have Irlens Syndrome (light spectrum disorder which disrupts the message between the eye and the brain), but with new glasses it really helped her - however her reading was off to a slow start.

I found that her reading was much better in the greater the interest in the story, however her reading ability did not support the popular 'young adult' series of books. As I looked around for more challenging and interesting books in the 7-12yo, pre-young adult, I didn't find a lot. Many were still illustrated or written at too lower a reading ability.

For many years I have been telling my girls made up bedtime stories based upon a wee lass, Gertrude, and her two magic dragon friends so I started writing the stories as a mini book to encourage her reading - and she really enjoyed it.

Then other people started reading and really enjoying it until I was asked if I'd ever considered publishing the stories as a book... and here we are!

Other bits about me:-

For someone writing magical - fantasy children's books, my background is probably far from what people might expect. I have lived between the UK and Australia for my adult life, including over a decade in Edinburgh, Scotland, where I married and our daughters were born.

In my pre-author life I have been (and for some still are) an accountant, an Army officer, a project manager of financial systems, a firefighter, a touch rugby referee ... all sorts! But most importantly a dad to two beautiful girls who for years loved to hear my bedtime stories, and still do.

I hope the enjoyment my girls have received from the books are shared by many other children.