Vicki Wootton

Celeste Colbert is thirteen at the time of the first outbreak, living with her family in Vancouver. She experiences the loss of family members and friends, schools closing and orderly life in the city descending into anarchy. With a close-knit group of family and friends, Celeste leaves the city for a remote village in the hope they will be safe there to continue their struggle for survival. Imagine a world without electricity, transportation, supermarkets, telephones or any of the other amenities we are accustomed to in the early twenty-first century. After the world-wide epidemics of 2025 and 2026, this is what life is like in the Pacific northwest. There are no hospitals, governments or emergency services of any kind. Civilization has broken down and the survivors are on their own. The story follows Celeste through thirteen years, as she grows to maturity in a much different world.Suitable for readers of any age.

In the 2020s the female birthrate starts to decline. By 2059 only one newborn in twenty is female. This drop in the number of females in the population causes serious social upheavals: changes in sexual mores. The lives of both men and women, occupations, marriage traditions, commerce, and crime have changed radically.

When her grandmother dies suddenly, Aisling's life is turned upside down. The fifteen-year-old girl doesn't know how she is going to keep the smallholding going. She is now alone in the world with no family she can turn to for help. For the past two days, she senses someone loitering around the cottage, but she never actually sees anyone until the day of the old woman's passing when a stranger appears at the door. The stranger, and a female companion who turns up later, reveal they are Elves and convince her that she is an Elf too, and that they have been sent by her birth parents to bring her home. Once she is convinced, she agrees to go with them and they embark on the journey to the realm of Light, but on the way disaster strikes. ... The first thing Aisling is aware of is the awful smell. It is like a combination of rotting meat and the horrible stinkweed that grows near the cottage. The air is musty and the rock wall is damp under her back. When she tries to move her foot, an excruciating pain shoots up her leg... Suitable for young readers and adults of any age.

Felindra, the Whisperer, and her companions have escaped from slavery in the kingdom of Basrind. They must now find a way to return to their homeland, Albasiny, but it is almost hallway around the world. Unable to find a suitable passage from a nearby port, they are forced to try a port on the north coast of the continent, but it is a long journey, filled with hazards. Winter is coming and, once they leave the southeastern desert, much of their journey is through mountainous terrain. Their friend, Tirzah Lin, a powerful wizard and, like them, a former slave, offers to lead them to his homeland, Eleria, and thence to a northern port of the continent. The journey would have been enjoyable-the ever-changing landscape, the different peoples and cultures, fascinating animals, but even their magic powers can't prevent them from running into dangerous situations, and life-threatening incidents.