More than 60 million people are currently fleeing conflict or persecution around the world. Due to their race, religion or nationality, these people's homes are no longer safe places to live and their governments no longer provide them with protection. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works around the world to provide refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) with everything they need from psychological care to lifesaving nutrition. We set up hospitals in refugee camps, we help women give birth safely, we vaccinate children to prevent epidemics and we provide access to safe drinking water. Here, some of our teams share their stories.

Follow Penny, Ryan and Giles for their senior year. Penny is an exchange student running from her past. Ryan is the king jock, looking for something more in life. Giles is the wholesome boy next door. When Penny steps into the lives of the two boys, everything changes as their pasts collide, secrets are revealed, and bitter truths are faced. All Penny's perspective uses Australian spelling. The boys use American spelling. I thought it would make it a little more authentic! Note: All biblical quotes come from the King James version of the bible. All thoughts are my own.

Long, long ago Avalbane was created as a safe haven for all the magical beings when the people of the Ordinary World stopped believing in them. Now, the wicked Queen of the Faeries wants to rule Avalbane and there is only way to keep her from it. Elys a'Tathar, presumed heiress to the Oracle, must find the true heir to the Oracle and convince him to come out of the Ordinary World and into the Magical One. Together, perhaps they will be able to form an alliance of Elves and Faeries of Light to defeat the Faery Queen before Avalbane sinks forever under a dark cloud of evil.

Life in the Empire is often filled with pain, and Sergeant Karsten Ritter's is no exception. His wife was convicted of treason against the Kaiser, and executed by being forced to jump from the floating city of Brandstadt into the Umber. Between his mere association with a traitor and his newfound apathy stemming from depression, Karsten's infractions have gotten him demoted in the ranks until his career hangs by a thread. Just as he is ready to turn his life around, Karsten is wrongfully implicated in the murder of a fellow officer and sentenced to death. He is to jump or be pushed off the Totenfall-"dead drop" in the old language-where he will fall over a kilometer, through the Umber, to the earth below. At least he would finally be with his departed wife, Veronica. After the execution goes horribly wrong, Karsten finds the spark to stand up to the Empire, which leads to his discovery that everything he thought he knew about the post-catastrophic world is a lie. Under Umber Seas is a sci-fantasy adventure with elements of romance and steampunk. The current manuscript is about 73,000 words. Included here is the first seven chapters, with a preview of the eighth.

Mariposa Flores desperately wants two things--to be a landscaper and to be reunited with her boyfriend. Too bad her parents have a problem with both. Being immigrants, they have sacrificed everything so that Mara can get a college education and pursue a professional career. Even though their landscape business has provided a good living, they don't want that for their daughter. Mara, however, is never happier than when she is outside creating beauty in nature. She has grand plans to take her father's business to a higher level, and she would be happy to go to college for landscape design if they would only let her. Sparks fly when her father insists she take an office job for the summer and banishes her from all things related to gardening. Thank heavens she has Chad to console her. But her parents’ opinion of Chad is not a good one either. In fact, they were happy when Chad moved away. Even so, Mara is sure their love can survive until they're back together again. That is, she's sure until she runs into--literally--a boy with silver eyes who seems strangely familiar. But Oliver can't be someone she knows because he's not from her town. Or even from her time. And what he needs most of all to get back home is a garden. Mara will risk everything to help Oliver get home. And in doing so, she just might find out what home means to her.

Daughter4254 used to think life in a community where art, music and names are outlawed would suffocate her creative spirit. Now that she’s rotting in a prison cell, she’s not sure her dying mother made the right choice when she entrusted her with the secrets of rebellion. Prison has given her plenty of time to relive every mistake and lose all hope. Her next stop is the MindWipe. Then she meets Thomas, a fellow inmate, who tells her stories of the mythical mountain colonies where people have names and the arts thrive. Together they plot an escape, knowing if they fail, they will die. Or worse, their consciousness will be taken by the MindWipe, leaving their bodies free for the government to use. When nothing goes as planned, Daughter4254 must choose between using her mother's secret to better the world she hates, or following Thomas to the quiet life of freedom she has always craved.