 My novel Not Your Psychic came out on Thursday, so it's a brand-new book. It's out in the world. It exists. Thank you. So I'm going to reading two short excerpts. Chapter one. Just grits her teeth, going for a running start. The gravel on the trail crunches under her feet. The wind rushes through her hair, and she can taste success. This time. This time she's gonna make it. The canyon is streaked with color, warm in the afternoon light, golden striations race across the signature rusty reds of the landscape. The sky is a gorgeous and possible blue, and clouds flutter down the endless horizon, a perfect backdrop for our first flight. Every step resounds in her body, and her heart races, blood pounds in her ears. Flight. One of the rarest of abilities. Jess's dad can fly, and her older sister inherited the gene. Why not Jess? Why not me? I could be a hero, Jess thinks, as she picks up speed. Jess is turning 17 in a week, and then it'll be too late for her to register. She hasn't demonstrated any powers at all. Not as a child, not as an adolescent, but she's had a hope. After all, there are a few documented outliers, teenagers presenting much later, even as old as 16. But no one's presented with any powers after 17. The wind whistles in her ears, and the desert is alive with color, encouraging her on. Where the trail curves and descends, Jess keeps going forward, right for the edge, where it peters off into the canyon below. Time and erosion have split the rock formation, leaving a gap of at least seven feet between the edge and the rest of the rock cluster. Jess doesn't hesitate. She pushes herself forward and leaps into the air. The desert is silent, except for the pebbles that scatter from her movement and tumble into the gap far below. Jess is in the air, and for a few seconds she can taste the sky reaching out to her, welcoming her. Flomp! Jess lands hard on the other side of the gap, falls flat on her cheek. She spits dust and cringes at the sting on her face. Her body's gonna ache later. This is the third jump she's made today. Jess rolls over and stares at the sky. All right, so flying's not gonna happen. She says reluctantly. She fishes inside her pocket for the list of the she made of the powers she can inherit from her parents. Flight, magnetic field manipulation, enhanced strength, healing factor. She has a longer list too of all the powers on fire with the metahuman register, but everyone knows that meta-abilities are genetic. If Jess didn't inherit any of her parents' abilities, the possibility of having any abilities drops to near zero. Jess is covered in dirt and bruised and frustrated, and it's unlikely that she's ever ever going to be a superhero. All right, so that was from chapter one, and I forgot to introduce the book and what it was about, so I'll do that now. The story follows Jess, whose parents are heroes and she doesn't appear to have any powers. So the first thing she does when she's trying to prove herself is go and get an internship with the local supervillain. It's kind of sky-high meets Dr. Horrible-esque, and shenanigans happen when Jess finds herself working alongside her crush, Abby. And so this next scene is when she and Abby are hanging out and discovering some strange things about their universe. I guess they went back to their lives, and they're just living among us, Jess says. I mean anyone could have a low level power and not be a superhero, you know? It's not like the metahuman training program puts out Captain Orion's every class. Yeah, okay, but there's a chance that there are a number of A-class people who don't become heroes, right? Also, you don't really look comfortable. Am I taking up too much space? No, no, you're fine. Jess sits on the edge of the bed. Abby looks at her. Jess can't figure out what that expression is, but her own heart is thudding loudly. Here, look. Abby says she takes out an old comic book and flips through it until she stops on a page where Lieutenant Orion and Gravitus are working together to help put out a disastrous force fire. This happened, Jess scoots closer. She ends up on her stomach next to Abby as the two of them pour over the old comics. Jess bites her lip. Grateful that Abby collects print comics. She can't imagine huddling this close to her flicking through a hollow book. Pretty sure all these comic events were inspired by actual events. Abby shows Jess how all the comics start. Lieutenant Orion finding Gravitus at the scene. Gravitus creating a natural firebreak with his earth powers, and Orion flying firefighters. To safety. There aren't hollows of these things anymore, though not of Gravitus being heroic. I mean, there's a particular record of this fire and Lieutenant Orion being there, but they wrote Gravitus out of it, Jess says. Exactly. Abby leans close. Their shoulders touch. Abby's close enough for Jess to smell her shampoo. Apple and cinnamon. Jess looks up, and their eyes meet. Jess is too afraid to look away, and too nervous to move closer. She hangs in the moment wondering, wondering. It's the worst part about being attracted to girls. She doesn't know how to flirt. Well, Abby thinks she's just being friendly. Should she just say it? But then if she says something, their whole friendship will change, and they only just started being close, and Jess likes that a lot. And the chances that Abby is straight are high, and asking might ruin everything. Abby's eyelashes and eyebrows are darker red than her hair, and there's a faint scar running down her left cheek. Jess takes in all the details of her face so she can look back on this moment and remember, one time, Abby Jones was on my bed and was this close. This close enough to kiss. There's a knock on the open door. You're all ready for dinner? Jess gets back away from Abby. As much as she likes to dream about kissing her, the reality is that she's not ready to find out whether Abby wants to kiss her back. Better not to risk certain rejection and to stay in this realm of infinite possibility. Thank you.