Projects

WISHING BLUES

Blurb: If nineteen-year-old Colten Ellsworth had been given the option of how to spend his last summer before university, he wouldn’t have visited a remote and sweltering desert. Forced to join his energetic yet moribund grandfather on his bucket-list trip, Colten is determined to end the expedition early by any means—including bribing any and all possible escorts.

Eighteen-year-old Sierra Izidro, a competent local tour guide, is desperate for hush money to keep her ex-boyfriend from revealing a damning secret that would render her an outcast. Naturally, Colten’s ridiculous but lucrative offer to ‘get paid to do nothing’ is extremely appealing—until she realizes his grandfather is the Great Mahey Ellsworth: adventurer extraordinaire, famous wildlife journalist, and her childhood hero.

The journey across the hazardous desert and up a perilous mountain to an abandoned mining town crawling with ghosts—and all to see deadly magical birds—is a veritable death sentence, made all the more harrowing by Sierra and Colten’s constant bickering. When their motley crew finally reaches their destination and comes face-to-face with murderous mercenaries wielding magic in impossible ways, they’re thrust into a magical conspiracy that threatens Sierra’s home. To save it, she’ll have to do what she fears most: expose her secret by removing her armor-like hat and learning to use the power of her magical curse. Meanwhile, Colten must decide if he’ll return to his life of comfort and ballrooms, or will continue to brave shootouts and rowdy saloons to aid his new friends. Trusting each other is the only way they’ll survive; but the desert is a treacherous thing, and it likes to play games.

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