I was born on the 20th of May, 1959 in Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, and was the youngest of four children. I grew up in a rural area on one farm or another, and without close neighbours I passed much of my time reading. I loved to imagine myself in the lives of the characters I read about, even if it was only for a few days or hours.At school, the library was my favourite place to hang out. In high school, my favourite subjects were English and History. By the time I decided to try to make writing a career I was in my thirties. I had three children who were all at school and I was teaching office studies and computers at an adult technical college. By now I was reading a lot of romance and fantasy novels and combined with my love of history, it seemed a natural progression to write novels with a strong historical element. My first published book, Old Magic, was the result. I wrote for young adults because my daughters, who were in their early teens at the time, asked me to write something for them. I have never regretted that decision.I presently have four published novels, Old Magic, and the Guardians of Time Trilogy - The Named, The Dark and The Key, all of which have been translated into a dozen different languages. Because of my illness in 2004, and my near-death from bone-marrow cancer, I could not have another book published until now. The first three books of my new series called the Avena Series, are to be published by Bloomsbury Publishing, the first of which called Hidden will be released March 14th, 2013 in Australia, the UK and the USA. Books 2 and 3 will follow.