The Keystone

Fourteen-year-old Beth is enjoying the school holidays spending time with her family, teasing her brothers, and exploring the family's cattle station on her old horse, Black.

However, when Beth's father sends her to start the old petrol pump in one of the paddocks, she encounters an ancient ironbark tree stump ... and she is immediately fearful of it.

Before she can race to safety, the portal disgorges a mischievous fairy who has unwittingly opened it from the other side and Beth is scooped up by the fairy and dragged through to a land of magic, danger and creatures that she thought only existed in fairytales.

It is here in this new world that Beth learns that she must harness the power of a magic stone and complete an extraordinary task.

A mystical destiny awaits her . . . if she survives.

Frances is enjoying retirement on 5 acres with her daughter and numerous animals. She has been writing bits and pieces for many years but this is her first novel.