Acclaimed children's author Allison Tait is about to publish the The Fire Star, the first book in a new series A Maven and Reeve Mystery.
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The book centres around Maven, a maid and Reeve, a squire who arrive Rennart Castle on the same day but for very difference reasons. On that same day the Fire Star, a priceless dazzling jewel, goes missing and the two have to band together to find it.
"On one level it is about two teenage friends solving a puzzle of a missing jewel and navigating this new world around them and on the other it is actually a story about rebellion, secrets and how small decisions can lead to very big events," Ms Tait said.
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Allison Tait is the bestselling author of The Mapmaker Chronicles and The Ateban Cipher. She co-hosts a podcast called So you want to be a writer? and does the programming for the Shoalhaven Reader's and Writer's Festival.
Allison Tait said the idea for The Fire Star came from a 2017 newspaper article.
"The kicking-off point was a newspaper article about a discovery in a farmers field in England," she said.
"There was a rabbit hole and they went down it and discovered there was a underground cave network that was all carved out - they suspect it may have been used by the Knights Templar."
In her new book Allison draws on inspiration from a number of her favourite authors, as a child and in adulthood.
"I've always loved mystery stories - as a kid I was obsessed with Trixie Belden, The Secret Seven, The Famous Five.
"I loved mystery and groups of kids solving it. I wanted my own secret society, I wanted a club house, I wanted a password.
"As an adult I love great Australia Crime fiction - people like Jane Harper, Dervla McTiernan and Michael Robotham - they're creating some of the best crime novels in the world and they're coming from here."
She was also inspired by the Me Too movement.
"I'm writing middle-grade fiction so I'm not going to go too deep down that road of Me Too but the thing that stuck out to me was all of those women and girls stepping forward to support each other.
"So in the book there is a secret society in The Fire Star called the beach circle and that has grown from the idea of all of these women working together."
She describes her genre as "almost-history", stories set in a medieval landscape but with a made-up kingdom.
"I've got to tell you, naming kingdoms is extremely difficult.
"When I wrote my first novel the Map Maker Cronicles I sent it to my former history teacher from Nowra High School and in the front of it I wrote 'Dear Mr Richardson, who would have thought that almost knowing history would come in so handy'."
If you enjoy reading The Fire Star there is some good news as a second book in series is already being written.
The Fire Star will be released on September 1.
During the first week of release, the Shoalhaven-based author will be visiting Dymocks Nowra, DeanSwift Books, Boobook on Owen and Harbour Books in Ulladulla to sign copies.