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My fourteenth book, Spiders: Learning To Love Them, has just been published by Allen & Unwin in Australia, and will be released in October in the US and UK. It can be purchased at all good bookshops. Online, the best place to get it is the Andrew Isles Natural History Bookshop.

Spiders tells of my journey from arachnophobia to obsession while introducing the reader to these extraordinary creatures. The book tells readers how to get to know their own personal home spiders. One thing which is certain - they will have some. Spiders are everywhere - they just tend to stay well hidden if they can.

I become more obsessed every day as I watch my personal spiders around the house and in the garden. They never fail to do new and even more interesting things. It is all free - the only price is that I have to neglect the housework.

When I was an arachnophobe, I could not have conceived of this adoration of spiders as being possible. Now I have had people who have read the book telling me that their entire attitude has changed. They see silk everywhere (it is!) and their attitude is now one of fascination. What more could an author ask for? Thank you so much to those who read the first copies to emerge in to the world and have been so very enthusiastic!

Spiderbloggers is the new blogging website for everyone in the world to blog their spiders. Getting to know individual spiders is fascinating, fun and free. By comparing notes from observers all over the world, we can learn more about these extraordinary creatures. So little is known of their behaviour.

Through Spiderbloggers, I hope we can share, learn and help remove some of the ignorance and fear surrounding these adorable creatures. Please join us!!!!!

Media comments on Spiders: learning to love them:

"Kelly's battle to overcome arachnophobia has spawned a terrific book ... But Kelly's Spiders is a book for the layman, not the scientist. It is packed with scientific facts and would be a great starting kit for amateur naturalists toying with the idea of getting to know spiders better... But, at the end of the day, this book is a love letter to the most misunderstood of animals." Nigel Adlam, Sunday Territorian

I must admit, I couldn’t put this one down, reading it at every opportunity and grateful for a three-hour train journey that let me finish reading it without the usual guilt with work needing to be done. Colleen Duncan, ArtsRush Magazine

This is the ideal gift for any arachnophobe in the family. Noel Shaw, Launceston Examiner

I confess. I am an avowed arachnophobe. Yet, somehow, that cute little hairy critter with the bug eyes on the cover persuaded me that this was a book worth reviewing...Kelly's aim is to convince the reader that spiders are fascinating...Subtitled Learning to Love Them, it sort of succeeds. Although "learning to tolerate them" might be more accurate. Sydney Morning Herald.

It is probably more than you ever wanted to know about spiders, but Kelly is a science writer so it is all accurate, clearly written and well illustrated. In a word: enthusiastic. Malcolm Tattersall, Townsville Bulletin

Enthusiastically converted to the cause of arachnids, Kelly succeeds in conveying her passion in clear prose anchored in potent content. Prepare for arachnid cannibalism, masturbation, bondage, even soft spider porn - well, a sizzling description of courting huntsman spiders. David Wilson, South China Morning Post

Highly readable and packed with important, and totally amazing, spider facts, this book casts new light on these often misunderstood members of the animal kingdom. Doubleday Entertainment

Kelly's primary intention here is to repeatedly insist that the humble spider is sorely misunderstood and that, as they're absolutely everywhere and (she thinks) fascinating...we ought to just get over our fears and become pals with the hairy, venomous, multi-eyed little buggers. Meek Mouse, Rip It Up

Give this to your favourite arachnophobe. Frances Rand, South Coast Register

'Spiders: Learning to love them' is the perfect introduction to the creatures which share our homes and gardens. Daily Advertiser, Wagga Wagga

Her book is ideal for those who adore spiders or reel in horror in their presence, and reveals a web-of-intrigue - sorry - about a fascinating creepy-crawly.  Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin.

EUMY Education - Enrichment Units for the Middle Years: online and print units for extending able students anywhere, at any time across the school campus. After over twenty years specialising in writing and teaching extension for gifted students, fifty enrichment units are now available for middle years: approximately Grade 4 to 10 around the world. The new EUMY Mathematics units replace Being Mathematical, which is used in schools in six countries.

Units are available in Mathematics, Science, Humanities, Cross curricular studies and Information Technology.

Prior to working on the EUMY units, I had ten educational titles published in Australia and overseas, in the fields of science, mathematics, computing and gifted education. I work as a consultant specialising in curriculum development for gifted students. Teaching my enrichment units keeps me constantly in touch with the realities of the classroom. I offer professional development in differentiating the curriculum or providing courses designed specifically to challenge the highly able.

I present at workshops and conferences here in Australia regularly. I will be presenting about EUMY at the Nueva Gifted Learning Conference in Hillsborough, CA, USA, in October.

The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal, is a popular science title published in Australia by Allen & Unwin in 2004, and in America by Thunder's Mouth Press in 2005. Contents and reviews can be found from the link or by clicking on the images. It is readily available from Amazon.com and bookshops.

I love doing dinner and school talks based on this book, with plenty of magic replicating psychic phenomena: Science and the Paranormal.

 

2006 saw the publication of my popular science title, Crocodile: evolution's greatest survivor, published in hardback by Allen & Unwin in 2006. It is available in all good bookstores, as well as Amazon.com.

Crocodile tells the story of the human interactions with the crocodilians: true crocodiles, the alligators and the gharial.

The natural history of these extraordinary creatures is told through their pre-history, mythology, biology and the stories of the people who have interacted with them over the centuries, including today's zoologists, crocodile farmers and zoo-keepers. With an Australian focus on our two species, the Saltwater and Freshwater crocodiles, it has a global perspective.



Fiction:

Avenging Janie, a novel for young adults, was published by Lothian Books in 2003.

It tells the story of a fraudulent psychic cult. Janie died because she needed to believe. Marie seeks to avenge her death and destroy the cult, but it isn't going to be easy. You see, people believe what they want to believe, not what the evidence tells them.

Details and reviews can be found by clicking on the image. I am currently working on my second novel.


I have had ten education titles published. These can be seen by clicking on the image at left.

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Kinglake Fire Complex Animal Fund - IMAGES OF THE WORK BEING DONE


I have a few addictions, the most noticeable being my dogs! Smidgin Ubiquitous and Epsilon-pi are the most spoilt assistants any author had. So they get a page as well. The Dogs. I adore natural history, reading, magic, archaeology, collecting wooden mathematical puzzles, mathematics, science, archaeology, computers, people, theatre, gardening and trying to understand why people are the way they are. Have you worked it out yet? I have a sudden new passion - the way oral traditions work, especially with regard to natural history - all part of the research for my doctorate. There is so much to learn in this world!

Lynne Kelly, 2009