Somewhen

"The people of this land had simply vanished. They had left meals half-eaten, jobs half-done. Everywhere was the debris of daily life – knives, forks, spoons, tools, pens and pencils. There were tables carefully laid with plates of fossilised food, and there were work-desks spread with important-looking documents. Human life had once bustled and hummed in this city, but then mid-sentence everything had just ... This was now the realm of spiders. With a hundred years of patient industry, they had covered their world with a blanket of silk. After an age of black stillness, movement had finally returned to this lifeless place with a silent ripple. Cobwebs feeling their first breeze in a century." Three small town kids from New Zealand are thrown without warning into a world of breathtaking beauty and terrifying danger. As they set out to discover why the people of this land had so suddenly disappeared, they let loose the very cause. The events that follow will change their lives in both their new world and the real one. Somewhen is no easy tale; it is a story of adventure and adversity, of crimes worse than weak souls can bear; of a terrifying hag, of cannibalism, murder … and a teacher who loves times-tables. It is a tale of bravery and fear, of laughter and crumbling castles, of sadness, vengeance and happiness. But more than anything else, it is a tale about a bunch of kids who refuse to be boring.

"The people of this land had simply vanished. They had left meals half-eaten, jobs half-done. Everywhere was the debris of daily life – knives, forks, spoons, tools, pens and pencils. There were tables carefully laid with plates of fossilised food, and there were work-desks spread with important-looking documents. Human life had once bustled and hummed in this city, but then mid-sentence everything had just ... This was now the realm of spiders. With a hundred years of patient industry, they had covered their world with a blanket of silk. After an age of black stillness, movement had finally returned to this lifeless place with a silent ripple. Cobwebs feeling their first breeze in a century." Three small town kids from New Zealand are thrown without warning into a world of breathtaking beauty and terrifying danger. As they set out to discover why the people of this land had so suddenly disappeared, they let loose the very cause. The events that follow will change their lives in both their new world and the real one. Somewhen is no easy tale; it is a story of adventure and adversity, of crimes worse than weak souls can bear; of a terrifying hag, of cannibalism, murder … and a teacher who loves times-tables. It is a tale of bravery and fear, of laughter and crumbling castles, of sadness, vengeance and happiness. But more than anything else, it is a tale about a bunch of kids who refuse to be boring.

David Saul was born and raised in the industrial North West of England. In his late teens he moved to Sheffield to study, but used this opportunity to go to a lot of parties and generally have a great deal of fun. Despite this, he still managed to pass a degree in genetics. Not knowing what to do next, he wasted a year stacking boxes in a warehouse. It was not a very productive use of an honours degree but it did at least make him realise that academic life wasn't bad after all, and so he returned to Sheffield and completed a Ph.D. In the mid 1980's bad weather and a worse prime minister broke his resolve to stay in his homeland and he fled to New Zealand. He intended to stay for three years... more than a quarter of a century later, he's still here. After twenty years lecturing at the University of Auckland, he went over to the dark side and co-founded a biotechnology company where he remains today as senior scientist. Over the years he has written dozens of scientific papers that are so boring he can't even bring himself to read them. A few years ago he decided it was time to write something a little more fun ... you are holding it in your hands. David lives on Waiheke Island with his wife Danielle, daughter Juliet, son Leonardo, dog Freesia, cat Koschka, three mice (Allegro, Patch, and Hazel), four chickens (Rosie, Gloria, Daisy and Petunia) and lots of spiders. He considers himself the luckiest man in the world.