TTYL
Ashley and her sister, Brianna, were an inseparable gaming duo: always player one and player two. As kids, they had grand plans to create video games together, but it all crashed down when Brianna died. Now, twenty years later, Ashley’s life is stuck on a loading screen.
The closest Ashley gets to her dreams is fixing retro video game systems. That is, until she finds an old virtual reality console coded by her tech-genius sister. But it’s not a typical system, it houses a lifelike, fully immersive world—a ‘90s wonderland where her sister’s avatar resides with her real-life memories and personality intact. In this artificial paradise, Ashley can rebuild the life she always imagined, pixel by pixel.
But it’s game over when a hacker threatens Ashley for the advanced tech. Her nostalgic utopia becomes her personal hell as he infiltrates the system, altering Ashley’s mind and blurring the lines between reality and the virtual world. When Ashley finds that he’ll do the same to others when he mass produces the tech, she realizes the only way to stop him is to delete the code. In other words, destroy her dreams and lose her sister—again.
TTYL won a mentorship through Author Mentor Match and was shortlisted in the Pitch Wars Mentorship contest.
AN IMMORTAL'S GUIDE TO BEING CURSED: AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS
Amasis wouldn’t mind being immortal if he had a functioning memory. Extensive record-keeping is the only way he trudges through life, but honestly, he’d rather die like everyone else. Unfortunately, he can’t remember why he was cursed or what’s keeping him on Earth. Until his ancient girlfriend rises from the dead.
She warns him of a deadly game conducted by five power-hungry gods. The deities are using Earth as the gameboard and uniquely designed humans as pawns, and Amasis is one of them. The god in control of the last pawn standing wins control over humanity and the divine realms. But Amasis's god, the god of the dead, doesn't plan on losing—he brings Amasis back to life every time the other players kill him, sabotaging the game.
The only way Amasis can break the cycle and be awarded permadeath is to kill the other players, but there’s no way Amasis would allow a god who slapped him with an immortality curse to rule mankind. If Amasis can convince the brainwashed pawns to work against the gods, they can outsmart them—and Amasis can finally rest with his ancient girlfriend in peace. Well, if he can remember the game exists in the first place.
AN IMMORTAL'S GUIDE TO BEING CURSED: AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS was shortlisted for the RevPit editing contest.
CENZO'S HUMAN EXPERIENCE
All Cenzo wants is eternal life without the inconveniences of the human experience, like illness, death, and love. Selling his soul to Orcus, an ancient god, to become an undead creature of the night is a small price to pay, and all he has to do is collect human souls and turn them into fellow stregoni. Easy. Too bad he has to work with Viola, his ex-wife and fellow strega, who holds a grudge about their mortal past life together.
Unfortunately, his line of work attracts a few enemies. Cenzo’s luck runs out when a ‘holier-than-thou’ stregoni hunter, Erik, injects him with a mysterious serum that makes him sick, tired, and undeniably mortal—complete with a buffet of emotions. To put salt in the wound, Viola takes advantage of his mortality and attempts to murder him and reign over the stregoni on her own.
If Cenzo can’t reverse the serum’s effects, his body will perish and Orcus will destroy his soul—a fate worse than death. Cenzo’s only hope is to get on Erik’s good side and convince him to make a cure. If only guilt over saving himself in exchange for murdering hundreds of humans, including his ex-wife, wasn’t so distracting.
CENZO'S HUMAN EXPERIENCE was shortlisted for the RevPit editing contest and is currently being revised.