Today, I am officially announcing my Sacrifice novel Kickstarter campaign that will launch in September. Originally, I was going to use one of my comic book projects to attempt my first Kickstarter but decided against it.

Why did I choose Sacrifice instead?

I felt that this story embraces diversity of both race and sexual orientation.

I knew my first novel, The Alliance: Bloodlines, lacked diversity in a major way. At the time of writing Bloodlines, I was too scared to attempt such diversity even though I wanted too. There were characters that I originally intended to be gay, but changed it to make their sexual orientation much less obvious.

Why?

At the time I hadn’t read many books that had gay characters and was hesitant to take the risk myself.

Looking back on it now makes me feel silly for not going with my original plan, but even then all of my main characters were still white.

Why?

Almost every book that I read growing up featured a white male protagonist. The reason that I added a female protagonist was through the influences of the awesome power of Joss Whedon. After watching Buffy as a teen, I knew that I wanted to write powerful and inspiring female characters, but I wanted my heroine to be gay and not just surrounded by white supporting characters.

Sacrifice was a story that worked its way into my head a few years ago, and I let it sit and simmer for several months before taking action. I took notes and created in depth characters while I built the outline that would be the foundation for this novel. I knew that this was the time to take the risk and write the story I’ve been dying to tell.

Why?

I finally realized that if all writers simply write or modify their stories to fit the “norm” then nothing would ever change, and ten years from now a new generation would still be reading tons of books that mostly featured a white cast of straight characters when that doesn’t reflect real life. Writers of today have the power to break the vicious cycle and set new standards for the future generations. So I have chosen to write a story that’s true to my real life diversity, but of course with added supernatural elements and meta-humans!

So what is Sacrifice all about?

Sacrifice contains the romance of a lesbian couple, but that factor doesn’t define the story. This is an action packed thriller involving meta-humans and supernatural characters —some of which just happen to be gay.

The story showcases a diverse cast of meta-humans that have dedicated their lives to protecting the human race from dangerous supernatural forces. The overall theme questions how far one person would go to protect their loved ones. The protagonist, Katherine Reese, relinquishes her freedom to the meta-human military in order to keep her family safe, but she finds an even greater sacrifice is required—possibly even her life.

Rogue werewolf attacks and dastardly mages have everyone on edge when the meta-human military sends their top team to investigate.

Katherine Reese leads the powerfully stacked alpha team on a search for answers that reveals a larger threat. Supernatural leaders have set a plan in motion that could destroy the balance between the human and supernatural world.

More information will be revealed over the next few days. Stay tuned and you can stay updated by subscribing to my blog or via Facebook updates.