Hello again, lovely people. It’s been a while? I’ve come back with a new book for you- one you’ve literally never read because I wrote it and put it on sale just the other day.

Meet The Founding. It’s a science fiction/fantasy novel (with a little bit of romance) and a whole lot of dealing with grief.

Characters

First off, we have, of course, Gemini. She works in an office and is discontent with her life. She’s smart, empathetic, and unbelievably resilient. Her mother is white and her father is black, and she lives alone in an apartment with her cat in the tiny town of Schuyler, Nebraska.

Oliver: We get to know Oliver through flashbacks. He and Gemini were together for four years and were planning a life together. Oliver disappeared and was pronounced dead five years before our story begins.

The rebels: They don’t have a name. They’re just a group of young adults who want better lives. They are Holly, Eric, Mickey, Mitch, Jasmine, Alexis, and Navid.

Lyptus: Lyptus is the queen of the Founding, where our story takes place. She is cold and calculating, though most of what she does is for her daughter, Desi. She has a husband and a band of guards whose sole purpose is to maintain the status quo.

Plot

Our story starts in Schuyler, Nebraska, where Gemini was born and raised. She wakes up on the fifth anniversary of Oliver’s death and calls in sick to work. She goes instead to her old abandoned high school and climbs onto the roof, where she meets a nameless girl. They have a conversation, and after the girl leaves, Gemini finds herself in the Founding, a place with no shadows and no sun.

She’s captured by Lyptus, who holds her captive and tortures her for information. She’s rescued by the rebels and becomes invested in their plot to overthrow Lyptus and better the lives of everyone in the Founding.

At the same time, we learn about Gemini and Oliver’s relationship through flashbacks. We learn how they met, how they fell in love, and ultimately how Oliver disappeared.

Rating

I’m not even going to try to rate this. It seems unfair, because I wrote it.

Still, I’ll say this. I have never worked on something for so long. This book, The Founding, means my dream had finally come true: technically, I am a published author.

I wrote this book first after a dream about Lyptus and Gemini. I hated it, so I started over. Then I literally spilled Chipotle bean juice on my laptop and didn’t have a backup. I quit writing. And then one of my college classmates inspired me to start again. And boy do I love it so much more now. I read it for the first time in a while and realized it’s actually good!

It’s not perfect. Neither am I. But I’m proud of myself.

So, I ask you to buy it. Or at least look at it. You can find it here at Barnes and Noble and here on Amazon as a paperback and an ebook. Share, buy, read. I’m going to be shameless about this because it deserves to be in the world.

Happy reading!