Sixteen-year-old Margot never expected to walk through the gates of the elite Sir Isaac Newton Academy for Mages, let alone sneak onto campus zipped inside a duffel bag. But when her oh-so-special golden boy brother, Brendan, vanishes in his third year at the Academy, Margot has no one left—that she can tolerate, at least. And when the Academy refuses to investigate Brendan’s disappearance and rejects Margot’s own application for admission, she has no choice but to cast aside her couch-potato ways and put her armchair detective skills to the test.

There's just one little problem: she doesn't have a single drop of magic.

Spying from air ducts and attics, Margot scours the school for Brendan with help from a hidden cohort of other non-magical students, all while dodging the Eyes—clairvoyant enforcers who weed out insurgents. One misstep will land her in a Spirit Lab for reprogramming wayward citizens, and Brendan will be lost forever. But when even more students vanish without explanation—including the non-magical students who, shockingly, might even be her friends—Margot descends into the depths of the Academy and uncovers a decades-old conspiracy that the school will do anything to conceal. And to save her brother, Margot must reckon with her lack of magic and outwit a system that preys on the weak to feed the powerful.

NOT A WITCH is a 94,000 word young adult fantasy with dark academia and dystopian elements. Merging the enigmatic magic academy found in Lovely, Dark, and Deep (Elissa A. Bonnin), the darker atmosphere of Unhallowed Halls (Lili Wilkinson), and the prickly heroine and dystopian elements of the Scholomance series (Naomi Novik), NOT A WITCH features a twist on the genre by following a non-magical student who navigates the complexities of a magical world. It is a standalone novel with series potential.

Thirteen-year-old Clare Lane is definitely not running away. That would be pathetic. Sure, her mother has forgotten she exists. And, okay, her parents are forcing her to move to a new town in order to get more “square footage” and “space” (which obviously means more space away from her). And, fine, yes, Clare just had a panic attack while dealing with all this. The truth is that she’s only hiding in a nearby park to get a moment to herself. Right?

But when her little brother, Timothy, accidentally transports them into a magical new world, Clare has more time than she bargained for to figure out why she left and what she’s left behind.

In Clendor (~60,000 words), my upper-middle grade adventure/fantasy novel with a comedic edge, Clare and Timothy discover a chaotic, adult-free paradise deep in an overgrown rainforest where kids have the chance to reinvent themselves away from their struggles at home. In this village, peculiar things happen to the kids, like growing a tail or developing healing powers. The longer kids stay there, the stronger these powers become, and the less likely they are to leave. In fact, no one knows of any kid who has actually returned to the real world.

This paradise becomes threatened when the river that feeds the rainforest runs dry. Remembering legends of two rival queens who control the earth and water, Clare and Timothy embark on a quest to save the village, hoping they’re not just chasing a fairytale. On the way, they barter with talking messenger pigeons, team up with an excavator-driving girl who loves calling them idiots, and escape from subterranean tunnels where kids lose their names and free will. In the meantime, with Timothy low on his life-saving asthma medication, Clare realizes two things on this journey: she has to find a way home, and she doesn’t actually want to leave.

Merging the friendships that blossom while saving the world seen in Impossible Creatures with Greenwild’s mother/daughter dynamics and parallel realms, Clendor features a cast of messy, lovable characters seen through the eyes of a burdened, anxious middle schooler.

When twelve-year-old Hannah moves to a new planet to hide with her family in a witness protection program, she must figure out how to pass as an alien…or risk being eaten by one.