Lee Barwood

Klassic Koalas: A Summer Party in Koalaland
Back in the Long-Ago, a gentle period long after the Dreamtime yet before the modern world, there was a place known as Koalaland. It was a peaceful place, Koalaland, tucked away between the Outback and the Never-Never, safe and quiet, as befits a region in which the sleepy koala drowses and wakes occasionally to feast on gum leaves and remember the grand old days. One wonderful summer day, however, everyone was excited. A baby koala—a joey—had come out of his mother's pouch for the first time, and everyone was in the mood for a celebration to mark the occasion.

Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings
The Dreamtime, Australia's time before time, is when animals, birds, and plants came into being and took their current forms. It is a sacred time to the Aboriginal people, and their stories, handed down for ages, reflect their views on everything from drought and flood to magic and survival.

The ancient wisdom of native Australians offers explanations for all the natural phenomena they lived with before the coming of the British to the continent, and these glimpses into eight of these tales display an understanding of the natural world that is lacking in today’s hectic pace. Most of the stories focus on the koala, probably Australia’s most famous marsupial and the embodiment of gentle good nature. The koala, though, occupies a powerful place in Australian Aboriginal lore that most readers will find surprising, given its gentle and tranquil nature.

In these retellings of eight stories, Lee Barwood has invoked the magic of the koala to introduce modern readers young and old to the Time of Dreaming.

In this time, with Australia and its creatures under threat from habitat destruction, global warming, and the incursions of non-native predators, this book has a two-fold purpose. The first is to offer readers of all ages a glimpse into a time that, according to legend, was the most powerful of times. The second is to help to preserve the unique creatures of Australia. Each copy of this book contributes to the Australian Wildlife Hospital, a major project of Wildlife Warriors International; Lee has donated all her royalties from the project to help koalas.

The accompanying illustrations are by Joanne Ehrich and artists of the Central Ohio Art Academy, directed by Donna Boiman.

A Dream of Drowned Hollow
Now out from Double Dragon Publishing as an e-book and a large-print paperback, ecological fantasy novel A Dream of Drowned Hollow won Andre Norton's Gryphon Award for best unpublished fantasy novel by a woman writer.

What happens when the true cost of a developer's desperation to bring jobs to his home state is the destruction of the land and the waters?

April Rue Stoner has a gift: she can see into the past and the future, and she can photograph what she sees so that others can see it, too.

Learning to live with a talent like that can be terrifying. Learning to use it to protect her friends and the countryside she loves can be even more terrifying, as she comes up against a ruthless, powerful man who wants to turn her part of the Ozarks into his own private dream of success.

Can she trust Owen Ferris, who works for her foe, to help her? Once he realizes what Trevor Dalton intends, and indeed has already done, Ferris is only too eager to help the Ozarks girl with the strange and frightening gift. But will she have him as an ally -- or, perhaps, even more?

The Siege for Westmarch
Volume I of The Ribbons of Power, The Siege for Westmarch tells the story of Ranulf and Rija, prince and princess of two different countries, whose love must be put aside as they ascend to rule in two different parts of the world.

As first one and then the other is swept up into the horrors of war, the only thing that keeps them going is the memory of the love they shared. Magic and power work for good and for evil as the two try desperately to save their homelands and their people from ruthless tyrants.

This novel won Honor Book Award in Andre Norton's Gryphon Award competition.

The Rise of Champions
Ranulf and Rija are separated by a gulf wider than war. Both their kingdoms are riven by war, and Ranulf, wounded in battle, has recovered all but his memory. Yet the sweetness of love that he shared with Rija, the ribbon-maid, drives him to find her.

Rija, now the queen of her homeland Carolija and fighting desperately to prevent its destruction by sorcery, must also fight to save Ranulf's kingdom if they are not all to perish at the hands of her enemy.

And Tegan, Ranulf's young queen, forgotten by her husband in the wake of his injury, battles desperately to keep Ranulf's brother Ulric from seizing the throne -- and then losing it to an enemy she only knows in nightmares: Rija's foe, the sorcerer Vjestac.