BOOKS
MAKING MONEY IN SHIBUYA
August, 2023
Kai is imminently screwed. A service job and a risky resume of tagging gigs is not enough to keep a guy going in Shibuya, Japan, much less make tuition in the premier art program that could elevate his passion to a workable living. Debts growing and the notion of crawling back to his abusive homelife more and more inevitable, he needs to come up with a way to make money, fast. When Kai comes across the website of a dubious companion service, it seems like he may have found his save. Escort work is dangerous, but Kai can handle hanging with some rando long enough to get paid, right? But then Kai receives an offer—one far above his asking price. Joza is the exact type of client Kai dreaded: suspicious, flirtatious, and pretentious to extremes. Even as the man grates on him, Kai finds him strangely compelling, a fellow artist trapped in a cycle of non-starters whose isolating life rings familiar. Joza has his own secrets, though, and each new revelation sends up red flags. As yakuza-like music teachers, mysterious phone calls, and Joza’s secret history complicate his growing attraction, will this dubious contract be worth risking Kai’s heart?
THE PYRE
October 2023
They feed on suffering, and Gabriel Thomas is a four-course meal.
In a valley being slowly overrun by a daemonic infestation, Father Gabriel Thomas is the one sowing the seeds of his own destruction. A former alcoholic, his life is left in shambles when a personal tragedy steals the lives of his family, save his infant daughter. Blaming himself, Gabriel vows to atone to them by the only task dire enough to satisfy his guilt: he must eradicate the daemon’s mysterious Master, and end the spread violence encroaching ever closer to his daughter. But Gabriel has a plan. By sacrificing his soul to capture a daemon of his own, he can exploit its knowledge to uncover their weaknesses. The trouble is, these daemons feed on suffering, and the grief that motivates him is only making them stronger. With the snarky Tacheus as his daemonic captive and his old congregation hunting him down, Gabriel embarks on a perilous journey through the bleak southern countryside assisted by a headstrong outcast and her Tourette’s-blighted son. As he comes face to face with true evil, he must confront his own heinous past before guilt destroys him. But fighting this battle means playing directly into the daemons’ hands, as losing might cost him his new companions—and, unbearably, the only family he has left. Self-described as the hit television series Supernatural with a literary slant, The Pyre is a devastating and thrilling descent into the dominion of grief, perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix and Alexis Henderson.
THE CALIBRATIONIST
March 2024
In an alternate near-future Chicago, psychics roam the streets under a regime of oppression, lost within the glare of new technology. They all fear the same fate: the Calibrationist, the agent charged with taking them in when outpourings send their powers into overdrive. Wayne Grayson never wanted the job, but with government incentives being the only thing keeping his comatose fiancée alive, he doesn’t have a choice. When outpouring victims in Chicago suddenly skyrocket, Wayne must team up with psychic-wary Veronica Jones —a black Chicago police sergeant, familiar with the hypocrisies of the system—to discover the cause before the city lies in ruin. The deeper they delve into the investigation, though, the more they begin to suspect that someone is setting off psychics intentionally...but Wayne mustn’t let the details of the case reach the public, as each fear-mongering new story only tightens the shackles of hatred closing in on his community. Meanwhile, in a post-catastrophe Japan, psychic Sonya Izono finds herself pregnant in a country where mandatory sterilization is in force. Torn between bitterness at the child and a fierce desire to save them, Sonya must find a way out of the country before her secret becomes impossible to hide. As Wayne and Sonya’s paths collide, they must work together to unravel a devious plot intent on setting the world against itself, psychics and non-psychics alike. Mind-bending and grounded in the heart, The Calibrationist uses speculative intrigue to examine the state of the modern world, perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir.