Violent Ends      by Sally-An Hodgekiss

Genre – Dystopian Fiction

It’s five years after the end of a crippling war that lasted over half a century. The survivors are getting on with their lives, but not Lilly. A victim of a bombing raid that destroyed her home, her family and left her in a coma, Lilly’s has no wartime memories. Surrounded by the damaged remains of a city and it’s people, she feels lost. As others rebuild, she tries to grasp what she missed, but no one is willing to share their horrors and without that knowledge Lilly finds it hard to get close to people. Her best friend is determined to protect her from the terrors that he suffered, but she is haunted by the feeling that, despite the calm, something is terribly wrong. When a series of events leads to her near death, Lilly’s hidden past takes over and her life is turned upside down. Lilly is now Nina, a soldier with no clear enemy. Is it her friend who lied to her all these years? Is it the people who stole her life and turned her into a killer, or was her gut right all along and is the peace that everyone is enjoying a lie?

The Chronicles of Aylin     by Sally-Ann Hodgekiss

Genre – Fantasy

Barely a woman, I reluctantly shoulder the uncertain future of kingdoms, realms and worlds, but it was as a child I first called the darkness down upon us. Not a rogue shaped by dogged purpose or twisted logic, for such common forms of villainy, though frightening, pass with the memory of their deeds. What this day called was smoke and secrets, shadow spun from lies as pervasive as the confused winds that bore them, a fate veiled in night’s skies, and scratched into the very earth, patiently awaiting a child shaped catalyst to set it aflame.

And all it took was one innocuous act of rebellion…