In the year 2163, a corrupt World Government controls everything on our
planet and beyond.
Sixteen-year-old Sierra has been so caught up in her own world of saving
animal test subjects and her father’s disappearance, she hasn’t paid much
attention. When she finally finds his location, she and her friend set off
on a covert interplanetary mission to rescue him, and she begins to see the
corruption firsthand.
Discovering that her father has been on the front lines secretly trying to
save human test subjects inspires her to join a revolution. But she is
afraid of the collateral damage of hurting the people she loves. Will she
find the strength to make a deal with the mad scientist Cromwell to save not
just her friends and family but everyone?
About the Author
Stephanie Hansen is a PenCraft and Global Book Award Winning Author. Her
short story, Break Time, and poetry has been featured in Mind’s Eye
literary magazine. The Kansas Writers Association published her short story,
Existing Forces, appointing her as a noted author. She has held a deep
passion for writing since early childhood, but a brush with death caused her
to allow it to grow. She’s part of an SCBWI critique group in Lawrence, KS
and two local book clubs. She attends many writers’ conferences
including the Writing Day Workshops, New York Pitch, Penned Con, New
Letters, All Write Now, Show Me Writers Master Class, BEA, and Nebraska
Writers Guild conference as well as Book Fairs and Comic-Cons. She is a
member of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
YA Sci-fi Adventure, Young Adult, YA Sci-fi, Paranormal
Publisher:Koehler Books
“Cooper stretched his arm over on top of Coupe to quiet him and hold him down. He then reached into Coupe’s mind and urged him to sleep, told him to sleep, that he was safe and could sleep the night through without worrying about those . . . things that came to him. Coupe’s thrashing began to subside. He did not scream at all. He returned to a peaceful sleep.”
Cooper Callister cannot speak. Coupe Daschelete is the victim of horrible abuse. No one would expect them to possess superhuman powers. But they do. When a fight in the woods forces them to reveal themselves to each other, they start a journey together that leads them to discover power they never expected, power they were never intended to have. To unlock those powers and fully understand them, they must follow a difficult and dangerous path of self-discovery and self-revelation. Cooper is forced to face the isolation of his silence. Coupe must confront the demons that haunt his dreams, planted there by those who have abused him and broken his mind. Alone they could not do it. Only together do they have the strength to conquer their challenges.
The threats they confront force them once again to evolve into something new, this time to face a new enemy with deadly intent. But is the world ready to accept what they have become?
Excerpt
“Do you have a library card for the public library here in town?” Everett asked.
“No, sir. I’m, uh, not welcome in there.”
Everett’s brow furrowed. “Why not? I would think they’d love a bookworm like you.”
“I think they did, to start. But they caught me trying to sleep in there a couple of times and the last time I was told I could not come back.” Coupe looked up at Everett a little defensively. “I wasn’t stealing anything if that’s what you were thinking. It’s just it was wintertime and it was cold. I couldn’t go down to the river then and I… well, I didn’t want to go home either.”
Everett felt a wave of sympathy for the boy. He was still going to be stacking firewood, though. “I didn’t think you were stealing.” He paused, thinking. “Coupe I wish I had known of you back then. We would have helped.”
“I know you would have. Well, I know that now.” Now it was Coupe’s turn to think. “In a way it turned out to be a good thing that my mother dumped me when she did.”
“I expect that’s a tough thing to deal with either way, Coupe, but yeah, that’s a good way to look at it, I suppose. We’re happy to have you.”
“Thanks.”
“No more fighting though, okay? You come to me or Evelyn. You don’t want to have the police involved.”
“Yes, sir.”
They were passing the public library as they drove home. Everett slowed and pulled into the parking lot.
“C’mon, Coupe, let’s see if we can get your reading privileges back.”
Coupe brightened. “You think so?”
“No harm in trying,” he replied as he parked.
The two got out and walked into the library. As they approached the circulation desk a woman looked up at them both, then she recognized Coupe and a stern look came across her face. Before she could speak, Everett started to plead Coupe’s case.
“Hi, I’m Everett Callister. I think you know this young man. I wanted to see if I could get him his library card back. You see, he’s living with us now. I’m his foster dad. He told me why he was not allowed back in here. I think you should know his circumstances were pretty rough back then. But he’s with us now. He’s a good kid and he loves reading. Is there any way he could start borrowing books again?”
The librarian looked at Everett as if sizing him up. “Did he tell you we found him sleeping in the back of the non-fiction section…on more than one occasion?”
“He did. It was pretty cold out. Did he tell you he had nowhere else to go?”
The librarian’s face softened. “He did not.” She thought for a moment. “I suppose if he is always supervised by you while he is here he can start coming back in…on a probationary basis to start with.”
“Excellent.”
They left the library with a brand-new card and five more books. Coupe was positively beaming. Everett had insisted he got one on the basics of small engine repairs. He was hoping Coupe might be able to help him with some…projects.
About the Author
Endy Wright received his undergraduate degree in English literature from Grinnell College and his juris doctorate from the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Before becoming an attorney, he was a counselor for at-risk children in New Hampshire, and, a cross-community worker in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was also previously a research assistant in the House of Commons in London, England. As a trial attorney, he discovered that writing was a useful outlet for the stress that came along with his profession. His first book was a collection of short stories, entitled The Garden Plot Diaries. The Omicron Six is his first novel.
In the year 2163 a corrupt World Government controls everything on our planet and beyond.
Sixteen year-old Sierra has been so caught up in her own world of saving animal test subjects and her father’s disappearance, she hasn’t paid much attention. When she finally finds his location, she and her friend set off on a covert interplanetary mission to rescue him, she begins to see the corruption first hand.
Discovering that her father has been on the front lines secretly trying to save human test subjects inspires her to join a revolution. But she is afraid of the collateral damage of hurting the people she loves. Will she find the strength to make a deal with the mad scientist Cromwell to save not just her friends and family but everyone?
Excerpt
To make a smoke bomb all you need is potassium nitrate, sugar, water and a fuse. Programming holograph messaging to be ‘smoke screen projection only’ is much more difficult. It’s a digital version of invisible ink and completely security cam resistant. I pull up Yesha’s incoming call. The smoke allows her image to take shape and it almost feels like she’s in the room with me.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this, you little gomer.”
Yesha frequently begins conversations in the middle, no introduction or formal interrogation into my life. I think that’s why I like her.
“It didn’t take much to convince you.”
“Did you receive the package?”
I hold up the box addressed to me, Sierra, but I’ve removed the contents.
“Yep, right here, see.”
Yesha’s laugh is like a chorus of toads with hiccups. Her image vibrates on the smoke.
“That’s only the box, you drone bug!”
“I know.”
I hold up the syringes that had been inside the box.
“Be careful with those. Check the labels.”
I roll a syringe in my hands like Kitchen, one of our home bots, does with pretzel dough.
“One says healing serum, which I asked for. Why does the other say anti?”
“Backup. You always need an emergency abort mission option.”
“All right. Thanks!”
Yesha interrupts before I collapse the projection.
“Just be sure not to give the anti if you haven’t given the original serum.”
After she’s gone, I look at my subject.
I shouldn’t be doing this, but I find the koala’s eyes drawing me in like a poli-magno crash about to happen. It’s impossible to turn away.
The Science Olympiad team’s going to put me on probation again, which stinks since they’re the only local, human friends I have.
Following protocol gets us nowhere, however.
Mom’s going to be agitated because this isn’t the first time I’ve broken the rules.
I guide the koala out of the cage, leaving her brothers inside. I have to shake off feelings of jealousy. I don’t have any siblings.
“Why ya look so sad?”
Uplifting experiments have given us animals who speak. “Why do you look so sad, Eucarpo?”
The koala glances back at her brothers and then her eyes look up at me past her round, stub nose, and adorable ears. The sensation of an infant wrapping tiny fingers around mine envelops me. I can’t let them endure more unethical testing just so we can have the best DNA combination. I was okay with the testing when the purpose was to help those that were sick and it was beneficial to the koala species, but I can’t stomach testing these sweet things just for superficial reasons.
“Hate leaving ‘em behind.”
“They’re going after you if this works.”
“What ya mean, if?”
“Healing adaptation experiments have just begun.”
“But ya aced the test?”
“Well, yeah, but that was just practice. This is the first time I’ve used it on a living being. Don’t worry, it should all go as planned. I’m just being paranoid.”
It would be nice if I could stop blabbering when I’m nervous. Sometimes you just have to go for it and see where the cards fall. That was something my dad used to say. Before he disappeared, he used to tell me lots of things. He’s been gone almost a decade, but I might as well as have “Missing Dad” tattooed on my forehead.
“Ya paranoid? Ne’er!”
As she raises the fur above her eyes, I scratch behind her ear, and she leans into it like a bear scratching its back on a tree trunk. Her fur is soft as manufactured silk charmeuse.
“Ah yeah, right dere.”
“You sure you’re ready for this?”
“It gets us closer to freedom, so I been ready a long time.”
She takes another glance at her brothers, and I pick up the syringe with self-healing serum. I begin the sedation process as no one wants to be awake when artery lining fortifies, muscles pull with new agility, and brain tissue encases itself with a biting, thin metal sheet. Another reason I’m jealous of Eucarpo is that she responds to sedation, and I don’t.
As Eucarpo drifts into a peaceful sleep, I look out the school windows and see only the steel and glass of surrounding buildings. Their reflections mirror the sky. Today the unending blue gives the impression of being in the middle of the sea. On gray days, it’s as if I’ve been swallowed by thunderclouds. I can only imagine how green fields would look. People used to love the smell of fresh-cut grass. That was before an asteroid broke through the atmosphere damaging our ecosystem and killing all plants, causing our world to work together to save Earth and its remaining, limited vegetation. The only vegetation left is kept in guarded areas and labs.
I think I can hear the machines used to keep the atmosphere from collapsing but the sound isn’t right. Instead of a hum, I hear iron clanging. The serum glides through the syringe into Eucarpo and her breathing intensifies as the cells within her body multiply. No, that isn’t the machines. It’s locker doors slamming, followed by footsteps of someone coming down the hall. No one should be here now. They should all be at the assembly that I’m skipping. I must finish before anyone else arrives. I look at the oxygen and pulse readings, cringing with every spike. It feels like an hour passes as I look at the screens, but I know it’s only been seconds. I count breaths and clock ticks, staring at Eucarpo’s oxygen and platelet numbers rising.
“Come on, the science minds keep refreshments in here.”
I think I recognize the voice coming down the hall. Every muscle in my body wants to stiffen, but I can’t freeze now.
Luckily, the serum is fast acting and Eucarpo’s readings are settling. I inject the awakening treatment and then I throw the syringes and all remaining evidence into the incinerator. The burning and sanitizing process will turn these things into energy or something else useful. Eucarpo stirs a little when I hear the door sensor click.
As the voltball captain and visual arts queen walk in, I step in front of Eucarpo.
“Look, we found someone avoiding the assembly,” Milcah says as she nudges Danver in the ribs with her elbow.
About The Author
Stephanie Hansen is a PenCraft Award Winning Author. Her novella series, Altered Helix, released 2020. Her short story, Break Time, and poetry has been featured in Mind’s Eye literary magazine. The Kansas Writers Association published her short story, Existing Forces, appointing her as a noted author. She has held a deep passion for writing since early childhood, but a brush with death caused her to allow it to grow. She’s part of an SCBWI critique group in Lawrence, KS and two local book clubs. She attends many writers’ conferences including the Writing Day Workshops, New York Pitch, Penned Con, New Letters, All Write Now, Show Me Writers Master Class, BEA, and Nebraska Writers Guild conference as well as Book Fairs and Comic-Cons. She is a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Eric Folder has moved to Oregon to attend Portland State University when an automobile accident leaves him stricken with migraine headaches. The resulting visual effects—something medical professionals term an aura—render him virtually blind and defenseless when a gang of street thugs attacks him. Desperate to see and needing to protect himself, Eric reflexively tears at the luminous lines of light and finds they have become tangible. When he pulls them aside, his present reality folds away with them, leaving him in better circumstances with his enemies vanished. Attempts to fold his way out of subsequent perils leave him in increasingly strange situations until, eventually, his world becomes a nightmare.
Praise for Folder:
“A wild young-adult alternate-worlds adventure that will leave you guessing right up to the end! Fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials will love this!” – D. J. Butler, author of Witchy Eye
“A big, engaging ride across our infinite possibilities – and our choice to be heroes.” – Anthony Dobranski, author of The Demon in Business Class
Excerpt
PROLOGUE
I’m lost.
I don’t know if I should laugh or cry when I say this, because I sound as if I’m repeating words from a hymn or I’m in need of a compass, or else I’ve given up completely. The thing is, I’m terrified because all these things are true and I don’t know how to fix them. I would say a prayer if I thought someone could hear, but even if they did, I don’t think this is a place where prayers get answered. If I had a compass, knowing whether I’m facing North or South wouldn’t take me away from this place, let alone back to where I started. In fact, no one can get me out of the mess I’m in, except maybe me, and I’m as scared to try to change what has brought me here as I am afraid do nothing.
I remember when my friends and I were kids and we hid in the bushes and pretended there were monsters coming after us. Well, now the monsters are real. I’ve been listening for what seems an eternity to their angry snorts and the clatter and scratches of their claws on the large stone surface where those creatures are gathered. Every now and then, one of them hisses and another does the same in response. The rate of their footsteps escalates and I imagine two of them colliding and squaring off in an expression of indignation. It’s too dark to see whether this has actually happened, or if it’s just my imagination, but the pounding of my heart in face of the impending danger keeps me riveted on what’s happening.
As I hide in a clump of bushes and the minutes pass, I’m more than a little relieved that they’re taking so long to find me. Unexpectedly, the full moon peeks through a break in the cloud cover and the scales on the bodies of several great beasts glisten. Each is twice the size of a bullmastiff and I count six of them several yards from here. Their eyes glow whitish gold and appear to have vertical slits, although it’s hard to be sure at this distance. As they circle a spot where I was standing a short while ago, sniffing the ground in several directions around it, one of them raises its head and opens its mouth, baring rows of long, needlelike teeth. I expect the creature will howl. Instead, a rasping reptilian sound emerges and I shudder, wondering what kind of beings they are.
Although I’ve recently arrived, from my earlier experiences and the landscape’s layout, I recognize this place as being near where the street car used to stop in a time that’s lost to me forever. The place where I’m hiding used to be the parkway where Park crosses Mill—or what used to be Park and Mill before everything transformed into this new reality. There aren’t any streets anymore and I’m surprised there are even deer trails to mark where Park and Mill once intersected. This used to be Portland State University, but now everything’s grown over and forested. The clock tower has vanished, as have the student union and the rest of the buildings that were part of the campus.
Without warning, a thought bubbles up from a world I’ll never see again and I almost cry out loud. Cursing this lack of control, I force my idiot self to keep quiet. Still, there is some truth to the thought that this situation is what Dad would have called a mixed blessing. It’s because it rained so hard that those things haven’t discovered me already. Here I am, kneeling on a thick bed of leaves. If they weren’t so soggy, they would crackle each time I move and announce my location. Instead, their wetness muffles whatever noise I might otherwise make. On the other hand, because the night is so cold and water is starting to soak through my pants, I’m beginning to shiver and I’m afraid I might sneeze any minute. If I do, those creatures will certainly hear and I know I will die because I’m sure they can out-run me.
The breeze that’s been chilling me starts to increase and I wonder if another storm is building. The last of autumn’s leaves whip though the air and there is a sharp crack above me. The creatures turn in my direction and two cock their heads. A third one starts walking toward me and I hold my breath, wondering whether it will continue to advance, when a second crack drops a large bough into the bushes a few yards to my right. The creatures stop and stare at the spot where it landed. Then, apparently satisfied they understand what caused the disturbance, they resume their search in the original location. Realizing I’ve been holding my breath and that I need to breathe, I inhale deeply, then exhale. My breathing is starting to grow normal when something grabs my shoulder.
About The Author
Raymond Bolton lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, Toni, and their cats, Max and Arthur. His epic fantasies are published by WordFire Press, publisher of the Dune and Star Wars novels, and have received endorsements by the late Mike Resnick and award-winning author Paul Kane.
A call to unite. A search for truth. Two superhuman teens running from the law…
Paradise, Texas. Fourteen-year-old Carmen isn’t sure what happened to her mother; one day she’s helping cook dinner, but the next day, her mother’s missing and Carmen’s fleeing for her life. Burdened with anger that interferes with her unusual power, she takes to the streets with the only clue her mother left behind. But when she encounters a stranger picking through her belongings, she finds herself in a life or death situation.
Seventeen-year-old Simon survived a tragedy he doesn’t remember; he doesn’t know how or why he’s on the streets. So when his physical needs overtake him, he’ll do anything to satisfy them, including scavenging a homeless den. And when he discovers a drawing on the cardboard ceiling, it sparks a memory that compels him to help the owner.
But with danger lurking in every alleyway and one clue to lead the way, they may not succeed…
Can Carmen and Simon discover how their mutual clue connects them before her mother’s life is taken?
The Gifted Ones The Lost Prince is the exciting final book in The Gifted Ones superhero fantasy trilogy. If you like young heroes, realistic settings, and stories of adventure, then you’ll love PG Shriver’s third book The Lost Prince.
Buy The Gifted Ones The Lost Prince to unlock the superpowered ending today!
Other Books in the The Gifted Ones Trilogy:
Paradise Rising
The Gifted Ones, Book 1
Publisher: Gean Penny Books
Published: June 1, 2020
San Antonio, Texas. Thirteen-year-old Cheater isn’t sure how she ended up wanted for murder. Burdened with a power she doesn’t understand, that’s triggered by a creeping darkness she can’t remember, she’s both saved and taken lives. But when she makes a vigilante move to stop a mugging, she encounters a boy who might be the key to cracking the mystery of her strange gift.
Fifteen-year-old Jaz has survived too many tragedies to stay on the right side of the law. So when his small gang’s robbery gets interrupted by a teenaged fugitive, he’s perplexed by her act of heroism. And when he discovers they’re both connected to the same mysterious fairytale, he feels drawn to her quest for answers.
But with danger lurking around every corner and the police hot on their trail, they may not even make it past the city limits…
Can Cheater and Jaz discover why Fate linked them together before they land behind bars?
The Gifted Ones Paradise Rising is the captivating first book in The Gifted Ones pre-superhero fantasy series. If you like smart heroines, gritty settings, and stories of hope, then you’ll love PG Shriver’s emotional tale.
An unusual ally. A destined dream. Two superhuman teens hiding from the law…
Godley, Texas. Fourteen-year-old Nathan isn’t sure how the girl in his dream knew to warn him. Burdened with righteous anger, and past events that put him in the wrong place at the wrong time, he’s ready to avenge the tragedies he’s left behind. But when a lost girl in the woods demands his help, he finds himself in another sticky situation— a dead body, a familiar face, and a secret that might be key to deciphering the dream.
Seventeen-year-old Rebecca survived a tragedy that’s kept her locked away in fear. So when she flees for her life and crosses paths with a guy in the woods, she uses her power to push through his anger for help. And when she discovers their connection to the same mysterious girl, she is drawn into his heroic quest for revenge.
But with a sheriff hot on their trail and two strangers breaking into their safe haven, they may not even make it out of the city…
Can Nathan and Rebecca discover why Fate drew them together before the sheriff locks them up?
P.G. Shriver holds a Masters in Education, a Bachelors in English and is currently retired from teaching. Shriver writes from her country home in Texas. She lives with her family among three Great Pyrenees, an eighty-five pound Chihuahua, four horses, six cats and many of my favorite books from various genres, seventeen of which are her own published works, seven picture books for children, five first reader chapter books, and five middle grade-young adult novels. Somewhere in the menagerie is my retired husband who enjoys his role as sounding board.
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