Danny Hanuman and the quest for the ancient Sea Kings

Jacket design and illustration for the Young Adult Novel: Danny Hanuman and the quest for the ancient Sea Kings

From the back of the book:

THE RAMA TRILOGY – BOOK ONE
Danny Hanuman and the Quest for the Ancient Sea-kings

As yet another archaeologist mysteriously disappears, teen Danny Hanuman and his friends find themselves caught up in a worldwide plot to destroy the evidence of the ancient Sea Kings.

With the evil General Maricha stalking their every move, Rama must urgently complete Danny’s Kalari warrior training for his own protection. The only problem is - Danny’s a pacifist.

Will the dusty old museum Exhibit 108, really turn out to be the Great Bow of Shiva, with its legendary powers? Could the beautiful Sita hold the key?

Danny must enlist the aid of his fellow students, and master the secret code of the Kalari Knight warriors before the Dark Lord’s power further increases.

Failure means death and destruction for all life as we know it ...

Heartbeat of the Marru by Calli Mulligan

Jacket design and illustration for the Young Adult Novel: Heartbeat of the Marru

From the back of the book:

Abby, Seth, and Frances are teenagers bound by a shared tragedy—a deadly act of environmental protest in their coastal community of Scallop Bay. All three are searching for resolution to their grief. Eighteen months after the bombing that claimed her parents, her grandmother, and her sight, Abby is still haunted by feelings of responsibility for the deaths in her family, while Seth and his sister Frances, after losing their father, are forced to live with their disturbed, narcissistic mother Claudia. While Frances has always been determined to maintain a psychological boundary with Claudia, Seth cannot relinquish his deep longing to be loved by his mother. Introverted, sensitive, and artistically gifted, Seth carries the somatic and psychic scars of his premature birth and has great difficulty negotiating social relationships. Although he possesses a powerful connection to the inner life, he cannot see that his debilitating physical symptoms are emanations of a deep resentment he feels toward his mother.

One morning in early summer, Abby makes an astonishing discovery on the beach—a giant Wandering Albatross has come ashore. How did this Antarctic bird that depends upon strong wind for flight cross the windless equatorial doldrums into the north Pacific? What is the mysterious rock, pulsing with the mysterious heartbeat, that accompanies the bird?

Over the course of the summer, Abby, Seth, and Frances are drawn into dreamtime visitations with Haumanu the philosophical albatross, Ushesh the extinct short-faced megafauna bear, Poox the Great Auk, Tangakka the extinct Australian python and gatekeeper in the dreamtime, and many more. The friends discover the existence of four magical rocks which are able to traverse the boundary between earthly life and the unconscious dreamtime, and learn of the unprecedented theft of one of the rocks. In their quest to recover the rock, Abby, Seth, and Frances learn the story behind the terrorist act that killed their family members.

Using a wide cast of colorful animal and human characters, original animal mythologies, and dream visions, Heartbeat of the Marru is a story of young people struggling to create hope and myth amidst Earth’s accelerating ecological crisis, a story of the healing magic that can come to us when we welcome the unconscious mysteries of Nature into our lives.

Heartbeat of the Marru by Calli Mulligan - detail of background image

Jacket design and illustration for the Young Adult Novel: Heartbeat of the Marru

From the back of the book:

Abby, Seth, and Frances are teenagers bound by a shared tragedy—a deadly act of environmental protest in their coastal community of Scallop Bay. All three are searching for resolution to their grief. Eighteen months after the bombing that claimed her parents, her grandmother, and her sight, Abby is still haunted by feelings of responsibility for the deaths in her family, while Seth and his sister Frances, after losing their father, are forced to live with their disturbed, narcissistic mother Claudia. While Frances has always been determined to maintain a psychological boundary with Claudia, Seth cannot relinquish his deep longing to be loved by his mother. Introverted, sensitive, and artistically gifted, Seth carries the somatic and psychic scars of his premature birth and has great difficulty negotiating social relationships. Although he possesses a powerful connection to the inner life, he cannot see that his debilitating physical symptoms are emanations of a deep resentment he feels toward his mother.

One morning in early summer, Abby makes an astonishing discovery on the beach—a giant Wandering Albatross has come ashore. How did this Antarctic bird that depends upon strong wind for flight cross the windless equatorial doldrums into the north Pacific? What is the mysterious rock, pulsing with the mysterious heartbeat, that accompanies the bird?

Over the course of the summer, Abby, Seth, and Frances are drawn into dreamtime visitations with Haumanu the philosophical albatross, Ushesh the extinct short-faced megafauna bear, Poox the Great Auk, Tangakka the extinct Australian python and gatekeeper in the dreamtime, and many more. The friends discover the existence of four magical rocks which are able to traverse the boundary between earthly life and the unconscious dreamtime, and learn of the unprecedented theft of one of the rocks. In their quest to recover the rock, Abby, Seth, and Frances learn the story behind the terrorist act that killed their family members.

Using a wide cast of colorful animal and human characters, original animal mythologies, and dream visions, Heartbeat of the Marru is a story of young people struggling to create hope and myth amidst Earth’s accelerating ecological crisis, a story of the healing magic that can come to us when we welcome the unconscious mysteries of Nature into our lives.

Life (Autosaved) by Wynter Brown

Jacket design and illustration for the Young Adult Novel: Life (Autosaved)

From the back of the book:

The path to destiny often starts with a step in the wrong direction...

In the idyllic town of Willard, Virginia lives Ian, a boy with scarlet eyes. Even with this unusual abnormality, Ian lives a fairly average life alongside his best friends, Spencer and Stephanie. His three previous adopted families had fallen to mysterious fates—used to impermanence, Ian feels that he will be doomed to the same outcome.

A mysterious man comes to town looking for Ian; accompanying his devilish looks comes a fiendish plan for the boy. A strange girl with wild eyes swoops into their lives. Odd black-clad agents make their home in the small town.These three best friends will forever be tarnished by this season of change, the people all around him will bear the curse the boy with the scarlet eyes brings.

The world all around the friends will shift wildly, things first thought as fantasy will break through the doldrums of everyday high school life. Dark forces conspire against the human world looking to claim the countless souls, but one in particular is prized above all.

Savage Wild by Hope Gordon

Jacket design and illustration for the Young Adult Fantasy Novel: Savage Wild

From the back of the book:

Badger and his friends like to cause a little mischief in the peaceful Valley town of Pantmawr, until the day they take it too far. After stealing and eating a mysterious fruit from the marketplace, Badger is forever altered, and must embark on a journey to learn what has happened to him. He and his band of friends will travel north to the dangerous Savage Wilds, where they will learn much more than they bargained for.

Elentari, a cosmic fairytale by Melanie Gillespie

Jacket design and illustration for the Upper Middle Grade / Young Adult Novel: Elentari, a cosmic fairytale

From the back of the book:

A fairy tale for all ages of the birth of a new world... or the destruction of all of creation...

An 11 year old girl is whisked from her home by a mysterious stranger with whom she feels safer and more at home than she ever has…

At her new home, she will begin to study the magics of the Seven Arts and discover she may be the girl in an ancient prophecy about how to remove fear from all of creation… but some believe this would destroy all of creation...

A young boy has been drawing a graphic novel about a girl and a dragon based on visions he cannot ignore…

A talking cat who may be something other than a cat entirely…

The House on The Pumpkin Farm by Sarah Shadi

Jacket design and illustration for the Upper Middle Grade Novel: The House on The Pumpkin Farm

This jacket won the Readers Favorite Best Book Cover illustration for 2023

From the back of the book:

Lily had no idea what awaited her when she visited her two second cousins at their farm for Halloween!

Having not been invited to her classmate Alice’s Halloween party, all she wanted was to have a fun and spooky Halloween.

To her surprise, she discovers the farm to be magical, opening the door to an exciting adventure, but before long, things start to get out of hand and her path is laid with traps.

On her adventure, she encounters a host of characters human and magical, friend and foe, good and evil.

Join Lily in her adventure on the magical pumpkin farm which puts to test courage, kindness, patience, friendship and love.

Will Lily pass these tests to find her way back home?

Jacket design and illustration for Book 1, Oddities at the Outset, in The Five Quarters series.

Jacket design and illustration for Book 1 in The Five Quarters series.

From the back of the book:

Anointing Day is here!

The Regal has spared no expense or effort to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

Famous last words.

In an act of derring-do, a Man Wearing Black swoops in on the back of a dragon and steals The Box of Antiquities before the very eyes of The Regal, The Vice Regals, and all the gathered citizens of The Five Quarters. Without it and the symbols of The Five Quarters that it contains, there can be no Anointing.

Now it’s up to Chase Fontaine – an Elite boy in search of glory – and Rose CCXIX – a foundling trapeze artist who needs the reward money to keep her Circus alive – to find and bring back The Box of Antiquities.

Well, them and the other three cutthroat (and grownup!) teams granted Temporary Treasure Hunting Licenses.

The race is on…