Portland has a ghost problem.
Sixteen-year-old Claire wants her father back. His death left her only memories and an empty locket. After six difficult years in foster care, her vocabulary no longer includes “hope” and “trust”.
Everything changes when Justin rides his magical horse into her path and takes her under his wing. Like the rest of the elite men who serve as Spirit Knights, he hunts restless ghosts that devour the living.
When an evil spirit threatens Claire’s life, she’ll need Justin’s help to survive. And how could she bear the Knights’ mark on her soul? Everybody knows Girls Can’t Be Knights.
So goes the blurb for my next book, a Young Adult Urban Paranormal Adventure published by Myrddin Publishing. Like many Book 1s, this is an origin story. This is the book I tried to write as Justin’s story and failed because I liked Claire enough to elevate her to main character. But I also liked Justin. So, it’s about both of them. She’s the ingenue, he’s the mentor. They don’t fall in love, because he’s 24 and she’s 16, and that’s gross. Ew.
I chose Portland as the setting because it’s the only place I could think of that meets all the following criteria:
1. I’ve been there.
2. I can go there with relative ease to investigate specific locales.
3. It has lots of trees, and I like green.
4. Everyone knows it’s a weird place.
Lots of places fit 1-3, but only Portland covers all 4. Why did I need a place known for being weird? Justin takes the whole “Knight” thing seriously. He wears armor, wields a sword, and rides a horse. While he could do that anywhere, only in Portland could he do that without attracting a ton of attention.
Cover reveal coming soon!
It sounds like a fun read.
I hope so! 🙂