It's tough enough being a teenager, let alone a teenager who can't see very well - but it's even worse to discover that it's your destiny to fight wizards and a dragon!

Firedrake is a young adult novel for ages 9 up to adult. The Firedrake is not a real dragon, but a magical construct made by the Arkanan wizards to prolong their lives and their rule. There is a prophecy that the Firedrake will be destroyed by three people, a blind woman, a madman, and a wizard. Shan, who was taken from her parents at 7 and forced into military training, can't see well and is bullied by the other kids. Shan teams up with two companions, Deakin the madman (a charismatic but unpredictable warrior) and Fletcher the wizard (who is talented but untrained) to destroy the Firedrake and free the Perin people.

Firedrake was published by Thistledown Press in Saskatchewan in 2002. You can get a copy at your local bookstore or order online from amazon.com or amazon.ca.

Firedrake won a Canadian Children's Book Centre "Our Choice" award and was nominated for the 2004 Snow Willow Young Readers Choice Award. It was on the curriculum for a course in "Politics in Fantasy" taught at the University of the Fraser Valley.