I just received in the mail a stack of shiny new books. These are pre release copies of my latest book Meet Poppy which will come out in February. When you are an author, the publisher sends you copies of your book before they go into the shops. It is always exciting to finally hold the real book in your hands after all the hard work.

Meet Poppy is the first in the Poppy series of Our Australian Girl. The other three books are called, Poppy at Summerhill, Poppy and the Thief and Poppy Comes Home. They will be published three months apart so you won’t have to wait long to read the next installment.

I loved reading series when I was young so I have loved working on the Poppy books. I should use the present tense because I am still editing Poppy and the Thief and in the middle of writing Poppy Comes Home.

Because they are set in the year 1864 during the Gold Rush in Victoria, I have had to do a lot of research. Much of the information comes from books that I have either borrowed from the library or bought myself, the rest comes from the internet. I also visited the historic towns of Beechworth, Wahgunyah and Rutherglen where the books are set to get a feel for the country. But mostly the Poppy series is a work of fiction so the bulk of it comes from my imagination.

I will post more about Poppy and her adventures later.