by Allison Tait | Sep 1, 2026 | Blog, Books, My books, Writing
It’s publication day for my new middle-grade cold-case crime thriller THE GARDEN OF LOST GIRLS, which is, as always, creates an exquisite emotional blend of excitement and anxiety.
The response to DANGER ROAD has been so incredible that the idea of writing another gritty tween mystery was both amazing fun and an overwhelming challenge.
But 18-year-old Jessica Martin, who disappeared thirty years ago from the opening night of her own play, provided the (fictional) catalyst and her 14-year old nephew Sam and his cousins Gracie and Archie became an engaging and persistent group of teenage sleuths.
So where did they all come from?
The starting point for The Garden of Lost Girls
As always, the foundation of the story bubbled up out of headlines and preoccupations. It actually began with an old house – longtime blog readers and podcast listeners will recognise the old weatherboard house (known as The Old Girl) that we lived in until a few years ago – and a title: The Garden of Lost Girls, inspired by the magical garden out the back.
It’s unusual for me to have a title before I write the story – usually it comes out of the text and is often the last thing that goes on the manuscript – and that is perhaps why it took me a long time to find the right story to go with it…
When we moved out of this house, I knew that it would feature in a story one day, because its big rooms with their fireplaces and their dark floorboards felt ready-made for an historical novel. Plus, I knew that I wanted to capture it on the page and keep it with me always.
I started and discarded several ideas, character notes and snippets over the years, and when I came up with the title ‘The Garden of Lost Girls’, I wrapped the whole lot up into a word document on my computer – where it sat for several years while I wrote ‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot‘ and then ‘Danger Road‘.
But when the time came for me to think about writing a second middle-grade cold-case crime novel, I opened up that file because this house and that title felt ready-made for this genre. So I tossed out all of those character notes, and most of the history, and started again with a whole new idea…
Finding the new story
Now that I knew I was writing a middle-grade cold-case crime thriller, I needed a whole new world and a whole new protagonist. Cold cases require a contemporary character to be the sleuth – someone invested enough to keep going even when things get tough (and dangerous) – and an historical character that we get to know as the story unfolds.
Given I already had such an evocative title in place – The Garden of Lost Girls – I knew that somewhere in this mix I had a missing girl, a garden, and a story that would need to be told realistically, and carefully, for a middle-grade audience.
Enter Jessica Martin, 18 years old, and missing for thirty years.
All I knew about Jessica when I first met her – and it really does feel like ‘meeting’ characters rather than ‘creating’ them – was that she had written a play called ‘The Garden of Lost Girls’ for her final year 12 exams.
I also knew that, minutes before the curtain rose on the opening night production of that play, Jessica turned towards a group of people entering the theatre, gasped, and walked out the side door of the theatre, leaving her family sitting in their seats.
She was never seen again.
When I thought about who would be motivated to find out exactly what happened to Jessica that night – why she left, where she went, and why she never came home – I landed on her 14-year-old nephew Sam, who has never met his Aunt Jessica, but feels as though he knows her because, in her absence, she somehow takes up more space in his life than he feels she would if she was living around the corner, like his other aunt Kat.
So this is the story of the second generation of a family residing in that liminal space left after a family member goes missing. The space of ‘not knowing’. And I was fortunate to be able to interview Dr Sarah Wayland, Professor of Social Work and missing persons expert, before I began writing.
Dr Wayland is the author of ‘Living In The Liminal Space‘, based on her research into unresolved and ambiguous loss, and her insights gave me the courage to explore Sam’s story and write it for a middle-grade audience.
Building the world of ‘The Garden of Lost Girls’
Of course, a novel is never about just one thing, and to build the world of Clifton Heads, the small coastal town in which the story is set, I drew on the landscapes of the south coast of NSW (this time Kiama) and then moved them around at will, putting a big park at the top of the headland, and an amateur theatre right near the beach.
I created Long Beach, where Sam loves to surf and where his family used to live, and I created Flat Rock, at the bottom of the cliffs that drop down from the headland. But I drew on the surf culture that permeates so much of life in the towns that dot the coast near me, and I drew on my own memories of participating in amateur plays as a teenager myself (that’s me, aged about 11, as Alice In Wonderland in the photo above).
Sam is a surfer, not a Theatre Kid, and he is horrified when his Mum asks him to be in the 30th anniversary production of The Garden Of Lost Girls. But when she tells him that they’re hoping the production will jog someone’s memory enough that they finally find out what happened to Jessica, he agrees for two reasons – one, he really wants to help his Mum find out where her sister went all those years ago, and two, his cousins Gracie and Archie are already on board for the play for the same reason.
But all three cousins soon admit to having misgivings.
Because while they don’t know where Jessica is, the family still has hope she’ll come home. What happens when they discover the truth?
And then there’s the fact that someone really doesn’t want the play to go ahead at all…
As I said at the start of this post, writing this story was both amazingly fun and an incredible challenge.
I hope you’ll have a read and let me know what you think!
Buy your copy of ‘The Garden Of Lost Girls’ here.
Are you new here? Welcome to my blog!
I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of 13 middle-grade novels, including adventure fantasy series such as The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries, and contemporary stories including THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE, WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT, DANGER ROAD and THE LAST WORD.
You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.
If you’re looking for book recommendations for young readers, join the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community, tune in to the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and sign up for the Your Kid’s Next Read newsletter.
by Allison Tait | Apr 4, 2026 | Blog, Books, My books, Writing
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I started out (many, many, many years ago) writing romance novels (for adults). Or trying to write romance novels as it turned out.
I started reading the genre when I was about 13 (Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High, anyone?) and then really jumped into romance novels proper at 17 as an antidote to the stress of the HSC.
When people asked me why I read them because after all, ‘I knew how they were going to turn out’, my response was, ‘yeah, exactly, I know how they’re going to turn out’.
When you’re stressed and anxious, there’s a lot to be said for the fact that you’re reading a book that you KNOW will have a happy ending, no matter how bad things might look halfway through.
Plus, frankly, I loved the focus on the characters, I loved the focus on the relationships (even though some of the books I read back then showcased relationships I would run a mile from now), and I was in love with the idea of love.
So, tick, tick, tick.
Heads up: romance readers are now 10+
I don’t think there’s any coincidence in the fact that romance remains the highest-selling genre, nor in the fact that tweens, who are exposed to the whole world via social media and other online spaces, are looking for romance at a younger age. When your world is uncertain, you start to look for happy endings.
And I know they’re looking, thanks to my work with Your Kid’s Next Read.
Because we monitor the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook group every day, we see the trends for reader interest on the rise, often kicked off by what’s happening in other media and conversation. Though we saw a few requests for recommendations in 2023, things really kicked off around romance for tweens in January 2024 and it remains strong.
In Feb 2024, we did a podcast episode titled ‘The Love Stuff’ to address some of those community discussions. Then, in May 2025, we updated to a list of romance novels suitable for tweens, based on community recommendations as well as Team YKNR recommendations
By that stage, I had been approached by Scholastic Australia to gauge my interest in writing a novel for their ‘Two Hearts’ series of tween romance novels. The characters in the stories are all aged around years 7-9 at high school, but the books are sweet, clean and entirely middle-grade appropriate (for readers 10+). (More about the series here.)
Given I feel I’ve been training for this moment my whole life, I could not jump on board fast enough.
And now it’s here!
Book #3 in the Two Hearts series of standalone romance novels for tween readers (10+), ‘The Last Word’ captures the awkward, sweet, discombobulating, wonderful experience of first love. With debating. And chickens.
You can read more about ‘The Last Word’ and buy it here.
What inspired ‘The Last Word’?
Given ‘The Last Word’ was the first time I’ve been asked to write a particular type of novel, I was a bit nervous. Usually, I pitch an idea that had been rolling around in my subconscious for years or even, as many of you would know, write the entire book to find out what it is before I can even do that.
But in the end, I worked in a similar way to my usual process. I began with the characters and then figured out where they lived. Matilda appeared on the page as I wrote the first lines:
For Matilda Bell, the best part of the first day of a new school year was the stationery.
I could see a very tidy, conscientious girl, setting out pencils and I had a strong sense of who she was straight away. A high-achieving spreadsheet kind of girl, who’s relied on one friend to get her through school and now her friend has moved away. Everything is the same at school, but it’s not. And she’s now facing the mean girls on her own.
From that point, it’s a matter of upending her day even further, and new guy Will is waiting at the bus stop. Will who doesn’t have to work for his grades, Will who is so bored in class he disrupts everything, Will who is trying to pretend all is fine in his chaotic home life.
And then, as always, I drew from the things I hear, the things I remember, the things I know and the things that make me ask ‘why?’.
Behind the book
Plotting vs Pantsing – the main difference between Matilda and Will actually grew out of different approaches to writing.
Ever since we met at a Romance Writers Australia conference 20 years ago, Allison Rushby (far left) from Your Kid’s Next Read and I have had an ongoing lighthearted argument about whether it’s better to plan an entire novel before you start writing – or to write by the seat of your pants.
Regular readers of this blog will have no doubt at all which side of that argument I land on – and let’s just say that Will and I have a fair bit in common as far as this is concerned.
Debating – this is my high school debating team.
Mandy (far left) was third speaker, Allyson (centre) was first speaker and I was second speaker. We debated together from years 8-10 and this photo was stuck – firmly and immovably – into my year 12 photo album.
We went to regional finals twice and were narrowly defeated twice – clearly we were robbed, right? Our long-suffering debating coordinator was Mr Baker, who fed us mint slice biscuits and put up with our histrionics (and, oh my, were there histrionics).
For me, debating was pure joy. I loved the challenge of coming up with winning arguments, I loved public speaking (with a bit of drama thrown in), and I love, love, loved hanging out with these two.
That joy is where ‘The Last Word’ began for me. I also loved the fact that you could take an opponent’s argument apart and they would congratulate you for it afterwards.
It’s a shame the real world isn’t like that, right? Matilda, my main character, would agree.
Small town: The novel is set in another fictionalised version of the south coast where I live, but this time it’s the farm or inland experience rather than the coast, where ‘The First Summer of Callie McGee’ is set, or the larger regional town experience of ‘Danger Road’.
Matilda’s favourite cafe/milk bar is based on the two milk bars that graced the main street of the town in which I spent my high school years, and the Great Milkshake Debate is … well, a classic (note, Chocolate is always the correct response).
Chickens: The chickens arrived with Matilda’s sister Darcy and they came with their chicken coop based on the Château de Chenonceau from the beginning. I had seen a documentary about it and was captivated by this so-called ‘Castle of Ladies’. I had enormous fun naming the chickens, particularly the plucky (and clucky) Lady Peneggope!
I didn’t know how important the chickens were going to be until the story rolled along.
Will and I have a lot in common when it comes to making things up on the spot.
Bringing it all together
If you’d like to get a sense of how all of these things came together to create ‘The Last Word’, you can hear me talk about it here with author Adrian Beck on his Be More Bookish podcast.
And you can hear me read the first chapter of the book in this Your Kid’s Next Read Friday First Chapters episode.
If nothing else, it will show you what I was hearing in my head as I wrote those first lines…
Are you new here? Welcome to my blog!
I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of 12 middle-grade novels, including adventure fantasy series such as The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries, and contemporary stories including ‘The First Summer of Callie McGee’, ‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot’, ‘Danger Road’ and ‘The Last Word’
You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.
If you’re looking for book recommendations for young readers, join the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community, tune in to the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and sign up for the Your Kid’s Next Read newsletter.
by Allison Tait | Jun 16, 2025 | Blog, My books, Reading, Writing, Your Kid's Next Read
I’m in the middle of preparing author talks and workshops for ‘Danger Road‘, my cold-case crime thriller for middle-grade readers, launching on 1 July.
It’s always so interesting to sit down and consider exactly where ideas for stories come from and how they go from a glimmer of curiosity into a full-blown world, peopled by three-dimensional characters living their lives and getting themselves into various situations and scrapes. Trying to explain HOW that happens is not an easy task and it’s often only in looking back and preparing to talk about it with young readers that I’m able to clarify it for myself.
I’m not a person who creates ‘mood boards’ or uses Pinterest for visual prompts for stories. It’s just not how my subconscious operates. So it’s only when I’m creating a slide presentation for my author talks that I’m confronted by the reality that today’s students really like visuals. They’re a screen generation.
And so I find myself scratching around trying to find images that evoke the feeling of the book and the incidents or moments that inspired it.
These are some of the photos* I came up with for ‘Danger Road’.
None of these photos on their own shows up in the book. But all of them feed into the lives of Alex and Leo Hawkins and their friends in Grayton, the regional town in which they live. Creating a great mystery story is not just about the puzzle at the heart of the novel, but about the world in which that puzzle is set. And, for me, big worlds – be they fantasy or contemporary – are built on tiny details.
Alex and Leo set out to solve a 25-year-old hit-and-run cold case, and the details of that puzzle unfold along with the story. But the details of their daily lives and the lives of those around them are there from the opening sentence, building a picture word by word, of a place and the people who live there.
It’s a world of teenagers – then and now – in a place that’s not quite the city, not quite the coast, not quite the deep country. It’s about friendships and relationships – first love, family, the people around us – and about the difference between who we are and who the world thinks we are.
And it’s about the ripple effects of tragedy within a community.
Creating characters – and a crime
When I think back to the very early days of writing the novel – and the first glimmers began three or four years ago – I was thinking mostly of the characters of Alex and Leo – I wanted to write a detective story about two brothers.
I had written a junior fiction novel about two very different brothers – a book that will become one of my contributions to the Your Next Read series in 2027. But the kind of story I had in mind this time around was older, and definitely grittier.
So I started jotting down ideas, just in the usual way – opening a doc on my computer and throwing in half-considered sentences, links to articles or images. I knew I wanted two boys, close in age, but world’s apart in interest and personality.
In early 2023, author Adrian Beck and I had a brainstorming session about a book we thought we might write together – he was interested in writing a detective story as well. But he was working on something else, as was I, and we didn’t get much further than the brainstorm and talking about how much fun it would be to write something together.
Then in 2024, after I finished writing ‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot’, I got in touch with Adrian and said, ‘I’m writing my own.’ He told me to ‘go for it’, and off I went.
Crime in a middle-grade novel can be difficult, so finding the right puzzle for the boys to solve took time to come into focus. But hit-and-run incidents are reported with horrifying regularity in Australian newspapers – there have been four in Sydney just in the past fortnight. These days they are mostly solved quickly, thanks to CCTV and other technology, but that hasn’t always been the case.
As someone who lives outside the major cities, I know that regional roads can be dark, lonely places, and the idea that a car, something we take for granted in everyday life, can also be a weapon is something that I did my best to make my own kids aware of as I was teaching them to drive.
That the decisions we make have consequences.
It’s an important reminder in a world where games like Grand Theft Auto have ‘mission’ called ‘Hit and Run’ and you can find clips on YouTube devoted to players ‘running over’ pedestrians.
Mostly, though, I wrote, in ‘Danger Road’, the kind of novel I love to read and have always loved to read. A pacy, plot-driven story with a thorny puzzle at its centre.
The first review in Books + Publishing (6 May) by Karys McEwen described ‘Danger Road’ as “… a compelling standalone mystery about a cold case, small-town secrets, and the difficulties surrounding sibling dynamics”, with “an emotional depth that always feels grounded and accessible.”
Reviewer Paul McDonald said, “I loved ‘Danger Road’ … [it] is compelling, the characters completely believable, the tone is dark and moody and the pace is thrilling. The novel is perfectly pitched for readers 10 plus, gritty but absolutely right for those readers transitioning towards teen fiction. Tait knows how to write for her young readers- and upper primary and lower secondary readers will fall so easily into the pages of ‘Danger Road’. … We need to be offering stories like this one that hook the reader from chapter 1. 
“
Fingers crossed that young readers will love it too!
Find out more about ‘Danger Road’ and buy it here.
*With thanks to B. Thomas-McKnight for the river shots
Are you new here? Welcome to my blog!
I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of 11 middle-grade novels, including adventure fantasy series such as The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries, and contemporary stories including THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE, WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT and DANGER ROAD (July 25).
You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.
If you’re looking for book recommendations for young readers, join the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community, tune in to the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and sign up for the Your Kid’s Next Read newsletter.
by Allison Tait | May 1, 2025 | Blog, Books, My books, Reading, Writing, Your Kid's Next Read
I could not be more excited to let you know that my new middle-grade novel WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT is out today!
Written by me, published by Scholastic Australia, beautiful cover created by Grace Felstead. Isn’t it lovely?
It’s the story of Willow Bright, a capable country kid who is transplanted to the inner city in grade six – and quickly decides that it’s not for her.
But while Willow’s busy figuring out how to get home, she also finds herself making unexpected friends, trying to solve a mystery and making space for herself.
I love this review by my Your Kid’s Next Read podcast co-host Megan Daley.
‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot’ is warm and witty, full of heart, mystery, and just the right amount of dirt under the fingernails. It weaves themes of identity, belonging, grief, and the shift from country to city living into a super engaging story.
With a subtle thread of gardening running throughout, there is also a reminder that even when you feel out of place, you can still bloom where you’re planted. Perfect for readers 9–12.’
You can read more about the book here.
And you can buy ‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot’ at your local bookshop or favourite online bookseller (selection below).
QBD Books
Dymocks
Readings
Amazon
Abbey’s Bookshop
Riverbend Books
PEEK INSIDE WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT
I love the design of the book, with its printed internal covers and a fairy wren motif throughout.
It’s dedicated to my cousins because part of Willow’s story involves her cousin Fleur. The two girls are close in age and similar in appearance – but incredibly different people. The unfolding of their developing relationship was a joy to watch and write.
In a thrill for 10-year-old me, ‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot’ is not only in the current Scholastic Book Club catalogue, but featured on the poster!
I do hope you enjoy Willow’s story! Let me know what you think!
Are you new here? Welcome to my blog!
I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of 11 middle-grade novels, including adventure fantasy series such as The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries, and contemporary stories including THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE, WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT and DANGER ROAD (July 25).
You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.
If you’re looking for book recommendations for young readers, join the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community, tune in to the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and sign up for the Your Kid’s Next Read newsletter.
by Allison Tait | Mar 12, 2025 | Blog, Books, My books, Reading, Your Kid's Next Read
It’s a big year for A. L Tait in 2025!
While I’m busy preparing for the launch of WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT on 1 May, with some exciting events planned for the lead up, the brilliant team from Scholastic Australia has also been busy beavering away to bring you this!
DANGER ROAD, a cold-case crime mystery for tween readers, is coming to a bookshop near you on 1 July 2025, dressed to thrill in this stunning cover.
I can’t wait to share more details with you soon!
Are you new here? Welcome to my blog! I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of middle-grade series, The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. My latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.
If you’re looking for book recommendations for young readers, join the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community, tune in to the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and sign up for the Your Kid’s Next Read newsletter.
