Outside, the deck is frosted over and slick
I was already numb before I slid across it
Haven’t felt warm enough to smile in years
The house is falling apart but it’s a rental
Breaking down slowly in a borrowed body
Dreaming of another path I can’t see
Through tangled, thorny, weeds and trees
Five years of writing that no one ever reads
2.16.20
What the brain tells you and what’s real are contradictory
When depression and anxiety run rampant in a mind
Medication and therapy need to happen but that only
Deals with the symptoms and not the real problem
Change has to be tangible and it must happen soon
While reality is survivable, we were meant for more
2.15.20 - Query Letter
Rising from an impoverished Earth, “Crash” Downs achieved a dream: admission into the famous interstellar Ranger program. Billions will watch him and a group of underdog soldiers endure training and competition against genetically perfect opponents on the Challenge, a televised spectacle that makes celebrities out of soldiers. Yet, Crash’s fight is only a deadly distraction in a galactic game of cat and mouse between the oppressive United Corporate Federation and the star systems they subjugate.
Behind the scenes, a savant hacker named Glitch stumbles across a devious plot by megacorporate titans to inconceivably destroy Earth completely. In a society drowning in hopelessness and fear, somehow he must convince a tenacious syndicate spy hunting him, the galaxy’s first telepath, and a gene-enhanced pilot whose dreams tell the future, to enter a fight against overwhelming odds, setting the table for the war to end all wars. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance. No matter who wins, the ultimate threat to life in the Milky Way is out in cold, unexplored space, and the waves of our gravity bomb will reach out to draw them in.
Beta Reader feedback has been overwhelmingly positive to this galaxy-crossing story told from the perspective of three imperfect souls in just under 112,000 words, Gravity’s Reach is the first of a planned science fiction saga drawing inspiration from titles like Starship Troopers, Mass Effect, and Ender’s Game.