Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. Garth's books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel , Lirael , and Abhorsen and the cult favorite teen science fiction novel Shade's Children . His fantasy novels for younger readers include The Ragwitch , the six books of the Seventh Tower sequence, the Keys to the Kingdom series, and A Confusion of Princes . His books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times , Publishers Weekly , the Guardian , and the Australian , and his work has been translated into forty languages. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and two children.