four quirky best friend + three seemingly useless (but cute) boys + the most popular guy in school turned zombie + a stoner found hiding in a cupboard = a surprisingly efficient rat-tag group of zombie slayers on their way up the east coast of australia to their safe haven. Some of them may have biceps for brains, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. BEWARE: excessive amounts of pop culture references, bad jokes and zombie guts ahead. (PLEASE NOTE: I wrote this from 2014-2016 when I was 14-16, it has never been edited and was written on a whim with no planning. I hope it's still enjoyable but be mindful it is an old book!) #Wattys2016 [action #25]

Life for Rose is a game. A deadly game. She lives in the squalor of Subterran Prime: a sprawling underground world where mad gods sleep around the fools who serve them; where the savage Justicars seek out criminals and undesirables for swift justice at the end of their bronze beaks; where hapless slaves are branded with the mark of the cypher and fed to the starving masses or the gluttenous ruling class. In this world Rose has two things: her intersex lover, Jay Chimera, and her imagination. Geared with both, she hurtles through dreamworlds and virtual realities, until she discovers the ultimate gift: a drug, the Haze, that makes her dreams reality. But in order to get the Haze she must put herself in the way of the Justicars and face their terrible thirst for punishment. Can Rose and Jay play the game and reach the next level in their quest for escape, or will they lose everything? This is a self-contained novelette that serves as a taster of my current work-in-progress, the full-length novel Troglodyte Rose. This is loosely adapted from a novella published in 2009 by Cadaverine Publications, which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. The interactive website that accompanies this story is available at troglodyterose.com. Artwork by Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon. Interactive website designed by Michael Bryant.

A coming-of-age story about a snake girl called Kay and her shape-shifting friend who accidentally uncover a conspiracy and wind up changing the world. ***** Kay is a sarcastic, ordinary high school girl who enjoys her weekends and doesn't think much about anything. Kay is also a green-skinned, reptilian-human variant. In her world, all children born on any given day look the same, all over the world. Nobody knows why. There are extreme mutations: tentacles, wings, fur, horns, and abilities to leap tall buildings or breathe fire. That's just how it's always been and Kay thinks nothing of it, until she meets Cal: a shape-shifter who is on the run and needs her help to uncover what's really going on. Wattys 2016 winner: Trailblazers category "This book is Jumper. . meets terminator... meets...twilight zone." shadowgirlzzz Content warning: This story includes themes of bullying and prejudice.