About Launch Pad
Our aim is to encourage a love of reading, writing, and books.
Launch Pad was created to help schools take their creative writing to the next level, and to give enthusiastic young writers a club to belong to.
Our Team
Ander Louis
Creator of Launch Pad, Fantasy Author, Workshop Host
Ander Louis is a Yarra Valley author, who loves to read, write, and talk books. He has a very cheeky Kelpie.
Louis' first two novels 'The Liberation' and 'A Duet for Swans' are favourites for many Australian school kids.
Louis specializes in teaching new and different methods of planning and writing stories.
Robert Verhagen
Historical Fiction Author, Workshop Host
Robert Verhagen is an expert historian, choosing to set his fiction throughout Australia's past.
Verhagen's first novella 'Murder at the Mountain Rush' is set in his home region - the Kinglake ranges, during the gold rush era.
Verhagen is a font of knowledge in all things storytelling, and a warm and enthusiastic workshop host.
Aaron Huggins
Ex-Launch Pad Student, Published Author, Workshop Host
Aaron Huggins is a VCE student from Kinglake. Not long ago, in 2015, Huggins was a grade 6 student, completing the Launch Pad incursion at Middle Kinglake PS.
By 15, Huggins had published his first novel 'Live a Little', a sci-fi mystery, through Up & Up Media.
We're pleased to welcome Aaron Huggins to the Launch Pad team, to share his personal Launch Pad journey and his expertise with students who would like to follow in his path.