About My Projects, Rebel Girl and The Call of the King

You may have seen the progress bar on the right side of the website and wondered what the books were about. Well, today I am going to introduce you to my two WIPs (Works in Progress).

Rebel Girl

Genre: YA Coming of Age/Slice of Life with a slight crime fiction twist.

CONTENT WARNING: This is a story that deals with different types of abuse. While the back cover copy is not graphic nor descriptive, if you are uncomfortable with this subject you can scroll down to The Call of the King.

If there was one thing Cheyenne Turner hates, it’s trust.

Trust burned her when her mother left her in the grasp of her abusive father. Trust left her alone for three months in a house filled with pain and broken memories. And trust tore her apart when the one person she felt was safe left her in the dust.

She’s done with trust. Trust leads to pain.

Jessie Adams was only thirteen when the person she loved most in the world defiled her, and now, fourteen years later, she’s finally living out the dream she penned in diaries as a little girl, raising Morgan horses and writing books that change the world. The man who stole her innocence– her grandfather– has been in prison for eleven years and is never getting out.

Then God calls her to take in a foster kid, a teen whose past is broken seemingly beyond repair and relives her abuse in nightmares every night. Jessie barely made it out of her own abuse recovery alive; how is she supposed to help this traumatized girl who refuses to trust?

When the person who hurt Cheyenne the most begins to track her down, she’ll have to rely on the help of Jessie to find a way out of her mental prison– before the lies trap her forever.

Main Characters:

Cheyenne Turner: Asian/Caucasian 15 year old girl, green eyes, black hair. Always wears a leather jacket. Has been in the foster system for a year and was arrested for breaking into a car when she was fourteen. Was physically abused by her alcoholic father for five years.

Jessie Adams: Caucasian 27-year-old woman, blonde hair, blue eyes. Second oldest in the Adams family, oldest sister. Lives on a split 113 acres with her parents, Kay and Allen Adams, brother Treat Adams and sister Leslie Adams Scott. Has a sister who works as a traveling artist, Malorie Adams. Writes MG and YA fiction and breeds Morgan horses and Ancona ducks. Was assaulted by her grandfather for three years in her childhood.

Inspiration:

Rebel Girl was originally titled Cheyenne and Lightning, and was the first book in a series I’d plotted after hearing about Dee Henderson’s O’Malley series. I wanted to write a story about several foster kids all getting adopted and living at the same house, so I decided to write The Second Chance Ranch Series, originally titled The Hearts and Hooves Ranch Series. The series later features Vicky, a seemingly “perfect” girl living with an abusive single mom, Corey, a kidnap victim who hasn’t seen her family in nine years, and Kristen, an orphan whose parents died under mysterious circumstances.

The Adams family (and some of their animals) are largely based on my own family. Jessie, the duotagonist, is based on myself and my own hopes and dreams, as well as some of her past darkness mirroring my own.

The purpose of Rebel Girl is to bring light and hope to the depressing and often demonic YA genre, in a book that features the truth of Jesus while also featuring real darkness. Because of what it features, Rebel Girl is designed for the 14-18 year-old age range.

Wings of Equinox

Genre: MG Fantasy/Animal Adventure

Snowfire was born knowing her destiny. Her life has been dictated since the moment of her birth, given a future that she can’t change. She wants to be normal, but being normal means letting down the ones she loves most.

Ruby lives in a land of rules, a place where punishment is a reminder of the far worse consequences of wandering farther than the forest and Hot Water Flats. But when her family and home are torn apart by Shakiran pegasi, she finds that everything she thought was true— everything she thought she wanted to be— is a lie.

Two fillies were prophesied to bring about the return of the King long ago. But when the fillies are born in warring nations, who will follow the call of the King?

Main Characters:

Snowfire: Pure white pegasus filly with white feathers, pink skin, brown eyes. Granddaughter of the chief stallion and lead mare of Prairie Tribe. Lives in Equinox. Her mother gave up her life to save Snowfire, and her father, Chance, is very protective of her.

Ruby: Land Horse filly with blood red coat, two fore socks, one white spot on left heel, ivory mane and tail. Adventurous and daring. Brother Shade is two years older than her. Lives in a Land Horse Herd under a stallion named Storm on the island on Shakirana.

Inspiration:

Wings of Equinox was originally a collaborated writing project between me and two of my friends. It planted a seed of an idea in my head, and soon, The Call of the King, originally Wings of Legacy, was born. I wanted to write a fantasy series that featured God in a non-cheesy way while also still including my favorite subject: horses. The original book didn’t even feature Ruby– it was about Snowfire completing the Yearling Trek while trying to avoid the wrath of her foster sister Dawnwillow.

One of the things I also wanted to point out in the book was the difference in magic systems. In the Bible, “magic” is something that comes from demonic forces. That’s why the Equinoxian’s “magic” is called Talents, which they are called by the King to use wisely. Only the Shakirans have true “magic”, as well as some of the Unicorn Clans; however, this “magic” is usually used for evil purposes.

(To learn more about the other characters of The Call of the King, go to my previous article.)

***
So those are my current WIPs! Stay tuned for more information and updates as I work on these projects!