Gnome Mountain

by Judy Johnson

Elizabeth Lancaster, in her mid-teens living in a mansion belonging to her grandfather, Liam Lancaster, shinnies down a tree next to her second story bedroom window. An hour before daylight, she runs straight for the forest almost a mile away, desperate, with only her instincts to guide her. Deep into the forest, as she lay sleeping from exhaustion just in front of a cloaked village of Wee People, The Lady of Gnome Mountain issues the order and she is lifted by many winged villagers to the inside. The shielding properties of the Gateway makes the village invisible to the men and tracking hounds on her trail.Only The Lady knows of her ties to her lost family of the past that has all to do with the elves, pixies, gnomes, etc. belonging to this sequestered little village. The Lady also realizes Lancaster has long vowed to destroy the forest and now, through Elizabeth’s presence here, he may have a way of making good on that deadly promise. Elizabeth is a dilemma for both worlds and upon learning of this imminent danger she is responsible for, the reality is to go back and face her grandfather.Attempting a potential truce with Liam Lancaster, however, doesn’t quell the other problems falling upon the Wee an impending early frost that could wipe out their food stores for the upcoming winter, their protective dragon Pegasus whose issues force him and The Lady to leave the village, the threat of Ole Jake, the Tracker hound, and the rescue of Pegasus after a fearsome battle with a long-time foe Golden Good Eye the bald eagle.The upside for Elizabeth, now called Elsbeth (because the Wee People have trouble pronouncing their ‘z’s’) is the discovery of old family ties once thought lost. She is privy to a completely different way of life as opposed to being locked and guarded in her room ‘for her own good’. This ‘lost’ waif, now a blossoming young lady is completely enamored by members of the wee village from Elg-who wears a Viking helmet and communicates between all the animals and people, Madelyn the Master Chef, who makes ‘killer’ blueberry muffins down to Dobb, The Lady’s personal messenger. Her biggest challenge becomes balancing her role in both worlds.

159 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 8, 2019

About the author

Judy Johnson has published four poetry collections, a verse novel and two chapbooks, a novel with another forthcoming in November 2014.

She has won many prizes for poetry including the Victorian Premiers award, Wesley Michel Wright Prize twice, Josephine Ulrick and Val Vallis award and been shortlisted in many others including the West Australian Premier's Award.