DARKFEATHER - BOOK 3 - THE ELUSIVE SPARK SERIES COMING 02/05/2019

THE ELUSIVE SPARK SERIES, BOOK 3, DARKFEATHER 2/5/2019

DARKFEATHER, THE ELUSIVE SPARK, BOOK 3 - COMING FEB 5, 2019

Darkfeather, Chapter 1, by Andrew Demcak

The Paragon Academy, Los Angeles, CA, 2001

1.

            “Karen, wake up!” the short, beige-colored alien, UBE, said as he shook the unconscious woman on the Army bunk. “You have to hurry. The security fence is only going to be un-electrified for another twenty minutes. This is your only chance of getting out of here!” UBE threw his three-fingered hands in the air and paced in a small circle.

Karen Darkfeather rolled over. She rubbed her hazel eyes and pulled her long red hair away from her face. Her pupils adjusted to the dim light inside the Army command center beneath The Paragon Academy. She yawned and stretched, taking in a deep breath of the recycled air. In all these months, she still hadn’t gotten used to living in a retrofitted cavern, day and night simulated by banks of sodium lamps bolted to the cave ceiling. When she had turned nineteen last year, she’d won a coveted scholarship to do research at Paragon. Her classmates at UCLA’s Microbiology Department were green with envy, after all, she was the kid of the department. Since then, Karen had been living full time in a staff bunker on the base with the other med techs and scientists. It seemed like forever since she’d been “up top” on the earth’s surface where she could walk around freely without armed MPs watching her every move. She was forgetting what sunlight even felt like.

Everything down here is one big secret, she thought absently.

Karen shifted in her white lab coat and undid the top three buttons. It was so hot and stuffy in UBE’s humidified chamber. The three-foot tall alien stood attentively beside her, wringing his hands, a look of grave concern in his huge dark eyes.

“What time is it?”

“It’s time for you to go!” he continued while waving her up off the bunk. “Come along. Dr. Albion is off-site, and they won’t be expecting someone escape over the fence by the XiCOM towers.”

“This is all happening so quickly. Are you sure this will work?”

“Girlfriend,” UBE said and snapped his fingers twice in the air. “You’re the one who got herself pregnant with stolen Zeta-Reticulan DNA. You should have known the Army wouldn’t let keep your baby.”

“But I’m only eight weeks pregnant,” Karen said and rubbed her belly. She felt the fullness of her unborn child, even this early. She let her hand rest there for a moment. There she is, my precious baby growing inside. She. I said it. I know she’s a girl. I know it somehow. Keira, that’s her name. I won’t let them take you, Keira. I won’t! Karen shook her head. “Maybe I can still make some kind of bargain? I mean, I’m still their employee, right?”

“You were their employee until you broke every rule in your contract by trying to smuggle top secret government material off the base – your unborn child! I can’t hide you in here any longer,” UBE replied in a scolding tone. He turned from Karen and crossed to the far side of the small metallic room. The alien put his hand on what looked like a block of solid marble the size of a filing cabinet. It began to glow bright white and then opened along the side. A metal tray slid out. In it were two strange objects: a gold chain with a black stone pendant in the shape of two conjoined suns, and the other, small stone box about the size of a deck of cards that had the twin suns inlaid on it in gold. UBE retrieved the articles and then walked over and placed them in Karen’s hands.

“What are these?”

“These are for Keira…” the alien said simply and paused.

“But how did you…?”

“We are psychically connected, Karen.” UBE smiled kindly at her. “You are my only friend here at Paragon. I can see your thoughts. In time, with the help of your unborn child, you may start seeing mine.”

“But what are these?”

“This,” UBE said as he picked up the pendant, “Is a Heart’s Compass. It will bring your daughter back to you or to me, if ever she gets lost. And this is a hjarta kassi, a Heart’s Box. Once we close it, it will only open again for one person, its true owner, Keira. I want you to write her a letter and explain what is happening to you and place it inside. At some point after she is born you will need separate from her so The Paragon Academy can’t find her, maybe offer her up for adoption. You will give her the Heart’s Box and Compass so she’ll understand and find her way back to us.”

A look of anguish flashed over Karen’s face. “I can’t! I won’t! I’m not going to give up my child.”

“Karen, it’s the only way if you want her to be free and not be a slave of the US Government,” UBE said and blinked his huge eyes coldly. “You know what they’ll do to her: the experiments, the painful genetic tests, the endless rounds of bloodwork and tissue samples.”

Karen nodded sadly and then sat in silence on the green bunk.  “UBE, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. I’ve messed everything up.”

“On the contrary, this is all part of a much larger plan, my dear,” UBE said wistfully. “I only have seen one small part of it and that part will take place sixteen years from this very day. That’s when I’ll reconnect with my life partner EBE, he’ll show me the rest of the plan. That is when Nibiru is arriving. And at that time, EBE and I will be together with Keira and her new Zetan siblings.”

Karen was stunned into silence again. She had no idea what UBE was talking about. But there was no time to ask questions; she knew she had to get going. This was the only time the well-maintained security perimeter would be down for maintenance. She’d have to climb over the usually electrified fence and then head down into the canyons and find her way from The Paragon Academy to the nearest freeway and hitchhike. UBE was right; this was her only chance, right now.

“I’ll miss you so much,” Karen said, standing and embracing the small being, the tears already forming in the corners of her eyes. “You’ve done so much for me.”

“Oh, twaddle; it is I who is grateful for you,” UBE continued as he hugged tighter. “Now, hurry. You have no time to lose.” UBE moved over to the sealed aluminum door and swiped his hand across it. It opened with a hissing sound. “Go along the hallway to the Gamma corridor and then go to the nearest freight elevator. Here’s the elevator key I stole from one of the guards. Take the elevator up to ground level. From there you’ll have to run. Now go!” UBE commanded and pushed Karen, trembling, out into the hallway. She broke into a sprint down the hall and ran as fast as she could. She turned the corner, not looking back even once. UBE waited patiently until he couldn’t hear Karen’s footsteps anymore, then turned and went back inside, the automatic door closing behind him.

“I hope she’ll be alright,” he said sadly to himself and shook his bulbous head. “She has to be, for all our sakes.”

A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON -FREE EBOOK- THROUGH MAY 30 2018

Whoa! A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON just zoomed up 1,800,000 places to #3 on Amazon's BEST SELLERS List for LGBTQ TEEN FICTION. And the eBook is FREE AT iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, basically all over the web, until May 30 2018! Get it now and see what all the excitement is about! The sequel ALPHA WAVE has just been released!

FIRST REVIEW OF NEW NOVEL ALPHA WAVE BY ANDREW DEMCAK

Alpha Wave picks up where A Little Bit Langston, the first book in the Elusive Spark series, left off. If you bonded with James, Paul, and Lumen in A Little Bit Langston, you’ll be glad to see them all again. I loved both books, but I’m a sucker for a mighty girl hero, and Alpha Wave delivers. And three cheers for a YA book with a totally believable cast full of boy-loving boys and girl-loving girls. 

Keira, the main character, is a Southern California teenager with a troubled family situation and a major attitude. The adventure starts right away when she discovers her supernatural powers through a conflict with her foster father. Keira encounters a caring mentor in the form of a Tibetan monk who has assumed the shape of a talking rat and appears in time to save her from a demon who works for the government—and that’s just the first surprise. Originality is a huge strength in this story, which takes the bones of a classic coming-of-age plot and fleshes it out with all-fresh twisty details. There are plenty of funny and sexy moments, plus a few that will have you biting your nails or putting on your sunglasses on the bus so people can’t see you getting misty. 

Demcak’s writing is infused with a gentle spirituality that reminds me of the best of Madeleine L’Engle. I had the good fortune to be one of Alpha Wave’s beta readers; this is definitely one of those books that holds up nicely to being read twice, and both reads left me with a wonderful sense of trust in his world’s design and his characters’ ability to choose love over fear, no matter how risky. - Skye Alexander, Goodreads.

LOOKING FOR REVIEWERS FOR MY NEW LGBTQ NOVEL - ALPHA WAVE (2018)

Hi,

Anyone want to review my new LGBTQ novel, ALPHA WAVE (Harmony Ink Press, 2018)? Contact me and I can send you an eBook version. Review could be for Amazon, Goodreads, public or personal blogs, litereary magazines/journals, etc. Thanks! 

ALPHA WAVE BY ANDREW DEMCAK PROMO 2

GHOST SONGS FEATURED NOVEL AT TEEN TUESDAY/BLAST FROM THE PAST

Teen Tuesday
A blast from the past (2014) with Ghosts Songs fromAndrew Demcak
https://www.harmonyinkpress.com/books/ghost-songs-by-andrew-demcak-78-b
http://www.andrewdemcak.org/

ALPHA WAVE PROMO #1

COMING MAY 2018: ALPHA WAVE BY ANDREW DEMCAK

With so many hunting her for the power she possesses, Keira Fairchild needs a friend in her corner.

After escaping from both the Paragon Academy and a ring of slave traders, Keira is searching for answers. Who is the mysterious alien being trying to contact her in her dreams, and why is he being held captive? Keira learns she isn’t alone. James, Lumen, and Paul are teens with powers like her own—and all of them are in danger. They’ve been sent by their alien father to look for Keira. The kidnapped alien needs their help, and the unscrupulous Dr. Albion has a plan to rob them of their powers and destroy them. In the battle that awaits them, standing together is their only chance.

FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY - A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON & ZERO SUMMER BY ANDREW DEMCAK

Free Book Giveaway! I'm giving away one signed copy of my GLBTQ Teen novel, A Little Bit Langston, and two signed copies of my classic second poetry book, Zero Summer. CLICK ON THE COVER BELOW TO ENTER!!!

ALPHA WAVE FORTHCOMING FROM HARMONY INK PRESS, SUMMER 2018

The sequel to A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON, Alpha Wave (Harmony Ink Press, 2018), will be published in Summer of 2018. I just signed the contract.  You can get a head start by reading the first chapter here.

SKYE ALLEN: Why Is My Queer YA Story Not a Romance Nor a Coming Out Story?

Why Is My Queer YA Story Not a Romance Nor a Coming Out Story? By Skye Allen

There’s a trope about coming out in LGBTQ+ young adult fiction. And there’s another trope about falling in love. Pick up a queer story with a teen protagonist, and I would understand if you expected certain things. Kissing. Maybe sex, depending on your idea of what makes something a YA book versus a book for adults. A story that centers on the big gay reveal to Mom/Dad/Coach.

I get where that came from. The whole concept of queer young adult stories told in a positive light, that genre being a thing at all, that is still fresh and wonderful. Queer literature in general is relatively young as a category, and it’s no surprise that the first few generations of stories had a lot to do with falling in love and coming out. After all, that’s what makes us different. It’s who we are and who we love. And the dangers that can strike when we tell the world the good news. That makes for pretty huge drama, and no matter how enlightened your family or your hometown, the day you come out is always going to be a pretty huge day.

But some of the best queer YA books, lately, have not been love stories. They haven’t even been coming out stories. The audience is ready for that now; they have been for some time. There’s no closet factor in these non-romances, no miserable gay teens who can’t show themselves in all their splendor for fear of violence or being misunderstood by the people they have to live with. It’s just…kids. Kids who already came out before the book started. Some of them have sweethearts. Some are single. Some are fixated on that special diving champion or choir girl, or just on losing their virginity, but some are fixated on their mother’s immigration status or the app they’re creating or any one of a million different real-life things.

In other words, they’re real kids.

In Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, the central relationship is between two friends, a gay boy and a straight boy. There’s a mention of sex, but not between those two. The story explores the range of complex emotion in a teenage best-friendship. That’s what it’s about. And I love it for that. Andrew Demcak’s beautiful Ghost Songs is similar: the main character is gay, but that’s a given. His story is about bullying, and a deep friendship, and an alcoholic parent, and just plain growing up as a sensitive kid. It’s not a romance. It doesn’t need to be.

I knew when I started writing The Songbird Thief that there was no love story. Or -- there was, but not a romantic one. It’s the story of Lee, a fifteen-year-old girl from rural Marin County who runs away to San Francisco to be near her grownup friend, Sonja. Lee has a crush on Sonja, but it’s not reciprocal. Sonja is like a mother to Lee. Girls Lee’s age come along who could be love interests, and there’s a flirtatious moment or two, but Lee is busy looking for a job and trying to find her real father. Lee’s life is complicated by magic, and her singing voice makes people do things like unconsciously walk into traffic. She’s distracted. She’s a girl who happens to be gay, whose story has nothing to do with kissing.

She’s a real kid. And I’m happy there’s a place on the bookshelf for her.

Read more from Skye Allen at her blog - click here.

GREAT REVIEW OF A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON OVER AT QUEER SCI-FI!

Review: A Little Bit Langston by Andrew Demcak

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Jay Hawke — Leave a reply

Title: “A Little Bit Langston.”

Author: Andrew Demcak

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult.

Publisher: Harmony Ink Press

Pages: 204.

Blurb:

Being different can be dangerous, and discovery can be deadly.

High school freshman James Kerr is finding out he’s not quite like his classmates. Around the time he realizes he’s attracted to his best friend, Paul Schmitz, James starts channeling a dead writer’s poetry and also discovers he has an ability to manipulate energy-a super power. Before James can figure out why this is happening to him, tragedy strikes in the form of Paul’s abusive father, and James is sent to a government-run school, The Paragon Academy, which specializes in juvenile paranormal research. There, he meets Lumen, the daughter of a famous Korean actress. Lumen’s psychic ability might be the key to helping James understand both his poems and his own power.

Review:

I was in a really bad mood when I picked up a copy of A Little Bit Langston, having had an especially horrendous week of insomnia. But I picked it up anyway, really just out of habit, hoping to kill some time before the end of the day. Before I knew it, I had finished half the book. If you can overcome one of my insomnia induced zombie states, you are an especially engaging author.

A Little Bit Langston is not at all what I expected. It follows a young teen, James Kerr, as he tries to come to terms with a highly strange occurrence. He is assigned to write a poem for class, and unwittingly, he writes a beautiful poem that just happens to resemble the work of the famous poet, Langston Hughes. The mystery is instantly gripping, as James tries to figure out what exactly happened. Is he somehow channeling a long dead, poet? His teacher naturally thinks he plagiarized it, and poor James doesn’t know what to do. His quirky mother finally intervenes and decides to enroll him in a unique school, Paragon Academy, where they work with “special” kids. And that’s where the strangeness intensifies. Now cut off from his mother and friends, James discovers that this school is not what it professes to be, and he must learn to tap his strange power, as well as rely upon some equally gifted teens, to solve the institution’s very odd secret.

Demcak’s strength as a writer comes through in the eminently likable characters he creates. James himself is a beautiful, if confused soul. And I loved his interactions with his new friend, Lumen, a Korean girl already familiar with much of Paragon Academy’s strange secret, due to her own unique ability. And finally James has a love interest in his best friend Paul, who himself gets caught up in Paragon’s bizarre past.

This was a great, quick read, and lots of fun — exactly what I needed during a long hot summer day and a week of insomnia. I enjoyed following James as he first discovers his strange powers, and then learns their true origins. X-files fans will especially enjoy the ride. Those steeped in UFO lore will get a bit more out of this, as Demcak makes references to famous cases throughout. And if nothing else, the book gives you the most poetic euphemism for “gay” that I’ve ever seen, a phrase captured in the book’s beautiful title. I know the author has already penned a sequel to A Little Bit Langston, called Alpha Wave. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for it to be published.

You can purchase A Little Bit Langston from Amazon or directly from Harmony Ink Press. And as a special bonus, here is an interview Queer Sci Fi’s, J. Scott Coatsworth, did with Andrew Demcak a few months ago.

Jay Jordan Hawke is the award winning author of the Two-Spirit Chronicles, which includes: Pukawiss the Outcast, A Scout is Brave, and Onwaachige the Dreamer. He is an avid sci-fi fan. His first love was Star Wars, but alas, he married Star Trek. Learn more about Jay Hawke at www.jayjordanhawke.com.

GHOSTS SONGS BY ANDREW DEMCAK $1 READS AT HARMONY INK PRESS

FREE GIVEAWAY - A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON BY ANDREW DEMCAK - ENTER NOW!

My Goodreads book giveaway is now OPEN.

 

Enter now (below) to win a signed copy of my Teen GLBTQ Sci Fi novel, A Little Bit Langston.

Kirkus Reviews raved: "This book really ... takes its place in the marginalized-will-lead-us genre,

as popularized by The Matrix and the X-Men franchises."

Being different is a challenge, especially for James Kerr.

He’s no average teenager. James begins to channel a dead writer’s poetry and then discovers he has the power to manipulate electricity. At the same time, romantic feelings for his best friend, Paul Schmitz, make him realize he’s gay. But he has little time to explore the drastic changes in his life before heartbreak strikes at the hands of Paul’s violent father. James is sent to The Paragon Academy, an institute specializing in juvenile paranormal research. There he meets Lumen Kim, the mysterious daughter of a famous Korean actress. Lumen’s psychic ability might just be the thing that helps James unlock the secrets of both his poems and the origins of his supernatural talents. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Little Bit Langston

by Andrew Demcak

Giveaway ends May 01, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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THE BEST REVIEW OF *A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON* BY ANDREW DEMCAK

A great review at Amazon of my Teen GLBTQ Sci-Fi Coming-Out novel, A Little Bit Langston:

Holding my breath for the sequel, December 29, 2015

By 

Skye

This review is from: A Little Bit Langston (Kindle Edition)

A Little Bit Langston starts off in your head. No, YOUR head, the head of an LA teenager who has a learning disability and a demanding, self-absorbed mother and a bubbling volcano of feelings for his best friend. Or at least the book starts in the head of someone you love. James, the main character, is so engaging, so immediately present on the page, that I was willing to follow him right down the rabbit hole, no questions asked.

And it is quite a warren down there. I don’t want to spoil too much, but let’s just say if you’re a fan of alien technology, secret government agencies, and gifted young people who can probably kill you with their brains, you won’t be disappointed. Not to mention if you’re a fan of Langston Hughes, the Langston of the title. The author doesn’t use any excerpts of Hughes’ actual work; instead he paraphrases, or in some instances inserts original lines that are clearly intended to remind the reader of famous Hughes poems. But the spirit of the poet is there--in the multifaceted identities of the main characters, in the brave actions of young men who get beaten for being gay, in the expansively hopeful feeling of the story as a whole.

The plot fits into the classic “chosen one” style of tale. James appears at first to have trouble reading at school, but a bizarre talent quickly emerges when he begins to channel the writing of long-dead poet Montgomery Langston (Langston Hughes). At the same time, his electricity-related superpower shows itself. After a period of being persecuted at school, and some harrowing real-world complications involving his best friend/love interest, Paul, James finds himself at a special academy for gifted teens like himself. Which is when the alien + conspiracy questions really kick into gear. I’m glad the author set us up for a sequel, because the busy, scheme-filled underworld he created is way too big for just one book.

I love a YA story where the superpowers appear at adolescence, where they overwhelm the character and then through the arc of the story he masters them. That’s what growing up feels like: channeling electricity with no control, destroying all the lightbulbs in the house, knowing for a fact that no one can understand your side of the story. Even though James’ demanding mother claims she always knew he was special, we see James changing into his true self on the page, as his feelings for Paul blossom and he discovers who he really is. In this case that’s pretty literal; James gets a big surprise when he finds out who his father is. Good YA science fiction stuff.

The love story isn’t center stage here, and that’s a big strength of the book. There’s plenty already going on in this story, and not all YA stories or coming-out stories have to be love stories. Another significant strength is Demcak’s skillful, barely-there handling of race and ethnicity. Way too much science fiction is, historically, way too white. That’s started to shift in recent years, but slowly. In A Little Bit Langston, the love interest, Paul, is Filipino, while James is white. Hardly anything is ever said about that difference between them, but Paul never has that insert-diversity-here feeling as a character. He’s three-dimensional, with a complex family and history of his own, and his journey toward loving James feels very earned. When we meet Lumen, another student at the special school, James expresses curiosity about her Korean heritage, but when the two turn out to be half-siblings, no one misses a beat, because these characters live so easily in a multicultural world.

Don’t miss out on A Little Bit Langston. I will be holding my breath until the sequel comes out.

FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY @ GOODREADS - A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON BY ANDREW DEMCAK

Enter now to win a FREE signed copy of my new Teen GLBTQ Sci-Fi Coming Out novel, 

A Little Bit Langston!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Little Bit Langston

by Andrew Demcak

Giveaway ends January 27, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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COVER REVEAL! - A LITTLE BIT LANGSTON BY ANDREW DEMCAK - HARMONY INK PRESS 2015

My new GLBTQ Teen novel, A Little Bit Langston, will be forthcoming from Harmony Ink Press, winter 2015.  If you want to add it to your Goodreads list, click HERE.

Blurb:

Being different is a challenge, especially for James Kerr. He's no average teenager. James begins to channel a dead writer’s poetry and then discovers he has the power to manipulate electricity. At the same time, romantic feelings for his best friend, Paul Schmitz, make him realize he’s gay. But he has little time to explore the drastic changes in his life before heartbreak strikes at the hands of Paul’s violent father. James is sent to The Paragon Academy, an institute specializing in juvenile paranormal research. There he meets Lumen Kim, the mysterious daughter of a famous Korean actress. Lumen’s psychic ability might just be the thing that helps James unlock the secrets of both his poems and the origins of his supernatural talents. 

GOODREADS BOOK GIVEAWAY GHOST SONGS BY ANDREW DEMCAK

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Ghost Songs

by Andrew Demcak

Giveaway ends July 14, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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