Streaks and Cuckoos, a fast-paced YA adventure, is currently out on submission to literary agents.
Streaks and Cuckoos is a fast-moving, highly visual adventure that uncovers the secret world beneath our feet—and the ghosts of the past that refuse to stay buried. Deep underground lives a technologically advanced mole civilisation guided by an ancient moral code, all of which are threatened when ruthless developer Harriet Heythorpe plans to build a shopping centre with an underground car park over their colony and the forgotten graves of the Sunley Manor orphans.
Above ground, thirteen-year-old Tony Junior begins to hear the voices of those long-dead children, whose power—The Knowing—links her to the moles and reveals the devastation Harriet intends to unleash. Below ground, two young moles, Kami and Alba, struggle with their destinies: Kami, a future leader who can barely dig, and Alba, the albino outsider who smells “wrong” but sees the truth more clearly than anyone. Together with TJ and Josh, and armed with The Knowing, they unite humans and moles in a desperate effort to stop Harriet. Blending humour, tension, spectral mystery, and unforgettable set-pieces—moles on motorbikes, explosive rescues, daring infiltrations, and the downfall of a tyrant—Streaks and Cuckoos is a story about courage, unlikely alliances, and the price of power, built on a simple truth: understanding between species, like between people, is a gift that may come only once, and must be used wisely.
Some excerpts to give a sense of my writing style and the worlds I build in Streaks & Cuckoos.
Snide says there will be no more tolerating incompetence. His exact words were: ‘If you can’t do the job, you shouldn’t be in the job,’ says Force, whose reverent snout-dip shows just how much weight Snide’s words carry.
“And that applies to every litter, every sector, no exceptions,” adds Trench with gloomy satisfaction. “He says the Colony has gone soft. Too much learning, too much thinking, too much kindness. Snide says it’s time we remembered what we are.”
A murmur ripples through the Guarders: fear, admiration, and something darker.
“What are we, then?” Kami asks before he can stop himself.
Force swivels his heavy head. “Survivors. Fighters. The ones who deserve the tunnels. Snide says the weak moles must step aside so the strong ones can lead.”
Kami feels the words like claws raking down his spine. It is everything he fears, everything he has always been told he is not—and everything Snide is planning to enforce.
Fool! Pathetic litter runt!” his LitterPa roars. “It is just as I thought. You know nothing of your ancestral history. Our law forbids banishment because you are my heir, but I can kill you if I believe you will lead our Colony to destruction when I am gone. You have five days to learn the Five Laws—and the sixth, the essence that binds them. Five days before I demand your presence again.”
Kami’s flesh and fur spasm as if trying to flee from his own body. He had expected punishment, maybe a beating—never death, never killed by his own LitterPa’s paw. As the old mole’s final words echo through the Chamber, Kami wishes more than anything that he could change what he is.
The pamphlet pages flicker in the breeze, the words sliding and dissolving until a face takes shape—eyes too big, cheekbones sharp under yellow skin. Tony Junior’s breath sticks in her throat.
“They calls me Scavenger,” the small voice says. “Abby was one too, but she fell under the machines.”
Tony Junior tries to move but feels pinned by the cold stone beneath her. “Is your gravestone here?”
“You’re lying on it. Five of us in one hole. Cheaper that way.”
The world steadies. Tony Junior turns and sees the name scratched into the stone: Naomi M, aged 8.
“Why just M?” she whispers.
“No one remembered the rest. They just picked the next letter in the alphabet.”