current work
MG Fantasy
Book One of the Shadow Trilogy
A cross between fantasy quest and climate change allegory. You will meet two brothers who struggle to understand why they have been brought to a world they are destined to profoundly affect.
THE OTHER SHADOW depicts a world where no one realizes the extent to which the environmental degradation all around them is connected, and the experience of a young boy as he must account for the effects of his own actions.
Readers who enjoyed The Hand of the Sun King by JT Greathouse, will appreciate Jodie and Martin’s struggle to reconcile two parallel worlds. Those who liked Gallant by V.E. Schwab will find a main character involved in similar soul-searching. Included are 24 illustrations by the author.
The Schaedsgrund
A symbiotic mirror world. A person’s ‘other shadow’ is bonded to them for life. In the Schaedsgrund, it is a life companion. In our world, it is an unseen force that provides a person with insights and imagination, courage and inspiration. It is only seen by its ‘master’ when something is gravely amiss. Such a fate befalls the main protagonist.
The ILLUSTRATIONS
Why illustrate?
Sometimes writers who draw and paint cannot get along in the story-writing process without seeing a visual representation of what they are doing. The big question then becomes whether to share the illustrations. For some, this is over-defining the characterizations. For others, it’s a delightful excursion, taking readers further into the mind of the author and the world they have created. I have no intention of robbing my readers of their right to picture my story any way they want. Rather, I want to offer a selection of my illustrations in the spirit of that excursion. Call them a scrapbook of the places where I have been.
First page
THE OTHER SHADOW Chapter One: The Intruder It was the first night Jodie Swindon had ever spent in a hospital, and he was afraid to fall asleep. They would not tell him what he had, but he overheard ‘seizure’, what they called this jangling, bewildering storm that had put him on the ground. Jodie knew the meaning of this word, and this could not be happening to him at a worse time. Tomorrow was the big day. His family was moving because his father was leaving them. Jodie wanted to cry again, and why shouldn’t he? He feared all of it. Instead, the anger rose. If he had been at home, he would have broken something, a glass, or the mouse to his computer; he needed that flash of violence. Blinking the tears away, Jodie thought he saw something moving in the dark. It flitted by like a moth or an oversized winged insect. Insects, especially the flying variety, were abhorrent to him. Unless he was asleep and dreaming, something was running across the wall, a dark shape scampering like a mouse on all fours. But it was not a mouse. It was the silhouette of a person. He sat straight up in bed.