Teenager Lauren Avalon has just died. What’s worse, she has no memory of her death and the last person she was with, her boyfriend Flip, has gone missing. Now a ghost, Lauren must navigate a strange and dangerous afterlife as she searches for answers. Spectral takes place in a world as vibrant and colorful as Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice or Spirited Away and as complex as The Lord of the Rings. It is a world of strange cults, clairvoyants, poltergeists, succubi and other strange phenomena. A world where spirits eat, trade and create objects using ectoplasmic energy and can even “die again” by extinguishing into nothingness.

My name in Cody Pearce and I’m a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. Most of my recent writing has focused on screenplays and teleplays. Spectral is my first foray into novel writing though I’ve written dozens of short stories in the past. It’s a fantasy tale borne out of my love for the city of St. Augustine, Florida, one of the oldest in America. St. Augustine is a place brimming with history and tales of hauntings and it’s one I’ve visited throughout my life. I grew up in Jacksonville, only a short drive to the north.

The earliest inkling of this story grew from the many ghost tours I’ve attended there and from simply walking around the old town’s cobblestone streets late at night after all the tourists have gone to bed and only the spirits of the dead remain. (Cue creepy music)

I’m still working on this draft so any and all comments are welcome. From what I’ve seen, the writer community here is wonderfully supportive and a great source of inspiration to keep plugging away at the keyboard or quill and paper for you old school types. Writing can be terribly lonely at times. Sometimes I feel cut off from the rest of the world. Like I’m a ghost myself. Here’s hoping Inkshares can change that.

Cheers and happy reading!