Books

Selection Day: The Empty Night Book One

Young Adult Science Fiction

On Selection Day, every 14-year-old human throughout the universe chooses a unique AI companion to be their helper for the rest of their life.

Except no human has ever chosen Dante. But this year, his fifth Selection Day must be different, because the Emperor’s daughter is selecting a companion. All Dante needs to do is win the three AI challenges, get the highest rank in the class, and maybe the most important selector of all time might choose him. But winning the challenges might be harder than he thought, even with his friends helping him. Can he outwit the more advanced AIs and finally get selected or is he doomed to a life in the AI Portal, watching other AIs explore the universe without him?

Selection Day is book one of a trilogy published by De Novo Press.

I WRITE BIG BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT

Young Adult Contemporary

Jonah doesn’t think he’s a god. At least, not quite, but he’s almost there. Whenever Jonah writes, he becomes a part of the story. He controls everything. No one even breathes without him writing it. 

Except for her. 

A mysterious girl appears in one of his scenes – a girl he didn’t create, a girl he can’t control, a girl who might actually be real. And that’s terrifying. Before her, the only thing that ever invaded his stories was The Dread, a black cloud that destroys every scene he writes, inching ever closer to Jonah, hungrily clawing at him. Is this new girl another part of The Dread? Something waiting to destroy all he’s built? Or is she the key to finally defeating the storm before it catches up to him?

I WRITE BIG BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT is a 60,000-word Young Adult Contemporary novel. It focuses one the challenges of mental health in a unique way.

Strictly Platonic

New Adult RomCom

Evan McCallister (who is definitely not the boy from Home Alone – he’s heard all of the jokes and they aren’t funny anymore) recently moved to New York City with no plans. Sometimes he feels like he’s floating and trying to figure out a way to make his life mean something.  His roommate, an amateur stand-up comedian, is tired of hearing about Evan’s brilliant idea for an app – an app that connects people to an anonymous stranger for one strictly platonic conversation with no strings attached. Then Evan meets Flo, a brilliant developer who hates working at the largest social media company in the world, and she helps Evan actually get the app created. When it starts to take off, Evan connects with an anonymous girl on the app, who happens to be Flo, and starts falling for her. While Flo and Evan fight over their different ideas about the future of their successful app and struggle to understand their budding feelings for each other, their online personas try increasingly elaborate ways to keep talking.

You’ve Got Mail for the digital age, Strictly Platonic is a 70,000-word slow burn RomCom that examines what it looks like to try and find yourself after college.

Stars in Her Eyes

Young Adult Mystery

He hates to admit it, but Weston is a bona fide Lister: a person obsessively in love with The List, the most famous music playlist in the world. But Weston is also in love with the anonymous person who created The List, a person the world knows only as StarsinHerEyes. At the very least, The List and Stars are a much-needed distraction from all of the people constantly asking about his nonexistent college plans.

Until one day Stars starts to drop eerie clues into the List, like deleting every song except “Help!” by the Beatles. Weston must follow the clues that he starts to suspect are left specifically for him. As if Stars wants him specifically to solve the riddle. Like he’s the only one who can find out who Stars is and rescue her before its too late.

StarsinHerEyes02 is a 67,000 word young-adult mystery/thriller that focuses on the risks of obsession in the digital age. This story attempts to give validity to the strong emotions teenagers feel that are often downplayed by the adults in their lives.

Parking Lot Towns

Young Adult Contemporary

Campo messed up. Badly. Because of that, his YouTube channel burned around him. But all of the mean articles, hate comments, and hemorrhaging subscriber count mean nothing compared to the real tragedy: he’s forced to move from beautiful Los Angeles back to East Tennessee. Where nothing happens. He knows that some day he’ll resurrect his career and be back on top. But then he meets a group of kids who call themselves the Second Thursday Club and they change everything. There might be more to life than content creation and he might be worth so much more than video views.

Parking Lot Towns is a 50,000-word Young Adult Contemporary coming-of-age story. It is an homage to the kids who want so much more out of life than their hometowns can offer.

The Incubator House

Young Adult Thriller

Baker wants to be a YouTuber. It’s all he’s ever wanted. When the Incubator House, a company designed to build YouTube careers, offers him a chance to realize those dreams, he leaps at the opportunity. But he quickly learns something is terribly wrong when the Incubator House won’t let him leave. Baker and other kidnapped creators are forced to continue making videos for the Incubator House while trying to stay relevant, or else they will get “burnt out” and vanish completely. Can Baker get out of this YouTube hell? Can his mom find him in time?

The Incubator House is a 72,000 word Young Adult Thriller told from two perspectives: Baker and his mother. It is a relevant and timely story that speaks to the potential dangers of a modern teenage dream.

The King’s Stone

Young Adult Fantasy

At birth, every child in the small village is given a unique stone. On their 16th birthday they are sent, alone, into the ancient forest with one goal in mind: make it to the King’s Palace and place your stone in the King’s Fountain. Completing this challenge will give them a special power they can use to become famous and important. As Sean of Wentworth steps into the forest, he must battle horrible monsters, his own self-worth, and magic he has never seen before. Sean may be headed towards a better life than he could ever dream of, but only if he can complete the challenge.

The King’s Stone is a 52,000 word young adult fantasy novel that speaks to the power of accepting help you could never deserve.

The Collector

Soft Sci-Fi

As an independent contractor for the largest and most intimidating galactic empire in history, The Collector is paid to abduct life forms from underdeveloped planets for scientific study. When The Collector captures Polly Washington, a human from Nashville, his life starts to change as he is forced to face the cruelty of his actions. No longer a loner, The Collector and Polly are thrust into a political power struggle between the galactic empire and a kingdom that has remained secret for centuries. This journey will take them to exotic planets, introduce them to eccentric characters, and force The Collector to confront the secrets and pain in his past.

The Collector is a 90,000 word space opera science fiction that is intended to be part one in a trilogy. It features a man’s search for identity and belonging in a universe far too large for him.

Gates of Hades

Western Sci-Fi

Adams Rucker is imprisoned, without a trial, for over a year in a tiny cell after a robbery went terribly wrong. Adams is approached by a charismatic Senator who offers him freedom in the form of a new rehabilitation initiative. After accepting, Adams steps into a mysterious arch and is transported into the future, but this new world is different. Aside from the world being mostly a desert with a few scattered villages, in this new America morality is completely flipped. What Adams considers the right thing to do, is now illegal and morally reprehensible. As Adams navigates and learns the new rules, he is thrust into a power struggle between the rebels, who hold to the old sense of right and wrong, and the Bureau who champion the new morality. 

Gates of Hades is a 100,000 word Western inspired Science Fiction novel that examines what it is like to hold to what you believe to be right in the face of great adversity.