ALL the ingredients were there for author Annie Seaton's latest novel in far north Queensland.
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A vast, ancient landscape, a 160 million-year-old volcano and a scientific discovery.
She just needed to "throw in a bit of murder and suspense".
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Ms Seaton's novel, Undara, is a tense mystery set in the depths of "the dramatic Undara lava tubes' in the north Queensland.
It was chance visit to the region which set Ms Seaton's "writer brain" into gear.
The area and its extensive cave network are rich with life, discovery and a dramatic origin, so it became a fertile ground for the author's mind.
The novel is centred on an entomologist's mission to flee her disintegrating personal life "burying herself in the research team's hunt for new species of insects".
Little does she suspect she will be the key to solving a mystery that's more than one hundred years old.
Exploring the new landscape saw Ms Seaton take a new tack with her writing, navigating through mystery, suspense, tragedy and grief, not the romance she has delved into with her previously published titles.
She will get a chance to see exactly what readers think when she rolls up to Collins Bookstore in Tamworth on Saturday.
She has in-store appearances lined-up all over the country, but it's a dynamic which has taken some getting used to.
Before becoming a full-time author, Ms Seaton was a school principal and a librarian so reading was her first passion.
"You've got to pinch yourself," she said.
"I have been an avid reader my entire life, but now I'm the one getting emails from readers saying 'I loved your book, and thank you for writing books' just like I used send to authors," she said.
Ms Seaton will be at Collins Bookstore on Peel Street from 10.30am on Saturday.
The Leader has 5 copies of the book to give away to the first five people to call 6768 1290 before 10am on Saturday and leave their name and contact details.