Maureen McCarthy is the ninth of ten children and grew up on a farm near Yea in Victoria. After working for a while as an art teacher, Maureen became a full-time writer. Her novels have been shortlisted for numerous awards and include the In Between series, which was adapted from scripts Maureen co-wrote with Shane Brennan for SBS TV; Ganglands; Cross my Heart; Chain of Hearts; Flash Jack; When you Wake and Find me Gone and Rose by any other name. Her much-loved bestseller, Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life was made into a highly successful 4-part mini-series for ABC TV.