Denise E. Dahn
Coming in Fall 2026
WildEye, a novel
A nature-drenched
science-fantasy adventure
Written and illustrated by
Denise E. Dahn
Before she could find her way in the wild,
she needed to find the wild in herself.
Seventeen-year-old Izzie never imagined living through a summer like that, not even in her wildest dreams. It wasn't just being stranded in a forest wilderness with four other teens she barely knew. It wasn't even their struggle to survive, or their far-fetched search for a way back home. It was everything else. As Annabelle always said, "The universe is mysterious, Izzie. Ninety-five percent of it is made of matter so dark we don't understand anything about it. Who knows what's really out there, waiting to be discovered?" Indeed. It was utterly unimaginable.
WildEye is a young adult novel about friendship,
resilience, hope, and living in a world that is full of surprises.
Advance reviews
"WILDEYE is an immersive, nature-driven adventure...thoughtful and engaging...Readers who enjoy nature-centered fantasy with a strong emotional core will likely find it rewarding." —Katherine Crucilla for IndieReader. (IndieReader Approved) "In WILDEYE, Izzie and her friends are unexpectedly drawn into a Northwest forest alive with beauty, peril, and belonging...an exquisitely rendered realm of bats and butterflies, fungi and fairy rings, moles, mussels, and mystery...Rich with ecological insight, friendship, adventure, and an unusual romance, WILDEYE carries us so fully into the story that we scarcely realize how much we are learning along the way..." —Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of "Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit." "WILDEYE combines story with art, and magic with reality. Nature itself becomes a character as we share points of view not only with human protagonists, but with a bat, mole, goshawk, and more. Dahn's characters—and her readers—learn truths about the natural world and the power of friendship." —Patricia K. Lichen, author of the "Uncommon Field Guide" series.
Enter the world of WildEye.
Spoiler alert! Click for a sneak peek at some of the illustrations from the novel.
I drew the illustrations with an Apple Pencil on an iPad using Adobe Fresco. Working from various reference photos, my goal was to create artwork that is both imaginative and accurate, helping immerse you even deeper into the lush forest setting. Many reference photos were from my own collection, other reference photos were used with permission from the copyright holders. I used Magic Poser for human figure reference, and I designed both the print and ebook versions using Adobe InDesign. No part of the book was created using artificial intelligence.
About me
I grew up in Washington State, attending school in Seattle and spending summers with my family east of the mountains, running wild with my brother and our dog through the forested hills of Okanogan County. Our home was filled with books and art, and from a very young age, I fell in love with reading, writing, and drawing. I went on to study art and earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Washington. Later, I built a design career interpreting the natural world in public wildlands across the entire United States in my interpretive design business, Dahn Design, LLC. It was this interpretive work that inspired me to write WILDEYE, my first novel. I realized it wasn’t just the grand, spectacular wildlands that inspired profound wonder, it was also the little things: the tiny, hidden worlds of beetles and fungi and the less celebrated creatures like bats and moles. Over many years, this “small is beautiful” perspective took shape as an imaginative adventure story. In WILDEYE, I hope to share my love of nature, art, and storytelling.
CONTACT
Click the logo for more information about the book and a printable Sell Sheet pdf.
