Taming Death (currently unpublished)
When soldiers from a faraway city ambush fifteen-year-old Livia, a deadly power awakens inside her, killing everything around her—nine soldiers, the wolves who came to defend her, even the grass and trees. As a naturally gifted healer who has always shared a strange bond with animals and has a heart as big as the sky, this new power terrifies her. In hopes of learning to control her strange power from the only other person who shares it—the infamously cruel and immortal President Grimmer—Livia abandons her family and follows a young soldier across the continent.
Taming Death is set in a post-apocalyptic North America where natural disasters are commonplace and some people are gifted with the ability to tame the forces of nature. An Austin fantasy and science fiction critique group, the Slug Tribe, critiqued it chapter by chapter. Five beta readers ages thirteen-fourteen (and one eleven year old who reads up) also provided feedback. It is a standalone YA fantasy novel, but is also the first volume of a planned five-book series.