In a world where virtual reality gaming lets players shape their own stories, Nick desperately wants to join the beta test for Omen Galaxica's revolutionary AI update. There's just one catch - he needs a partner who's never played before. Enter his mother Amanda, currently on bedrest during a difficult pregnancy. Together, they must rebuild the destroyed village of Donner's Beck while defending it from a notorious griefer intent on wreaking havoc. But as virtual and real worlds blur, both Nick and Amanda discover that games aren't just about escape... they're about connection, growth, and finding your place in a rapidly changing world. A heartwarming tale of family, friendship, and finding meaning in unexpected places, perfect Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z (and boomers who know)parents and teens and people in-betweengamers and people who love but are baffled by people who gamedragon, AI, and pizza enthusiasts
Author
Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things—-web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist—-but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise. Her fiction has variously been recommended for a Nebula, a finalist for the Spectrum, placed on the secondary Tiptree reading list and chosen for two best-of anthologies; her art has appeared in RPGs, magazines and on book covers.
