Jen Banyard loves the fun of writing for younger audiences and draws from a childhood that consisted largely of mucking around in the Canning River and Indian Ocean. After editing non-fiction and dabbling in children's literature for several years, she began postgraduate studies at UWA in 2005 to focus her creative writing. Her speculative fiction adventure, Spider Lies, was published by Fremantle Press in 2009, and her stories have appeared in the NSW School Magazine and the 2010 young readers' anthology Worlds Next Door (FableCroft). The first book in this series, Mystery at Riddle Gully, was published in 2012.