As many of you know, I have spent countless hours over the last year and a half building the world of Solstara, and I am beyond excited to share that after a rigorous submission process, Indigo River Publishing has selected my manuscript and offered me a contract. On 12/31/25, Dawn and I accepted the terms!

The final hurdle to getting this book onto shelves is a $13,500 "buy-in" requirement—a common practice in modern publishing to ensure the initial launch is a success. I’m reaching out to my inner circle because I need your help to bridge this gap to turn this dream into a reality. Whether it’s through a small contribution or simply sharing my campaign, your support would mean the world to me as I take this final step toward becoming a published author!

Indigo River Publishing uses a hybrid publishing model, blending traditional support with author investment, where authors pay for professional services (editing, design, production) but retain creative control and higher royalties, acting as a partner rather than just a service provider, aiming for quality publication with editorial vetting and customized production. All books are put into wide distribution and made available to bookstores, retailers, schools, and libraries both nationally and internationally, including Barnes & Noble, Target and Books A Million. The books will be distributed through Simon & Schuster.

The Pitch:

On a tidally-locked planet that orbits a red sun, the populace carves out a meager existence in the twilight between the blinding heat of the sunside and the spaceblack cold of the shadowside. The rich occupy choice pockets along the band, spots that are naturally shielded from the sun's radiation. Unprotected, the poor live in concrete bunkers in the desiccated Arid Zones.

    But there is hope. Philanthropists plant stations on either side of the livable strip, casting an artificial protective shield above the desert sands. Over generations, life is possible, plants sprouting from the cracked ground. But these stations often fall, beleaguered by Marauder attacks, political betrayals and the constant dangers of the harsh ecosystem. Monstrous wolves. Lion-like apex predators called "Rooks."

    Reed Ashford is a grizzled gun for hire, one of the sole survivors of a philanthropic disaster that ended with monsters raking his station's hallways empty. Now, he believes the only good is the good you can do alone, the good you can do with a rifle. When congresswoman Rhea Harper stakes her career on planting her own pair of bases, Reed is dragged back to the last place he’d ever want to go: back into the mission field. Now, he, Rhea and Lira, a fourteen-year-old orphan with her own haunted past, must face their ghosts if they are to survive the impending, world-wrecking “Superflare”—and maybe help a few Arid Zoners survive it too.