Dana Birkmour

Eight stories of the southern summer

Beyond the
Summer Sea

The sea is calling.
Summer has secrets of its own.

Step into the magic of the longest days, where the ocean holds buried histories and the turning of the year brings choices that cannot wait.

Edited by Dana Birkmour
With stories from eight Australian and New Zealand authors

Ebook & paperback From 1 November 2026

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Beyond the Summer Sea anthology cover: a jewel-colored Christmas beetle on a gum tree above a sea lit by sunset

Christmas beetles. Salt air. A different kind of magic.

Find a little summer shade.

Here, Christmas falls near midsummer. There are cicadas in the gums, light on the water, and stories waiting beyond the familiar shore.

From far-future Hobart to reef-bound islands and worlds shaped by gods and rune magic, these eight stories follow the pull of home, the cost of belonging, and the courage to choose a different future.

There is wonder here, and danger; intimate family stories and epic journeys. Through them all runs the sea.

Inside the collection

Eight voices.
Eight ways to follow the tide.

  1. TimeStop

    Anna Lauten

    A Christmas gift traps a teenager outside time. Her private moment of freedom becomes a fight to get back.

  2. Birth of Sea Glass

    Leena Taylor-Gillespie

    An old woman gathers what the tide leaves behind, sharing its color and wonder with her grandchildren.

  3. When the Summer Currents Turn

    Dana Birkmour

    A young navigator must recover a forgotten sea-road through four lost lines of song before the storms close her passage home.

  4. The Place of the Sun

    Christiana Matthews

    A selkie has lost her skin at Tasmania’s Bay of Fires. A midsummer gathering is about to receive an unexpected guest.

  5. Callista’s Choice

    Lainie Jones

    Raised by the Fates to become a god’s bride, a girl steps away from the future they have chosen for her.

  6. Proven

    Samantha Bellin

    A shipwrecked warrior follows the drums of a midsummer ceremony. His instinct to protect may put his rescuers in danger.

  7. The Wood and the Word

    A.M. Obst

    A seasick apprentice scribe crosses the strait with a single rune to stand against a tyrant.

  8. Harvest

    Fiona McNeill

    A trader arrives seeking coffee in an unfamiliar Australia, carrying scars, secrets and a story nobody wants to hear.

Dana’s story in the collection

When the Summer
Currents Turn

Song magic · Family secrets · Hidden histories

The navigators of Kirawa sing safe roads through the sea. But their exchange fleet is stranded beyond the reef, and the summer storms are closing in.

When a visitor brings Tafira four lost lines of song and the name of a woman erased from her family’s history, bringing the fleet home means recovering what her family chose to forget.

A complete story within the anthology. You can begin here without having read Dana’s other books.

Take the southern summer with you

Discover what the tide has brought.

Ebook & paperback · From 1 November 2026

Choose your retailer

Retailer listings are rolling out. Follow the link for current stores and formats; availability may vary by country.

Published by Moontree House Books