Max and Indie were orphaned kangaroos we raised and released here on our property in NSW. It was such a privilege learning from them. I thought maybe I could create something that would inspire love and curiosity in the next generation.

It’s all real. I’ve even posted the videos and my journal notes while raising them on the Red Rabbit Books website along with each page that was inspired by those real life stories. Have a look at Meet Maxie Roo and Meet Indie Roo.

At university my favourite medium was oils, as a scenic artist in theatre, film, television and theme parks I was always using latex paints to mimic oils and watercolour. When I moved to this beautiful property in Australia so many years later, I wanted to play in a medium that didn’t feel like my career, I was used to painting large and messy and I wanted to paint smaller and more cleanly. So I gave watercolour a go. It was a challenge training my brain to paint in reverse (in those other mediums, the highlight is what you do last, and in watercolour the highlight is what you figure out first). I fell in love with the medium.

And for books, my inspirations come from Beatrix Potter, Julie Vivas (Possum Magic), May Gibbs (Gumnut Babies) and more recently Eliza Wheeler (Home In The Woods). There is a soft magic to watercolour that, in my mind, is perfect for a children’s book.

I hope children will be curious, ask questions and fall in love with these precious creatures. I want them to realise that they are social animals, with lots of characteristics that are similar to their own and that will trigger empathy and caring for our wildlife.

Red Rabbit was a brand name my husband and I came up with back in 2014. His last name is Redding while my last name is Ryner, so we knew that one day when we had our own business, we would want a logo with R&R. It just so happened we were spending a lot of time in China that year, so we were very aware that it was the year of the Rabbit. Red gave us not only the first three letters of his last name, but it’s a great colour for a logo.

We have a couple of graphic artists in our family so we turned to them for a logo and they came up with the two Rs forming the Rabbit butt. Red Rabbit Consultancy was born.

Then we moved to Australia when we bought this beautiful property with an old apple orchard, we thought, how fun, we can call it Red Rabbit Farm.

Then the books came around and having grown up with Penguin Books, I thought, why not Red Rabbit Books! And here we are.

For the next book we travel to Western Australia to tell the story of Jaffa Roo at Amaris Wildlife Sanctuary.

The manuscript is written in the same lyrical rhyme as my first two books in the series, but this time told in the first person through Jaffa’s eyes and what it’s like for her growing up as a rescue.

So many!! I grew up on Dr. Seuss. His books are why I struggle to write a book not in rhyme. The Lorax was the first book that I ever read as a child that made me aware of the precious value of our trees. I consider this one of the books that influenced my desire to write the book about Maxie Roo thinking it might make a difference in how the next generation treats these magnificent animals.

I was born in California, travelled the world and met an Australian while working in Germany. For the first 23 years of our life together we were based in Los Angeles. When, on a whim, we decided this chapter of our life should be in Australia I just knew. We settled on this gorgeous property and I knew I was home.

I am so thankful this country recently granted me Australian citizenship.