"Sometimes it’s harder to kill than pod might think. I crouch in the dark, stare into the manimal’s shining eyes. It blinks right at me. It shakes in fear. Its thrumping furred chest quickens my own pulse. It licks its full lips and I feel the send. Or do I? It’s not Loo and it’s blaaty not me. The thing wave-sends a sonic roll of pure emo: terror, disbelief, and a wee glimmer of hope. That’s when I like completely lose it. I drop my crossbow and the filthy, stinking thing scampers into the darkest corner of the cave."

Big Big Sky

2008, Red Deer Press
ISBN 978-0-88995-404-5 

Rustle is a young Scout in an elite, tight-knit Warrior group of five female mutants. They’ve been modified and trained to be ruthless, obedient Assassins —though for what exact purpose they couldn’t tell you. Now the group is falling apart. Roku mysteriously disappears. Rustle has failed to prove her killing skills in a crucial test of courage and is hiding a terrible secret from the others. Loo, a blood thirsty Hunter who is always ready for action, is Rustle’s private yen. Solomon, the Healer of their unit, is a steady hand, but not even her powers can save them. Not when Shona, the Leader, is a pawn for the autocratic powers that be. Not when they discover they’re breaking the original commandment: until she may Decline, Deform, Disobey.

So when their unit is transported to Living Lab on an extermination order, they know it’s time to make a run for it, or else be permanently Deplugged. It takes tremendous wit and energy, but eventually they escape to the outside of the great mountain where they’ve been raised —and here, for the first time, they behold the big, big sky of the real world. In this totally unfamiliar environment, they must learn to survive, and Rustle must face the reality of her true identity and the consequences of her love for Loo.

[Reviews][Order your copy online] or buy at any fine bookstore.

2009 Rainbow List Nominee
On Resource Link’s ‘Best of 2008’ List

Mosh Pit

2004, Red Deer Press
ISBN 0-88995-292-2

A raw look at punk, young love and the sometimes cloudy road to adulthood. Mosh Pit, a compelling story of rebel girls in the modern city, stars Simone—torn between her loyalty to her rebellious heart-throb Cherry and her feelings for Carol, streetwise and distant enough to be alluring.

This edgy young adult novel takes Simone through the modern equivalent of Hades—where drugs, drink and sexual ambiguity make for uncertain footing, physically, morally and emotionally. It’s a dark world where Simone gradually gains a sense of who she is and, more importantly, who she can be. [reviews] [Order your copy online]

Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year Nomination
Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice selection, 2005

Missing Matthew

2003, Red Deer Press
ISBN 0-88-995-278-7

Matthew Stein is a recent arrival in a small town. Nobody really cares where he came from or even that he's showed up, except maybe Winifred (Freddie) Zoron, who's in Matthew's class and who also happens to belong to the Rebel Rescue Squad. When Matthew doesn't make it home after school one day, the evening news reports that he's been kidnapped. What could have happened? Where could he have gone?
It takes the initiative of the Rebel Rescue Squad to really get the search underway. Weasel, the squad's fearless leader as well as Freddie's best friend, soon discovers that most of the assumptions about the boy's disappearance are wrong. The rescuers have to deal with a far more challenging mystery than expected—a mystery that lies at the center of the adult relationships in the town.
Missing Matthew is by turns hilarious, thoughtful, poignant and ultimately wise about the ways in which kids relate to one another and to the adults in their lives. [reviews] [Order your copy online]

Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Starred Selection (2004)