Drowned Earth Series

Debbie is on board the Spirit of Tasmania with her family, returning to Melbourne after spending the holidays in Australia's southernmost state. Feeling seasick, she steps out onto a balcony for some fresh air when a stranger tells her to look at the sky. Mesmerised, Debbie witnesses strange lights zipping across the night sky like shards of silver. But Debbie soon realises that seasickness is the least of her worries when the meteor shower takes a deadly turn. Will Debbie survive the night? What about the rest of the world? Shards of Silver is a short story prequel to Drowned Earth, a series of novellas written by Australian authors and set in a watery apocalypse.

Six years after the Rise, Australia's coastal towns are gone, lost under the ocean's unstoppable advance. The survivors have retreated to a series of newly formed islands off the coast of New South Wales, seeking to rebuild their lives with limited resources, destructive weather, and fierce competition amongst communities. And not all are successful . . . Baz is a fresh water merchant, desalinating saltwater and bartering this valuable commodity throughout the struggling island communities. But his real mission is something closer to his heart, the one thing that has plagued him since the catastrophic rise in water levels: he must find his daughter and grandchildren. While the rest of the country fights to stay alive, all Baz cares about is reuniting with the only family he has left. His greatest fear is that he's already too late.

Six months ago... A tsunami devastated Melbourne, submerging the central business district and dividing the city in two. The mainland is now under martial law, controlled by General Messinger who believes the rise was god's retribution against a sinful world. David escaped Messinger's persecution and the violence of the mainland by fleeing to the remains of the city skyscrapers. Life in the flooded city is tough, resources are scarce, and the raids by the defence force keep everyone on edge. But David is determined to survive, protecting the one thing the rise hasn't taken from him—his adopted son, Salim. When Salim goes missing, taken during one of Messinger's raids, David is desperate to get him back—even if that means facing the wrath of Messinger and the Australian Defence Force. But he won't be fighting alone.

Maria may have survived the initial Rise, but the survivor encampment where she lives is now in the grip of famine. The crops are failing. Food stores are running low. Tensions are at an all-time high. Until one day when Maria discovers a dying man while out fishing. Upon regaining consciousness he tells her of an enormous floating 'lotus city', with enough food to feed the survivors many times over... except this city is reserved for the wealthy and powerful alone. Determined to right this terrible injustice, Maria forges an alliance with the other survivor communities, to take from the wealthy elite what they hoarded for themselves. The tides of war are rising, and the lotus cities will know the vengeance of all those left behind.

With nothing but a map and a rickety solar truck, Jax journeys to a top-secret government facility at Lake Jindabyne—one of the few freshwater lakes left in Australia. Outraged by the injustice of these people having excess water while his family suffers from dehydration, Jax hatches a plan. At first he starts small—stealing just enough water to ease the parched tongues back home—but with each trip the risks he takes become greater. It is only a matter of time before he gets caught.  And the penalty for hydro-theft is death.

500 years after the Rise... The last remaining humans have become numans, dangerously enslaved by a virtual world called the BigDry. Wall Manager Macie is an 'incompatible,' unable to assimilate with numan technology due to a disability. As a lowly human, her job is to patch the cracks in the wall that encircles DarwinTwo, protecting the city from the encroaching sea water. When numans embark on a dangerous step which will change mankind forever, Macie's job becomes obsolete. There is no room in DarwinTwo for those who don't fit in. But perhaps that's exactly what numanity needs.

A mechanic who can save the world. A mercenary who should hide from it. Just another day living the dream in post-Rise Australia. Rosa lives in one of the last idyllic settlements since the Rise. Unlike those in other communities, she has grown up with access to ample food, fresh water, and safety—but the community's secretive nature, and the fact they do not offer help to outsiders,  troubles her. So when Rosa finds a map that could lead to a fortune in fresh water—a scarce commodity—she embarks on a plan to make a real difference to the world. The only problem? There's an apocalyptic wasteland between her and possible salvation. Rosa has a map, a mercenary, and a hope to salvage the future.

Katie James' life is about to change . . . again. Having survived The Great Rise which decimated the land, the former medical student has made a new life for herself under the leadership of the Authority. But her peaceful existence on the edge of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland is shattered when she discovers a body floating in the waves. Unsure who she can trust, Katie embarks on a mission to discover the truth… even if it puts her on the same kill list.

Life is easy for Cassie… Born in the post-rise utopia of New Melbourne, she has everything she needs, but lacks the one thing she wants—attention from her parents. Cassie is too young and sheltered to truly understand the hardship faced by humankind during the greatest disaster on earth. The horrors of the past are of no concern to her… Until an impulsive decision to go diving during a storm leads her far away from the comforts of New Melbourne. Cassie soon discovers that not everybody lives the same way she does. With her life in danger, the horrors of the past become the horrors of today. Will Cassie salvage the wreck of her life?