A dream comes to life with new children's book by Mudgee-based author

Rianna has put a ribbon on a long-time project to write a publish her own children's book titled The Tale of the Trolls.

While working as a teacher, a side project running an Instagram page exploded in popularity, giving Rianna the opportunity to pursue that full time along with getting the book out the door. She originally wrote the book for a university assignment years ago but wanted to fully bring it to life after her students enjoyed it so much.

"The main reason I wanted to publish it for a long time - when I left my last school I actually had three boys I taught years prior, they were in my room on my last day in tears and they didn't want me to leave. They said to me, honestly, you have to get that book published because I'd read it to them," Rianna said.

"From a teacher's point of view, the reason I wrote the message was because when I went on all my pracs, I noticed kids didn't really care about all the rubbish on the ground. Or if you said said, 'can you pick up that rubbish?' They'd say 'that's not mine.' They didn't really understand why... it's an important message, because you have to instil it into children at a young age and it's something that is so important.

"As I've been creating this book, and resources to go along with it, I started sort of looking into rubbish and waste and how much we actually produce in the world."

The self-published book aims to teach its young readers about authority and picking up after yourself - lest any wayward rubbish turns into a scary troll - ultimately ending on a cliffhanger that leaves the door open for another book.

"The book itself is open ended. When I was reading it live, a few people had commented as well, and they were like, 'Oh my gosh, you should write a second one,'" Rianna said.

"I wanted it to be a resource that's valuable in the classroom. Now that I've done this and it's been successful, I probably will look at writing the second one down the track."

Rianna has been happy with the reception to the book so far.

"I did a live reading last week and I had a lot of teachers say, 'You shouldn't be in the classroom should be writing books. I've had teachers in Canada or overseas messaged me to say they've bought copies," she said.

"So that's been really lovely."

Rianna will be signing copies at a special event to be held at The Book Nest on October 29.