About the author... .Fiona McIntosh

She lives in Adelaide, Australia and used to work in the travel industry. She also ran a travel magazine with her husband before turning her hand to writing fiction. She is a prolific author of fantasy and historical romance novels.

This novel was inspired by… “My father, who worked in gold mining during the 1960s. I spent my early childhood in Africa, running around a mining camp. My closest friend was a young man called Adongo who worked with our family.”

The most challenging thing about writing it was… “Evoking the late Victorian era, from fashion and tastes to how people travelled, and making sure that era was reflected THRILLING authentically in Africa too, where so much of the Exp eli bus story is set. mill ore I had st ion se to learn about ox wagons; howctiun ti at ur the railway moque arrived est into the LittleKaro oD es er to dig ni sofS out hen is do lu pt ur? Africa; how diamonds miners worked I bus alluvia let, qua sand magnimdugthe world’ s biggest ma n-m adequodi ge hole. I ni mole ni et spent two years educating myself before pa run tIquos wrote m ag ni et us the novel .” My writing habits involve… sunt“lab C ho cola te,i pi de strum on-hand all day, ritually-made acer rum coffeefugiamut hat begins with grinding the beans s tot atio each morning te msequ id and et working from my kitchen. po rum The wr it ingfuga.Ut begins hill at et after everyone’ s had breakfast rest, cone and cone the dogs ali bus. have been walked. I’m disciplined, Book title goes working in by to a strict word count that varies Xxxxxx from Xxxxxxx, book to Allen book but not from day to & day. Unwin, I take RRP Fridays $00.00 off to run errands and weekends off for family and baking. It sets me up for a great writing week.”