Anna's Pocket Watch

Anna, a recognized puzzle solver, and her oh-so-eccentric family live in the quaint town of Alderwoods, New Hampshire, in the 2050s during the age of technological advances. Most of their eccentricities, however, are just that: old-fashioned and technologically so-so. For years, the family lived shrouded in grief since Anna's twin sister died from a horrifying disease that aged her in a week until she looked older than the world.

But when 16-year-old Anna discovers an old heirloom—a pocket watch—it leads her to a tattered copy of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov. The cobwebs of family lore give way to new life. Hidden within the old book is a key to the mystery her family tried to solve for many generations and a clue to her sister's death. Not only a key but a mandate to return what's hidden inside the watch to a land that is not on any map. A seed from an ancient tree is buried between tiny grooves and wheels of the watch mechanism. Its absence causes devastation. But how to return it and where is yet another mystery for Anna to untangle.

Fortified by her doting father, her sweet-toothed adoring grandfather, and her no-nonsense French mother, Anna puzzles out clues, which undoubtedly lead to more clues. And so, a combination of unusual circumstances and the friendship of her dashing bestie, Sam, takes her into an adventure that changes the lives of many. But such things are not without cost or loss and rarely without the pursuit of unscrupulous creatures with ideas of world domination….

The story begins in a world much like our own and takes the reader into the lands where magic looks like science and science sometimes looks like magic. These worlds are alive with Faes and other creatures not seen on Earth for a very long time, if ever.