Lilly’s family has an extraordinary secret, one they have kept for four generations. Lilly’s proud to be different and special. At Hallowe’en she’s happy to stay at home and cast spells with her mum and her gran rather than go out trick or treating like the other kids. At 12 years old, she thinks she knows it all.

But then Lilly becomes unsettled by odd events, like seeing the sinister man in the white shoes staring at her while she walks the dogs, and then local children start to go missing. When her mum doesn’t come back from one of her regular night-time jaunts, Lilly’s gran thinks it’s time to tell her the whole story. Lilly has second thoughts about whether her family’s secret is a blessing, or a curse…

This is the start of a series, isn’t it?
This is the first of three books. Set in the 1980’s most of the drama for this time traveling adventure is set in the Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford UK. The second book is called Therianthropy.

What genre is this series?
YA steampunk, magic and time travel.

So far most of my readers appear to be older than young adult; I think this might be as there is a lot of science in the books.

Tell us about Lilly, the girl at the centre of this story.
Lilly is 12 when this book starts, She lives in Oxford with her mum and gran. Lilly is a young adult who has no idea about the adventure she will go on. She already does magic spells, uses a bow and plays the piano but as the story unfolds she will meet steam punk creatures, time travel and gets her first kiss.

We hear the character is based on a very special young woman.
Lilly is based on my own daughter Emily, who is older now. Emily like Lilly has brown curly hair, hazel eyes, rides horses, fires a bow, loves art and science,plays the piano and is also brave: one night I came in very late and Emily went to the door carrying a bat and was going to put up a fight if there was an intruder. Much braver than me!

Definitely braver than we are!
Are there any other characters we need to meet?
The character Buster, is in the first book, but he is more of a main character in the second book. Buster in real life lives with us and he is a rescue dog, we have only had him about 1 year and a half, he walks a bit funny and eats rubbish, so often has to go to the vets.

Tell us about yourself.
Jane is a dreamer and a dyslexic, who married young and moved to Wales with her husband. A mother of three, Jane sold her paintings to local galleries. She yearned for further challenges and found the Open University helped her study. She explored a mixture of physics, other sciences, the environment and technology. This prepared her to get a full degree in Environment and Archaeology from Lampeter University. Jane is now in Oxford, where she moved after her marriage ended. She works at the Pitt Rivers Museum, a museum of anthropology and world archaeology.

Do you use social media?
I am on twitter @JYparadoxchild

What’s next?
getting my third book published, then I want to write a grown up book