Well... I wrote another book! Here's an introduction to MARIA OUT OF TIME, a time travel story with family at its heart.
In 2035, Maria’s great-great grandmother, Jessica Wallace, invented a virtually indestructible metal, changing manufacturing throughout the world. Since then, all of Jessica’s female descendants have been inventors, keeping the Wallace name in the public eye for almost a century. Seventeen-year-old Maria loves being part of a world-renowned family, but has no interest whatsoever in the science that made the Wallaces famous. Her mother and grandmother either ignore or discourage Maria’s interest in history—which is completely baffling to Maria because her mother invented a TIME MACHINE.
When a historian dramatically announces that he has proof that Jessica Wallace cheated on the college entrance exam that kicked off her rise to fame, the Wallaces’ charmed life falls apart. The public turns on the living Wallaces, accusing them all of cheating their way through their accomplishments. Maria, desperate to reclaim her family’s good name, “borrows” the time machine to go back to 2003 to prove that Jessica Wallace really was the genius everyone believed.
Amazingly, teenage Jessica Wallace is a lot more fun than the rest of the Wallace women. She even skips school to hang out with Maria, taking her on a tour of Denver (in a car driven by an actual human being!) and dancing at a club (So. Much. Beyoncé!). Maria finally feels like someone in her family understands her—except for the minor detail that Jessica thinks Maria is an exchange student from Canada.
Taking the time machine out makes it vulnerable when it returns, and the Wallaces’ biggest rival is waiting in the wings to steal it. He’s got a decades-long grudge against the entire family, and he thinks he can fix it by erasing them from history. Now, Maria will have to restore her family’s honor while keeping the time machine out of the rival’s hands. Having Jessica Wallace on her side will help—if Maria can convince Jessica of the truth about who she will become and what’s at stake for their family.
Here's the opening to Maria's story:
If any of my friends were sneaking a guy into their room, they’d be having sex that night, guaranteed. But me? The heir to the Wallace dynasty? The guy in question didn’t know it yet, but we were going to steal my mom’s time machine.
I don’t usually go around stealing my mother’s things—especially not things that cost millions of dollars and took her twenty years to make. However, my family was particularly awful at dinner, so I was feeling snubbed, and the only way to get rid of that feeling was to disrespect the one thing they cared about.
The guy who was going to be my time-machine-stealing-accomplice was my best friend, Taejun Song. He was present at the fateful dinner, because my mom often had her students over for meals, and Taejun was one of her favorites. It was normal to have him crammed into our tiny kitchen, chatting with my family. He even kept Grandma occupied so I wouldn’t have to talk to her while we waited for Dad to finish cooking. Grandma likes Taejun because he’s only eighteen but is already halfway through his university courses. He’s smart, but not as smart as she is; Grandma was done with university by the time she turned nineteen. That’s the kind of person Grandma enjoys being around: Exceptional, but not more than she is.
In other words, not me. Not even close.
To get into her dream college’s exclusive creative writing program, Ella Andrews has to submit a writing sample with her application. But, true to form, her anxiety won’t chill out long enough for her to come up with the perfect idea for her application. When Neesha, a girl from Ella’s math class, confides that creepy things have been happening at her house and she suspects a ghost is causing them, Ella senses an idea for her writing sample. Teaming up with Neesha to hunt a ghost is exactly the unique experience she needs to write a killer application. So what if ghosts aren’t real? But when a tornado hits the school—and nowhere else—even skeptical Ella can’t deny that something freaky is going on.
Ella and Neesha are joined by popular-girl Micah, the only other student brave enough to record the ghost’s destructive behavior instead of run from it. With their arsenal of an EMF meter and Micah’s expensive camera, the girls study the ghost and attempt to banish it as the ghost attacks increase in frequency and violence. Ella’s research deep dive leads her to believe that the ghost may actually be a poltergeist—psychokinetic energy unconsciously released from a living person. Suddenly everyone around them is a potential candidate for the violence, including themselves. Amid their suspicion of each other, the new friends will have to work together to uncover the poltergeist’s identity before their energy destroys someone they love.
When the universe resets itself, no one notices—except for Lia Tobin. Since she was six years old, Lia’s been able to recognize when the universe has erased the future and given her a chance to live life differently. The flip side of this gift? She can’t control when it happens.
After the disappearance of her 10-year-old sister, Lia would give anything to be able to make the universe reset itself so she could have a chance to save Maddy. But the universe is uncooperative, which forces Lia to live through the rest of her senior year as the girl with the missing sister, watch her parents’ marriage dissolve, and finally discover Maddy’s body. All without a single chance at a do-over.
Until her former classmate, Jay Garza, is murdered, and the universe resets six months. Suddenly, Lia’s dream has come true: she has a chance to save her beloved little sister. But by being hyper protective of Maddy, Lia completely ignores Jay, until the universe makes it clear that his life is a priority, too. Choosing between Jay and Maddy seems like a no-brainer, until Lia meets someone else who recognizes the resets. She learns that ten years in the future, Jay is a celebrated researcher on the brink of developing a cure for cancer. Saving Jay now feels like saving the whole world.
But then Maddy disappears again. In fact, every time Lia focuses on protecting Jay, Maddy disappears. When Lia shifts her attention back to Maddy, terrible things happen to Jay. Lia is reset to avert each catastrophe, but she knows she must do more than fix things—she’s got to find out who’s responsible. As she knows only too well, the universe could stop resetting whenever it chooses, leaving Jay or Maddy to a terrible fate.
