Invasion

Aliens are invading.

The Earth is doomed.

The end of the world is a bad time to fall in love.

Joshy is a normal kid from an average town suffering through a mediocre road trip with his family.

He's positive this vacation will be just as bland and uninteresting as every one that came before it.

Then he meets Debra. She's everything he's ever wanted in a girl. She's smart, funny, and radiant.

They love all the same things, right down to the same obscure comic books.

There's a definite spark between them.

Literally.

The moment they finally kiss, a bolt of electricity from Debra's mouth knocks Joshy unconscious. He wakes up to a shocking truth.

Debra is an alien.

Worse yet, another race called the Globorians are about to invade Earth and enslave all of humanity.

Now, Joshy and Debra must race against time to stop the Globorian plot and save the planet before it's too late.

If you love young romance, alien invasions, coming-of-age stories, and non-stop action, then grab Invasion today. Get it now.

WHY I LOVE IT:

1. I did not write romance before this book. Yes, there's a lot of action, but the focus of this book was the help me process through working on a novel with a romance as the central theme.
2. Sometimes, you just want a dumb, fun summer blockbuster, and this book delivers.
3. This is one of my favorite covers I've ever gotten.

REVIEWS:

*****

loved this story. It provided EVERYTHING I look for in an SF story. It's funny, full of great pop culture references that made me smile and battles that would do the very best tactical video games proud.

-Aurora

*****

With plenty of moments that made me laugh and great characterization (I know more than a few people who were like Joshy in high school, including myself) this is a book I've read a couple of times already

-Ben Toth

SAMPLE:

Joshy Carter didn’t much like the idea of spending his summer traveling across the country with his parents. Not that he had much going on back home. He’d never had much success making friends, so there was nobody to miss. Still, his room had his PlayStation and his sleep—his precious, precious sleep—and solitude.

On the road there was nothing except for his family, his sister, and—

“The open road, Joshy!” his father, Bill, said. “There’s nothing like it.”

“Actually, there are tons of things like it. There’s nothing literally everywhere. This is the part I hate in video games. Endless nothingness until you reach a town. At least in games, you can fast travel. Can’t do that here, though. We gotta endure every excruciating second.”

Josh folded his arms across his chest. “And I hate being called Joshy,” he added. “I’m eighteen years old. I’m not a child anymore. Like literally, I am no longer a child in the eyes of the government, even. Pretty much everywhere, I am an adult by any measure of the word.”

Joshy squeaked when he talked, and it made his mother Carole laugh. After all, that was the kind of child...adult...that Joshy was...the kind that people didn’t fear. He was kind of meek, and frankly uninteresting. The only thing he cared about was playing Fortnite.

Joshy played all day and night, hardly leaving his room except to eat. He dreamed of being a professional video game player, which was the kind of thing that wasn’t even possible a few years ago and now consumed the thoughts of millions.

“Would you lower the volume of that music,” Joshy said, looking over at his sister blaring K Pop from her phone. “I can hear it all the way over here.”

“Suck it up,” Leslie said.

“You’re gonna go deaf,” he replied.

“That’s future me’s problem,” she replied.

K Pop was a thing Leslie loved, so of course, it was stupid to Joshy. That didn’t make it any less fun or catchy. Most people couldn’t listen to it on repeat like she could, but to each their own. If Joshy could spend hours rotting his brain with computers, then Leslie could rot hers with Korean pop music. That was the American Way.

“This blows,” Joshy said with a deep sigh. “America is boring.”

While Joshy was dull and uninteresting, his sister was spectacular. Not only did she graduate two years early from high school and take an accelerated track at Stanford, but she was going to be the first in her family to graduate law school. If all went to plan, she would be the first in her family to be governor of California, too, though that would be true for most families. 

“That’s a horrible attitude, mister,” his mother said to him. “You should take a second to stop and enjoy these little moments. I would have killed to go on a road trip with my parents as a child.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it, mom,” Joshy scoffed. “Nobody has ever wanted to go on a road trip with their parents in the history of the universe.”

Leslie raised her hand. “I did. I mean, I took time off from summer school to be here, so your point has been disproven inside this very car.”

“You’re a bit of a know-it-all, did you know that?” Joshy said. “It’s really annoying.”

The voice inside the GPS blared through the car before Joshy and Leslie had a chance to argue more. “In two miles, stay left on Interstate 15 North.”

“We’re getting close, Joshy!” his father exclaimed. “Can you smell it? Vegas baby! Vegas!!!”

“No,” Joshy said. “Just no.”

“I don’t see why you think Joshy would be excited about Vegas,” Leslie said. “It’s not like he can drink or gamble.” 

“As long as the room has internet and AC, I’ll be fine,” Josh said.

WHILE THERE WERE MANY outrageous hotels in Vegas, made up like New York City or a glass pyramid or the Venetian canals, their differences were generally aesthetic. Inside, they all performed the same functions. There was a casino area, a shopping area, a restaurant area, and then the hotel itself, which depending on where you were in Vegas took on a different look.

At the Elara, it meant elegant white marble everywhere. The Elara was a timeshare complex attached to the shopping center of the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. It didn’t have a casino of its own and wasn’t affiliated with Planet Hollywood, though it glommed onto its popularity. The Elara, much like David S. Pumpkins, was its own thing.

Bill Carter pulled his minivan up to the front of the hotel and stepped out of the car. His bones ached from five hours of driving, and his back cracked as he arched it.

A valet in a red vest and bright smile ran up to him. “Your keys, sir?”

Bill pulled his keys close to his chest. “No. I’m sorry. I’m going to...self-park.”

“It’s complimentary, my friend,” the valet said with a smile. “There’s no charge for valet.”

Bill liked that idea. He was thrilled about it, actually. He never valeted his car in Los Angeles. After all, who had an extra $10 to pay the valet? Forget about it. But a free valet, well he could indulge in that. Those are the best types of splurges, Bill thought, the free kind.

“Quit talking with the valet and open the trunk!” Carole called to him, cranky from the long drive and ready to relax by the pool. 

Bill reached into his car and pushed the button to open the trunk. He thought it was quite extravagant to buy a car where the trunk opened by itself, but it was included in the base model price, so who was he to argue?

Before the trunk finished opening, a bellboy pulled up a luggage carrier to the car and loaded a large suitcase onto the carrier. It was heavy, and the bellman struggled with the massive weight, but he didn’t say anything, except to let out a soft grunt.

“I’m sorry,” Carole said. “Do you want any help with that?”

“It’s their job, mom,” Joshy said with a scowl. “Let them do their job.”

Joshy hadn’t yet learned the concepts of compassion or empathy. That was something that solidified with time, work, and sacrifice, none of which were things Joshy ever had to deal with much in his privileged life.

“I’m fine, ma’am,” the bellman said. “Please go to the front desk. I’ll meet you there.”

Joshy pulled a tattered backpack out of the trunk and flung it across his back. Then, he walked inside and up the escalator toward the front desk.

BY THE TIME JOSHY’S parents joined him in the lobby of the hotel, he was already halfway through his fifth level of Angry Birds. It insulted his skill to play casual games, but his Nintendo Switch had lost power halfway through the trip, and he’d forgotten his car charger at home, so he was stuck until he got into his room.

“About time!” Joshy said in a huff when his parents stepped off the escalator.

“You could have helped them unload the car,” Leslie replied. “It would have gone a lot faster if you did.”

“Sure,” Joshy said, standing up. “But I can follow directions. He said to go to the lobby, so I went to the lobby.”

Now, you have to imagine Joshy, an eighteen-year-old human male, saying this, with all the sarcasm of an eighteen-year-old human male, dripping with testosterone and filled with the kind of wisdom only a teenager could confidently show, devoid of any irony in the fact that he truly knew nothing.

Bill stepped up to the front desk and pleasantries were exchanged. Once the keys were given and the platitudes traded, Joshy and his family were on their way up to their room, a rather luxurious suite filled with nice beds, cozy towels, and the like.

“You and your sister get this room,” Bill said, gesturing toward the room on their right as they walked into the suite. There were two queen beds inside, and little else. Then, he pointed toward a much larger room across from them, beyond the couch and dining room table. “Your mother and I get that one.”

“Not fair!” Joshy said, walking inside to see a kitchen, couch, and big screen TV mounted on the wall. “Why can’t I have my own room?”

“Because life isn’t fair,” Leslie replied. “It’s not like I’m happy about this either. You snore.”

“Do not,” Joshy argued, except he totally did. If he had any friends, they would all agree with Leslie.

“Well,” Carole said with a smile. “I’m ready to do a little lounging around. Who wants to go down to the pool?”

“Sounds nice,” Bill said, thumbing a wad of money in his wallet. He knew the odds of hitting it rich in Vegas were low, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. “I’ll come for a little bit. Then, I want to walk around.”

“Not me,” Leslie said. “I plan to lounge by the pool until dinner.”

The doorbell to the room rang. Bill ran to the door to welcome in the bellman, who pulled his luggage carrier inside and took all their suitcases off it. Once he was done, he stood there, smiling, for a good ten seconds without saying a word. It was quite awkward.

“I think he wants you to tip him, hun,” Carole said.

“Oh!” Bill replied. “I thought it was free. Isn’t this free?”

“Yes, sir, technically.”

Bill slapped the bellman on the shoulder. “Perfect! Then I’ll see you again soon. Have a great day.”

The bellman left, grumbling to himself. Bill was the third person in a row to stiff him. He hated his job and looked forward to the day he finished night school with a computer science degree. Nobody would stiff him then.