Fiction
THE WITCH QUEEN’S CREATURES
NEW ADULT ROMANTASY, 110,000
It’s been two weeks since nineteen-year-old Mira’s village was attacked, another casualty of the war between the witch-queens and the human country of Oeste. Now Mira’s homeless and the sole guardian of twins who–alongside every other child in the village–have been put under a sleeping curse. The witch queen Boreal will only give the antidote to the war hero Blue Beck, and if he doesn’t retrieve it before the autumn equinox–crossing Boreal’s perilous, creature-filled territory to do so– the children’s sleep will turn into death.
But the messenger returns with the worst possible news: Blue Beck is dead.
With the hourglass draining on the children’s lives, Mira makes a reckless decision to sneak into Boreal’s lands and go after the antidote herself. But the magical creatures she encounters are even more horrible than she’d imagined, and they’re not the only danger Mira has to reckon with in the witch-queen’s territory. Desperate, Mira joins up with two fellow Oestians on a mysterious mission of their own. But the more time she spends with Fern and Matteo, the more curious and apprehensive she grows. What drives the men to undertake such a dangerous journey? Why are they so urgently trying to escape the witch-queen’s notice? And why does Mira find the injured, ill-tempered Matteo so very, very intriguing?
Each perilous step toward Boreal’s palace seems calibrated to confuse Mira and to call to question her understanding of her quest, of her ties to her companions, and even of her own past. But one thing remains clear through it all: Mira has to get that antidote by the equinox. If she doesn’t, it’s not only the children whose lives will be cut short. All of Oeste will suffer.
THE PACK
YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY FANTASY, 100,000
Torey Lloyd has always been an outsider in the werewolf Pack– her mother ditched the Pack– and Torey– when she was a child, something unheard of among the wolves. And Torey hasn’t had an easy year. Her boyfriend Ben dumped her out of the blue a week before her best friend Sami mysteriously disappeared in the woods, declared dead because of the amount of her blood found at the scene. Torey’s been biding her time until her sixteenth birthday, when she will finally be old enough to go through her first transition and become a werewolf herself. Maybe then she’ll feel like she belongs again.
On the full moon in question, however, things do not go as planned. Torey sprouts fur and sharp teeth, but her tail is too long and her new claws are retractable…
Torey is not a wolf.
Her new identity makes her suspect number one in Sami’s unsolved murder, and even when cleared, Torey feels herself more of an outsider than ever. She no longer wants to belong; she wants to flee, as her mother did years before. But the mysterious appearance of a perfect copy of Sami’s favorite bracelet, an attack on the Pack leader, and the arrival of some strangers in the woods all conspire to pull her back. Hot-but-unreadable Ben, his best friend, the equally attractive– but antagonistic–Liam, and a new addition to the Pack, Mick, are sometimes suspects and sometimes allies as Torey tries to figure out what happened to her best friend. But mysteries build on mysteries, and the ultimate riddle Torey will need to solve is whether she has a role in the Pack, in spite of her oddities, or whether she’s fighting a battle in which no matter which way the tide turns, the ultimate loser will be her. Perhaps the right thing to do is to cut and run after all.
STORMFRONT
YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY FANTASY, 103,000
Frozen meets The Raven Cycle!
Riley Jorgensen learned about Magicians in her high school Social Studies classes, but at seventeen, they don’t take up much of her attention. After all, they’re all but extinct. After the rebellion three hundred years ago, the world united against them, murdering many and controlling the rest with pieces of a magic-canceling meteorite called geocelestine. Nowadays, their power is weak, they’re forced to register with their governments, and they have limited rights.
Riley’s more occupied with applying to colleges, dating dream-come-true Logan, and trying to please her recluse of a sister–and legal guardian– Bryn. Bryn selects Riley’s classes, her extracurriculars, and tells Riley when she needs to be where. Yet no matter how hard Riley tries, Bryn never seems happy. And she never wants to spend any time together.
Unbeknownst to Riley, Bryn’s been wearing a geocelestine-based necklace her entire life to keep her secret magic under control. She’s not a registered Magician, and it’s not only the government she’s hiding from: A secret group of rebel Magicians intent on gaining back their historical power and status want Bryn to join their cause. Riley is shocked when Bryn, having lost her necklace, shoots lightning into the sky at a party, then flees to the family’s mountain cabin, leaving Riley and her attempts at normalcy behind.
But Bryn’s secret is out, and the government and the rebel Magicians are on her path. Riley sets off on a backpacking adventure to find and save her sister, but she finds more than steep terrain and wild animals to reckon with in the Rocky Mountains. She’s thrown into a world of Magicians and intrigue, and everything goes sideways when she discovers Bryn’s not the only one who’s been keeping secrets from her. Riley's bestie, her almost-too-perfect boyfriend, and a rough-but-compelling wilderness guide she meets along the way will all try and help… but might they have their own agendas? And will it all be for naught if the person Bryn most needs saving from turns out to be… Bryn herself?
SPIRIT AND SPLEEN
MIDDLE GRADE CONTEMPORARY FANTASY, 73,000
SPIRIT AND SPLEEN, is the Magic School Bus with higher stakes.
Eliana Williams has only two fears: blood, and drawing the attention of the mean girls in the sixth grade. She’s nearly twelve years old and struggling to bridge the gap between cool pre-teen, and creative, fantastical child who loves to write warrior-princess stories with her younger sister Zoey.
Eliana feels abandoned when Zoey gets sick and is too tired to play, leaving her to her own devices. She's sulking in the forest near their home when a fairy appears and says she'll grant her the magical power to 'look inside'. Eliana starts to have strange dreams in which she is chased by faceless white monsters through dark tunnels that move in time to a rhythmic beat. But are they really dreams? And why isn't her sister getting better?
When Eliana figures out that the magic spell to ‘look inside’ actually allows her to travel through a person's circulatory system, she has even more to reckon with. She has to figure out how she might use the power to help her sister battle leukemia, while simultaneously navigating the unspoken rules of being cool in the sixth grade and being a good daughter to parents who are worried and distracted all the time. Will she master the spell in time to help her sister? And can she face her fears before they stop her from being able to help anyone?
SPIRIT AND SPLEEN, thoroughly researched and grounded in science, is ultimately about growing up without losing the magic of your own individuality.