Rooted in purpose. Wild at heart.
Lisa Ann O’Kane
Author of the YA novel Essence.
John Steinbeck Award for Fiction finalist (“The Dock and the Zipper,” Reed Magazine Issue #159, Spring 2026).
Former zookeeper and nonprofit leader who writes fiction and narrative nonfiction about the intersection of humans and the natural world.
Currently exploring grief, childlessness, and the delicate work of building a life when the one you’ve planned refuses to take root.
Advisory Board Member: Uniquely Knitted.
“Essence has everything you’d want: excitement, romance, danger, and enough intrigue that I kept reading faster to find out what was going to happen next.”
—Bethany Frenette, author of Dark Star and Burn Bright (Disney-Hyperion)
Essence
Autumn escaped a cult, but now she realizes she's fallen into another. Growing up in San Francisco's Centrist Movement, sixteen year-old Autumn Grace has always believed emotions--adrenaline, endorphins, even happiness--drain your Essence and lead to an early death. But her younger brother's passing and a run-in with a group of Outsiders casts her faith into question.
Ryder Stone, the sexy, rebellious leader of the Outsiders, claims Essence drain is nothing more than a Centrist scare tactic -- and he can prove it.
Autumn follows Ryder to his Community of adrenaline junkies and free spirits in Yosemite National Park, and they introduce her to a life of adventure, romance, sex, drugs and freedom. But as she discovers dark secrets beneath the Community's perfect exterior, she realizes the more she risks in search of the perfect rush, the further she has to fall.
