Leah Shrifter 
The Sky Dwellers 

God has blessed Rachel Wilkes with a gift: she can hear your unspoken thoughts, your dreams, your desires, and feel what you feel. Living in a Puritan society where individuality is suspect and forbidden, Rachel is forced to hide her special difference. If she is discovered, she could be condemned for witchcraft and burned at the stake. Though forced to hide her special difference, Rachel refuses to give it up. For many years, she can truly be herself only with Jeannie, her devoted cat companion, who also can hear Rachel.

Convinced she is alone with her gift, she stumbles upon people from far away who also hear. They come from a distant world she cannot fathom. Just as the people of her town would fear her unique power, Rachel would be terrified of the aliens strange differences.

In a devastating act of Nature, Rachel loses her family, and she is lonelier than ever. Ostracized, shunned as a witch, she fears for her life as well as for Jeannies. When Jeannies life is threatened, Rachel must reveal her powerful gift to save her dearest companion.

Before she can find a home where she can truly love and be loved for all she is, even her differences, Rachel must learn to love the alien man who is so much like her, yet frighteningly different. In her turn, she must accept and embrace someone else who is different.

About the author

Leah Shrifter is a professional musician and author. She teaches violin and performs as a musician in a variety of venues. As a writer, she has been featured on public radio and has also performed in Reader’s Theater productions.

Since she was a small child—ever since she can remember—she has told herself stories as she fell asleep each night. That was the beginning of The Sky Dwellers.

Leah lives by the ocean with her husband, Tom. Genii, the cat, lives with them.