Local Surrey author Lorna Suzuki is having a book launch along with her daughter and cowriter at this weekend's Surrey International Writers' Conference.

Her daughter, Nia Suzuki-White, 14, will be there Saturday to sign and sell copies of the third installment of The Dream Merchant Saga. The series follows the adventures of three unlikely friends - a cursed and spoiled princess, her unwilling court jester who is meant to be a knight, and the village idiot.

The trio is on a quest to set things right, but have as much trouble with each other as the challenges before them. It's a funny, smartly written young adult series that boasts as many adult readers as youth.

Suzuki is also the author of the Imago Chronicles, an adult fantasy series, she started writing in 2002 after losing her job.

"What happened with the young adult books, The Dream Merchant Saga, Nia and some of her friends were wanting to read the Imago but it's written for an adult audience," said Suzuki.

"Nia said, 'Can you write something for us that we can read now?' because Nia would read my books, but I would clip pages together."

They began talking about what that a young adult series might look like, what it might be about and soon the The Dream Merchant Saga was born. And Nia helped out as her mom's youth consultant.

It seems writing ability runs in the family.

When Suzuki had finished the first chapter for the second book, she handed the chapter to Nia to read.

"She read it and said, 'Mom, this is good, but it can be better.' I was like, Oh really? And I pushed the laptop to her."

The opening scene of the book is what Nia wrote, and since then, she has contributed parts to every chapter of the series.

The third book, The Crack'd Shield, will be featured at the conference's book fair Saturday, from 5: 30 to 7 p.m. at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel.

You can bring copies of your books to have signed by the mom and daughter writing team, as well as quite a number of other authors who will be taking part.

But fans will have to keep their questions about the movie deal for the first three books of the Imago series on hold for now. There is big news coming soon, said Suzuki, who is also the creative consultant for the movie project.

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