MIDDLE GRADE- The Vortex Series
The Disc of The Exiles
The Protectors of Lambda
The Protectors of Lambda
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When Liam 11, his brother Josh 10, and best friend Rebecca find a disc on the beach, it is the beginning of a very weird day. Generating a powerful vortex, the disc hurtles them into a parallel universe known as The Realms.
The children don’t have magic wands or superpowers, they’re not Gods or demi-Gods, they don’t even have a rich and powerful uncle. All they have is each other, and when Liam’s not infuriating Josh with his scientific theories, Josh isn’t infuriating Liam with his feelings, and Rebecca isn’t trying to slap sense into both of them, they make a pretty good team.
And they must.
Because The Realms are guarded by malevolent Protectors, whose only purpose is to eliminate OtherWorlders.
But another group has also become aware of the OtherWorlders. The exiled Vexans, who want to use the children to escape their hated prison.
Hostile jungle, sinister pyramids, piranhas, pythons, and giant eagles, threaten the children as they attempt to escape The Realms. But they’re doing well. They even start believing they might make it home. That is until the monster cougar and the quicksand.
“… Indiana Jones meets MythBusters in this explosive adventure – deliciously done…”
Susan Wills: Writer and former CBCA Judge
The Protectors of Lambda
The Protectors of Lambda
The Protectors of Lambda
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Josh's heel activates the vortex and the trio are flung into The Realms. This time, instead of a lush jungle, they must survive a harsh desert. As they battle the elements, vicious Protectors and death, they uncover the magical power source, orichalcum, and another forbidden relic from the Great Kiva of the Anasazi tribe.
Can they survive the increasingly cunning attacks by the Protectors and bring home the orichalcum, which just might save the climate from tipping?
The Lost City
The Protectors of Lambda
The Crown of The Despoiler
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Again, the vortex dumps the trio in the Realms, with an addition - the seemingly loyal David (Liam's best friend).
Dropped onto a raft in the middle of an ocean, the kids discover a crown.
As soon as David puts it on, the Vexans' ghostly whispers become loud voices in his head, suggesting, demanding, promising, and David doesn't know why he keeps this a secret from his friends.
Sucked into Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean, the Protectors once again launch their attacks. This time they're successful and it seems only three kids will be coming home.
The Crown of The Despoiler
The Crown of The Despoiler
The Crown of The Despoiler
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When the vortex appears, Liam, David, Rebecca and Josh are divided about risking their lives by returning to The Realms to bring back some orichalcum. But the climate's getting hotter and they have to take the chance.
Dropped into the swamps of the Realms and despite their misgivings about The Vexans, all four kids form a bond with Stella, the fearless daughter of Lord Vex.
As they battle the delta, they are confused both by the absence of The Protectors and The Vexans' true intentions.
Wearing the crown of The Vexans, David continues his secret communications with Lord Vex and Josh becomes suspicious, setting up a series of conflicts between them that threatens their friendship.
Traveling further along the delta, the kids discover the key to unlock the final relic, the obsidian dagger.
Not understanding the threat this means for the Realms, they take the dagger and Lord Vex readies his soldiers.
Still at war, Josh and Rebecca verse David and Liam as they continue their quest for orichalcum.
The Membrane
The Crown of The Despoiler
The Membrane
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The vortex generates on a bitter, rainy night, an omen for what is to come. The kids, determined to get some orichalcum, step into the vortex and are plummeted into a barren world of snow.
David’s loyalties are tested and he betrays his friends. This plunges Liam, Josh and Rebecca into a desperate race for survival.
The stakes have never been higher as the four are given the choice to save The Realms or save their own world.
Mrs Garson's Grade 10 class is given a project to save endangered animals. Two groups form, but neither wants Eve - the weirdo whose only friend is a monkey.
Jack, feeling sorry for Eve, forms an uneasy alliance and meets Marco, her bonobo. His mind is blown when Marco talks to him.
While Eve and Jack film Marco talking about God, the rest of the class create a contract where their generation commit to having no more than two children.
The groups combine and their Easter Island Club fan-base goes insane.
Of course, the haters come out, and the kids learn that saving their planet is going to cost the world.
Burdened with ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome and an IQ of 161, Max-12, is unbearably lonely after his little brother is lost in a terrorist attack. Then Corey returns and drags Max towards a connection with people, something Max has never had. But, that isn’t the only reason Corey’s back...
First book in The Amazons Series
Alex -15 has a reputation for fighting back, and it all began when she stole a stone necklace forged by the legendary Amazons.
Their 21st century descendants hunt her down and promise her everything she's always wanted and nothing she's ever had. But they don’t tell her there’s no going back.
With the Amazons you do – or you die.
"A secret tribe of kick-ass warrior girls I found myself dreaming about..."
Sarah Dodds - Author and UK YA WriteWords Host
Second Book in The Amazons Series
Smoke colored the sky grey and the smell of burning wood and burning flesh made Queen Amazonia’s nostrils flare. She surveyed the ruins of her village from the mouth of the Cave of Gaia, and vowed it would be the last time.
The women and young girls began to emerge from the rubble. Bruised, bloodied, hair wild, eyes hunted, they gathered before her, sinking onto the stones that ringed the entrance to the cave. Some moaned, some cried, but most were silent – the silence of suffering, and it was into this silence that she spoke.
‘We will tend to our wounded and dead. But, before we restore our buildings, before we replant our crops or replace our livestock, before we rest again upon clean mattresses and take our leisure beside the fast flowing waters of Thermodon, before anything else, we learn to fight. We learn to defend ourselves and we learn to attack. With the Goddess’s blessings, the next party of men who enter our village to take what is not theirs will not take. They will give.
They will give their lives."
Long after Queen Amazonia was dust, and the sapling that she had planted outside the cave of Gaia to mark her oath had grown into a majestic bay laurel, her hunted village had become a thriving and wealthy polis of warriors, known throughout the lands as The Amazons...
This is their beginning.
The Last Carriage
The Comptroller disregards inter-galactic statutes which forbid experimentation on inferior life-forms.
He wants to study humans and he's selected the last carriage on a train filled with school kids.
He only needs four subjects, but he doesn't realize he's picked the wrong four kids until the experiment spirals out of control.
A ghost story
Fifteen-year-old Jack’s twin is murdered, and he is forced to move to a new state.
Isolated and alone, Jack is finding it increasingly difficult to hold it all together until he meets William in the old shed in the backyard.
Jack knows he should tell his parents, but they won’t believe him. They didn’t last time, and they might even start shoving those little brown pills down his throat again.
Besides, somebody or something is better than being alone.
Spending every spare second in the shed, Jack couldn’t be happier. It’s almost like having his twin back.
Then Jack meets Sydney, a girl at school, but William is furious and reveals his all-consuming jealousy.
Frightened, Jack tries to separate William from the rest of his life, but William isn't going to give Jack up - ever.
We Were Liars meets Inception in this taut psychological thriller that keeps the reader thinking long after the final page.