After roughly 13–15 years, I’ve finally released The Wasteland Child, a science-fiction/fantasy adventure novel I originally began working on while earning my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.
It’s a little strange—and honestly pretty satisfying—to finally see this book available to readers after all this time.
A Story That Took a Long Time to Get Here
The Wasteland Child takes place in the lush jungles of Amnar, where every child possesses the ability to control beasts with their minds.
Every child except Dwyth.
Branded “The Ungifted One,” Dwyth is treated as a disappointment by his village and expects to spend his life doing small, meaningless work.
Then he discovers that the parents who raised him aren't his real parents.
Even more shocking, he learns that he originally came from the deadly Wasteland beyond the jungle.
Determined to uncover the truth about his past, Dwyth runs away from the only home he's ever known and enters a world controlled by the Metrodites—humans of steel and circuitry who have long been enemies of his people.
There, he meets Zarana, a mysterious girl hiding a secret of her own.
Dwyth was born without psychic power.
Zarana was born with it—but is forbidden to use it.
Their meeting forces both of them to question what they've been taught about power, humanity, and the supposedly unbreakable divide between their two worlds.
Why Release It Now?
This book has been sitting around for a long time.
I first worked on The Wasteland Child while I was getting my MFA, roughly 13–15 years ago. Like a lot of creative projects, it went through various stages of development, got put aside, and eventually became one of those books that I wasn't quite sure I'd ever actually release.
But I've continued writing and making things over the years, and eventually I figured: why not?
It's a story I spent a lot of time on, and I'd rather finally put it out into the world than have it sit on a hard drive forever.
So that's what I'm doing.
It's not accompanied by a huge marketing campaign or a fancy publishing rollout. It's simply an ebook, available for $4.99, and after all these years, The Wasteland Child is finally out there.
If you've read any of my other books, I'd love for you to give this one a shot—and if you're discovering my work for the first time, welcome.
The Wasteland Child is available now.
https://tinyurl.com/2jej3syc
