Kristen Bickerstaff
author | editor | marketer
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EMBERS ON THE WIND
Adult fantasy novel, currently querying.
Metal crafter Kalliope Brandt didn't kill those police officers. Her alibi is airtight; while her activist friend was stealing classified documents and blowing up a building to cover his tracks, she was flying a plane. But she's a crafter in a country that sees her as a second-class citizen, so of course, the police are calling her a terrorist too. Kal is forced to go on the run and discovers a conspiracy to steal an upcoming election, led by a fanatic who is convinced that crafting is destroying the world. The worst part is, he's right.
The key to learning how their world got so broken lies with investigative journalist Will Byrne. Thrown together, Kal and Will race against time to clear her name and expose the conspiracy. But to do so, Kal will have to give up every secret she's ever kept and put her beloved family in the crosshairs.
HOWL TO THE STARS
Adult sci-fi novel, currently drafting.
Earth has been abandoned, its last remaining survivors crammed onto ships with their most advanced science, searching for anywhere they can call home. To adapt to the harsh environments of other planets, the ship scientists spliced animal DNA into the survivors. But four ships are lost in an accident, crashing down to the rocky crag of Varyn 5 and abandoned for dead. Centuries have passed, and the survivors of the crashed ships have long ago lost their connection to their technologically advanced ancestors. Sparse resources and a harsh landscape have led to a clan culture, insular and rigid in its rules for survival.
Chana, founder and alpha of a small pack in the southern cliffs, knows that the pack's survival must outweigh all other concerns. But when a strange woman with seemingly no traces of splicing walks into their den on the arm of her best friend, Chana's beloved pack is thrown into turmoil. Betrayed and fighting for her life, Chana must decide if duty and loyalty are worth dying for on these rocky cliffs.