*** CURRENTLY ACCEPTING “FIRST READERS” FOR “THE CURED” ONLY ***

The Cured

His pulse was pounding in his head, wondering if he had crossed the line from dream to reality. Seventeen-year-old Adam couldn’t believe he had actually done it this time. He finally escaped the space station that suffocated him. Feeling the grass between his fingers and the pain in his side, he knew it was real. It had to be. He was home.

But after the fiery crash on a not-so-abandoned Earth, Adam learns the truth: the perfection he’d been running from his whole life has been coursing through his veins all along. Now the mothership is after him to reclaim the “stolen property,” and the clan of doomsday preppers he’s trying to become part of wants to use his perfectly genetically bred blood to cure the world of all that plagues it. Sure, he wants to help his new Earth family, but Adam fears curing everything will only propel this beautifully flawed world toward the endless race of achieving utopia, just like the home he had left, or worse- turn him into nothing more than a full-time blood bag. Torn between the desire to help the society he’s always wanted to be part of or protect it from the perfection he had been trying to escape all his life, Adam must decide: be the cure or run.

Evergreened

Monster. Abomination. Hiccup. Sure, 16-year-olds are supposed to be self conscious, but when you’re the first successful attempt at genetic plant therapy and left with very visible side-effects, insecurities can reach a whole new level of awkward. Patchy green skin creeps across the side of her face and around her body while thick vines often get tangled in her brown hair. Being genetically meshed together with a plant is what saved Liv Obrecht’s life and propelled her scientist mother to treating many illnesses all over the world. But in an effort to reverse her daughter’s unsightly features, Dr. Obrecht spent the next decade and a half developing genetic plant therapy for other purposes, and the trend is catching on.

Good-bye body odor. Hello flowers decoratively growing in women’s hair. Even marathon runners can photosynthesize as they compete in the sun, making their race more efficient as they generate their own food. The possibilities are endless. But Liv won’t use any of the treatments, further alienating herself from her mother and society.

The Evergreened trend spreads cross-continent to the point where half the world is genetically modified. But tensions are rising between the Evergreened population and the “Purists” who believe the hybrids are no longer real human beings at all. In an attempt to secure plant people’s places in the world, Dr. Obrecht works with an organization to eliminate the rain forest so genetically modified humans can be the only oxygen source on Earth. Horrified, Liv does the unthinkable: She goes to the rain forest herself. After all, her mother wouldn’t destroy it if she’s hiding in there somewhere. Or would she?

Finding herself caught in the middle of what she really believes and who she truly is, Liv embarks on an adventure of a lifetime. She just hopes that whatever’s waiting for her inside the rainforest isn’t freaked out by her hair.

Tales of the Landlocked (#1)

Sheridan always knew she was a terrible mermaid, but she

But things take a complicated turn when she learns she’s not the only mermaid locked on land, and Sheridan is thrown in the middle of a war that has been years in the making between the mermaids and the Sirens. Sheridan struggles to keep her secret about her mermaid origin from the humans she lives with all the while trying to figure out exactly why she’s on land in the first place. And the reason is bigger than she ever could have imagined. never imagined that she wouldn’t actually be one. Waking up on a beach with legs, Sheridan’s new reality has left her feeling like a fish out of water—especially when she’s arrested for skinny-dipping and placed in a home for troubled and orphaned teens. She attempts to make friends, fit in and regain her lost memories, but as if her situation wasn’t difficult enough, she encounters a big problem: Sprouting a fin every time she touches water? Yeah, that can get awkward.

Tales of the Landlocked is the first installment of this young adult fantasy trilogy.

The Adventures of Shoe Girl

Sam “Ham” Singleton’s only goal is to survive middle school mostly unscathed. But one day when bullies throw her sneakers up onto a powerline, Sam vows never to be a victim again and climbs the pole to take back what is rightfully hers. Something strange happened that day as she reached out for her shoes, and when lightning strikes, Sam would never be the same.

Now when Sam puts on her untied shoes, she becomes invisible- a power she had always dreamed about. But after an epic prank against her involving- you guessed it- ham, Sam tries to disappear forever, avoiding bullies for good. Being invisible isn’t as easy as she thought, however, especially when she realizes her desire to speak out against the injustice toward the “normals” is too strong. Sam faces a tough decision on how to use her power for good instead of just hiding away, especially when she is faced with decision to help her own arch nemesis or let the bully get a taste of her own medicine.

In this Middle Grades chapter book, Sam learns more about the power she has an individual, even sans magic shoes.