I had the plague on Saturday, so I took time out from all the things I’d normally be doing (like spreading the plague) and finally got my shiny new website up and online. Alas, my web design software went out the window early, and I switched over to WordPress, which I like quite a bit so far.
Allow me to introduce PocketCoyote.com.
This is the site you’ll be hitting up for those free chapters of Masks … the first of which, incidentally, goes up on Wednesday and are you as excited as I am about that? No, you can’t be! But you’re welcome to try!
Ahem.
Anyhoo, the site will include a handy-dandy chapter archive so you don’t have to search through the blog archive to find what you want. There will be lovely illustrations by the fabulous Nicole Le, who also contributed the site’s header art. I’ll probably tinker with the site some more before Wednesday, but you’ve got the basic shape of the thing now. At some point in the future, I’m going to add more pages full of goodies—character profiles and more free stories, plus the Pocket Coyote pattern (don’t think I’ve forgotten about that!). There will eventually be trailers, too, when Nicole has more chapters illustrated.
This blog, meanwhile, isn’t going anywhere. It will remain my personal blog, in addition to acting as a kind of commentary track for the main story—isn’t that nice? You get the special features now instead of waiting for the eventual book release. Not that I won’t find more special features to include … it’s that kind of story …
So what’s the story about, you ask? At last I can tell.
In this version of Masks, there are two kinds of heroes. There are capes—the ones with powers. And there are masks—the ones without. Everybody knows who the real heroes are. No one takes masks seriously … until now.
You see, someone is kidnapping L.A.’s street kids—the superpowered ones. Because these kids are mostly teenage runaways, nobody pays much attention, and it’s hard to prove to the police that they’ve actually been abducted rather than just disappearing on their own. But our old friend Rae, a.k.a. Peregrine, a 16-year-old rookie mask whose greatest weapons are biting sarcasm and the ability to kick Captain Catastrophe in the knee, witnesses one of these kidnappings, and decides she’s going to hunt the bad guy down and stop him, powers or no powers. She finds her determination hardened by the fact that she’s in a summer honors program for high-achieving students, and she discovers there’s a secret training program within that program for kids who are going to be heroes someday … but masks need not apply. You need powers to get in the door. So there are innocent kids in danger, the grown-ups won’t listen, and Rae is out to prove she’s just as good as the next kid, even if the next kid happens to be bulletproof.
Enter Trevor.
He’s trying to stay under the radar, hiding in the storm tunnels under Los Angeles. But when one of the tunnel dwellers offers him information on the person who made his mentor disappear—only if Trevor will get the missing kids back—our brooding former sidekick is on the case.
And he meets Rae on the rooftop, and things go very right and very wrong.
It’s a story about growing up. About being an underdog, and succeeding anyway. About first love, and all that’s good and bad in it. Mostly, though, it’s a story about identity. Both Rae and Trevor are figuring out who they’ll be, and they use each other to find some of that answer … but ultimately it’s an answer we all have to find on our own.
There will be secrets. There will be mysteries. There will be action. There will be romance. There will be humor. There will be an awful lot of running around, and shouting, and people’s mouths falling open when something unexpected happens. There will be tears, and a bit with a dog. And if you like it, there will be more. I could end this story with Chapter 32, or I could go on … and your response will decide.
I hope you enjoy reading Masks as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it for you. I can’t wait to show you my world …
Ripping good yarn!
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