Barbara Dean – författare

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, billions of people began to suffer from a strange illness. Many died, but those who survived found themselves transformed, capable of surviving underwater for long periods of time. This new strain of humanity was called the Otom. When a global disaster threatened to wipe out mankind, the Otom fled beneath the oceans, where they have lived peacefully with the Mers, beings half-man and half-fish, for many years. Now, decades after the flood, the radiation is clearing, the planet is healing, and the time is coming when the Otom will return to the surface of the Earth. But the Otom are not the only legacy of the human race. Across the surface roam the vicious Cunmen, their bodies and minds blighted by radiation. And, as they seem to know things only the Otom should, the Otom may have a traitor in their midst . . . The tsunami that ends mankind's fifth civilisation will travel across the globe, taking all in its wake. There will be those who are swept along on the buoyancy of its joyful surge; there will be those who cough and splutter, clinging to hope as they desperately struggle to stay alive, and there will be those who lie beneath its mighty strength, stilled and lifeless within its power.

Rattalia's Bedtime Stories is a collection of short children's stories about the adventures of Ratty and Mouse and their friends. When Ratty and Mouse fall asleep at night they journey into the world of dreams to meet Oliver and Stanley, their friends, who know everyone that lives in the dreamtime; the fairies, the gnomes, the giants, and the world where the childrens stories live. The four companions go on many magical adventures to wish for 'good things to happen' to everyone they meet. Ratty & Mouse make many new friends along the way and join in the celebrations for everyone's birthday as they journey through the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Ratty learns to play the piano that she purchases while on holiday with Mouse. And many moons later when she and her love, Roger Rat, have little ones of their own Ratty teaches them to play the piano too. They would sing and dance around the piano and Ratty would tell them stories about Mouse, Oliver and Stanley and the friends they had met on their adventures in the dreamtime.

Set in the present time and future the story explores scientific and metaphysical ideas regarding the future of mankind and the planet, Earth, in the face of ecological disaster brought about by the destructive forces of mankind and nature. The narrative centres on the family of Lia who has origins in a race of beings from another universe. They have come to protect the Earth and mankind; are they able to aid the human population in existence abandoning the destructive forces that have almost destroyed them and their planet?The unfolding story is full of action, conflict and colourful characters and raises questions of mankind's origin and future in the wider cosmos. Trekkie's should love it!

The earth has been uninhabitable for decades, but now humanity has returned to the planet. Mankind, though intellectually advanced has become spiritually sightless and bound by fear and insecurity and mankind's survivors have grown apart into two tribes: the spiritually enlightened Otom, living in brotherhood with the ocean-dwelling Mers, and the unemotional, strangely youthful Scientists, who live in their city beneath the ground. The Otom and the Scientists have the opportunity to meet and learn from each other. But the Otom must reach enlightenment if they are to survive, and some of the Scientists have plans that threaten their goal.