Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council. \* “Ward” introduces Thomas, a thirteen-year-old boy rescued from Scavengers, marauding slavers who murdered both his biological and foster parents and sold the highly powered boy to the highest bidder—the Council of Nine. Dumped at the Ward School to train his abilities, Thomas must learn to survive among a new breed of savages…the boys who have been training there since they were five and the men who must hone them into weapons. \* “Blood and Water” is the story of Lucas, a young man who has spent his childhood shunned by his powerful, religious family for the crime of being born a Spark. On the cusp of attaining his place in the world his grandfather intends to re-shape, Lucas will discover the heavy price of belonging. Will he pay it, or will he count the costs and deem them too high? \* “Ghost Story” shows how lives lived on the edge—of society, of safety, of sanity—intersect. Lena, a highly powered runaway, fled a life of hiding from the Council. Elias is one of the so-called New Barbarians, those who choose to live free, if hard and dangerous, lives. Wounded and dying, he hunts the Scavengers who killed his family and took his brother to sell. A chance meeting in the desert of what was once New Mexico will change them both forever. A collection of three related short stories, Ignition Point offers a glimpse into the lives of characters from the upcoming novel, Spark Rising.

All that’s required to ignite a revolution is a single spark rising. Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly-evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council. Lena Gracey died as a child, mourned publicly by parents desperate to keep her from the Council. She was raised in hiding until she fled the relo-city for solitary freedom in the desert. Lena lives off the grid, selling her power on the black market. Agent Alex Reyes was honed into a calculating weapon at the Ward School to do the Council’s dirty work. But Alex lives a double life. He’s leading the next generation of agents in a secret revolution to destroy those in power from within. The life Lena built to escape her past ends the day Alex arrives looking for a renegade Spark. CONTENT WARNING: This book contains occasional violence and profanity, and includes depictions of a determined double agent doing his job and an empowered young woman making coming-of-age decisions. These include sexual interactions. Spark Rising is not intended for readers under the age of 16.