Miss Hunt describes Blood Moon as an apocalyptic werewolf story which takes place in the same world as her debut novel, Devil’s Wife. ‘‘Technically my books are based in one universe but this is pretty much a standalone story,’’ she said. The story was inspired by the Red Riding Hood fairytale and the idea that an axe was the only weapon which could kill a werewolf.

The 22-year-old said she doesn’t have a magic formula for writing but she liked to keep the process short and sweet. ‘‘It took me three weeks to write, I don’t spend years writing I just sit and think about the story,’’ she said. In fact, Miss Hunter said she used writing to keep busy while her partner played video games. ‘‘It could be anywhere between ten minutes to four hours,’’ she said.

Miss Hunter has been writing since she was 15-years-old and lists her favourite authors as Garth Nix, Traci Harding, Jennifer Fallon and Tamora Pierce. She picked up her first writing contract at 18-years-old after submitting an excerpt to a number of publishers. However, the book didn’t see the light of day until two years later. Miss Hunt said the method varied from publisher to publisher.

‘‘With my first book I spoke to my editor everyday but with Blood Moon there was no communication for six months and then they told me the deadline was May,’’ she said. Looking to the future, Miss Hunt said she hoped to write more novels. ‘‘The buzz is still there, especially when you get the cover art and see what the book looks like, when you have the hardcopy you’ve already seen it so many times,’’ she said.

And her advice for any budding authors? '‘You can’t edit a blank page.’’