Blog Tour: Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler

Book Title: Under the Lights (Daylight Falls #2)

Author: Dahlia Adler

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Release Date: June 30th 2015

Genre: GLBT, Young Adult/New Adult, Contemporary

Synopsis:

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents' wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls...opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he's trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he's in the spotlight—on everyone's terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents' disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she's painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van's life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she'll have to choose between the one thing she's always loved...and the person she never imagined she could.

Guest Post

I have a slight confession: I’m not a huge movie person. I know that’s odd coming from someone who writes Hollywood YA, and it’s even odder if you know how frequently I saw movies during high school and seminary. But as an adult, my attention span somehow just won’t stay in place for a movie like it will for a book, which means every year I see maybe one or two, and then I’m one of those jerks livetweeting the Oscars with occasional mentions of how I have no idea what’s going on.

But I digress! I was asked to write about my favorite movies, and dammit, I will deliver. So what if they all came out prior to 2010? These are the best of the best, and as such, they’re truly timeless.

Legally Blonde: I actually just rewatched this with my critique partner, This is Where it Ends author Marieke Nijkamp, and I still absolutely love it. It’s just the most phenomenally feminist movie, with scene after scene of women supporting each other, working on advancing themselves career-wise, screwing up and owning it…and then you have this romantic storyline where the good, supportive, non-judgmental guy wins. It’s basically my favorite things, all rolled in to one.

The Usual Suspects: If you’ve read the Daylight Falls books, you might notice something they have in common—Josh watches this movie in both of them. It’s his favorite, and for good reason: it’s also mine! I could say more about why I love it so much, both personally and for Josh, but I have a no-spoiler policy on this one. Yes, even 20 years later.

Bring it On: I have seen this movie so many times, but while I have a lot of favorite parts involving cheers, romance, and the dearly departed Natina Reed, there’s a single dialogue exchange from this movie that blew my mind hwne I first heard it, and that I still think is so important, and actually really relevant to Vanessa in Under the Lights. When Torrance and Missy are in the car, Missy says, “Look on the bright side—it’s only cheerleading!” to which Torrance responds, “I am only cheerleading!” And I thought that was fantastic. Some people live and breathe their passions in a way that’s incredible to me, even when other people dismiss them as insignificant. They stand tall and proud for what they love, what’s in their bones. They’re obsessed. And I think that is so cool. To me, that’s exactly Van trying to explain to her parents why her acting is so important and how much she believes in what she’s doing. They don’t get it, and she can’t make them, but she also can’t stop, won’t stop.

Empire Records: I don’t even know how many times my friends and I watched this in our teens, but it was a lot. If there’s a movie more gloriously quotable on the planet, I don’t know it. I think Ally and Van would’ve loved watching it together if it wasn’t before their time. Damn kids—get off my lawn.

LA Confidential: I may write about thoroughly modern Hollywood, but this James Ellroy-novel based film Noir looking back on more glamorous times (though a veil of darkness and corruption, of course) was my first great intro into life “behind the scenes.” Of course, the bribery, masquerading, and deceit are a little more hardcore and high-stakes in the movie that really introduced Guy Pearce to America and reunited me with my Usual Suspects love, Kevin Spacey, but I think Josh, Liam, and Van would be more than happy to participating in a reenactment!

Follow the Under The Lights by Dahlia Adler Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I'm an Associate Editor of Mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and I blog at The Daily Dahlia, YA Misfits, and the Barnes & Noble book blog. I also write contemporary YA (The Daylight Falls duology) and NA (The Radleigh University series). Rec-ing books is approximately my favorite thing in the universe, with macarons being a close second. Come say hi on Twitter, where I'm @MissDahlELama!

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Blog Tour: A Matter of Heart by Amy Fellner Dominy

Hi guys! I know I don't normally do blog tours, but this book was really personal to me and so I had to do the tour. I hope you enjoy my post as well as Amy's!

BOOK DETAILS

A Matter of Heart

by Amy Fellner Dominy

Publisher: Delacorte

Release Date: May 2015

BOOK LINKS: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, iTunes, Kobo

Synopsis:

Readers will happily sink into this emotionally grounded, contemporary young adult novel about the sudden end of one girl's Olympic swimming dreams and the struggles she endures before realizing there are many things that define who we are.

Sixteen-year-old Abby Lipman is on track to win the state swim championships and qualify for the Olympic trials when a fainting incident at a swim meet leads to the diagnosis of a deadly heart condition. Now Abby is forced to discover who she is without the one thing that's defined her entire life.

Excerpt

Swimming is who I am.

Winning is what I live for.

No one is going to stop me from becoming the fastest swimmer in the world.

Not my dad.

Not my boyfriend.

Not even my own heart.

My least favorite sport to play in PE

I am horribly uncoordinated, so I really wasn't a big fan of playing sports in PE class. Anything that required me to run, was something that I didn't enjoy. Plus I have balance issues along with some other health issues. So I struggled a lot. So I would definitely say anything that required me to run was my least favorite PE sport. Cross country running was hell on me and on my body. Yet I am so insanely competitive that I didn't "go easy" on myself. I pushed myself. 

When it came time to play baseball or soccer or basketball, I hated it too, although it wasn't as bad as running for me. At least I got to stand, shoot baskets and kick soccer balls. That was actual relief for me and my body. 

Believe me, I wish I was more coordinated and had better balance. Thankfully my teen brother has all the athleticism in the world.

Guest Post

I’m not the most athletic person in the world. My marching band director once yelled at me for being so uncoordinated that he told me to stop playing my Clarinet and just focus on moving my feet.  Ouch!  But, like most things I’m told I can’t do, I get stubborn. And I work harder. I ended up being able to march and play my instrument through four years of high school and three years of college. So there, Mr. Band Director! 

            Anyway, I’ve always loved sports and I’ve always wished I were more talented. I think that’s one of the reasons I really liked writing about Abby. It was one of my dreams to be the best of the best at something. Abby is that. She’s a top swimmer and blue ribbons are the only kind she collects. So while I wrote this book, at least in my imagination, I got to experience what it would be like to swim like a fish. 

So, with no further ado, here’s the scoop on me and sports:

  

TOP FIVE SPORTS LIST

FAVORITE SPORT TO PLAY: Doubles tennis. It’s a lot fun and you get to play with a friend.

FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH: Men’s tennis. It’s not all about gawking at a bunch of very handsome men, but, um, that might be part of it.

FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Oberlin College baseball team. What can I say…my son is one of the starting pitchers. J Go Yeomen!!

FAVORITE SPORT FOR CURSING: Golf. I play every week with my hubby and there’s just something about that retched sport that brings out the potty mouth in me. But, I do love the challenge of golf—one day I’m going to figure the darn thing out.

MY GREATEST SPORTS VICTORY: Abby might beat my pants off in swimming, but there’s one sport where I was once crowned CHAMPION:

Hula hooping.

Yep—I was pretty darn good with a Hula hoop and thank heavens there’s no video of it now!  Though it’s not an Olympic sport yet, I really think it should be, don’t you?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Amy Fellner Dominy worked as a copywriter in the advertising business before leaving to earn her MFA in playwriting. Her plays for adults and children have been staged in various cities around the country. Amy's novels for teens include OyMG (Walker, 2011) and AUDITION & SUBTRACTION (Walker, 2012.) Amy's next book is a contemporary YA coming Spring, 2015 from Random House. It's called A MATTER OF HEART.

AUTHOR LINKS:

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Blog Tour: Play On by Michelle Smith

Title: Play On

Author: Michelle Smith

Release Date: April 21, 2015

Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary

Synopsis: 

In the small town of Lewis Creek, baseball is everything. Especially for all-star pitcher Austin Braxton, who has a one-way ticket out of town with his scholarship to a top university. All that stands between him and a new start is one final season. But when Austin starts flunking Chemistry, his picture-perfect future is in jeopardy. A failing grade means zero playing time, and zero playing time means no scholarship.

Enter Marisa Marlowe, the new girl in town who gets a job at his momma's flower shop. Not only is Marisa some home-schooled super-genius, she's also a baseball fanatic and more than willing to help Austin study. As the two grow closer, there's something about Marisa that makes Austin want more than just baseball and out of Lewis Creek--he wants a future with her. But Marisa has a past that still haunts her, one that she ran all the way to South Carolina to escape.

As Austin starts to peel back the layers of Marisa s pain, it forces him to look beyond the facade of himself and everyone he thought he knew in his town. What he sees instead is that in a small town like Lewis Creek, maybe baseball isn t everything--maybe it is just the thing that ties them all together."

Excerpt

In this scene, Austin and Marisa have been sentenced to Valentine’s Day duty at the flower shop. Once Austin discovers that Marisa is a dance-hater, he proves that not all dates are entirely terrible.

She lets go of my hand. I fight a frown. Come back. “That sounds good. Are you…” Looking down at my now-lonely hand, she clears her throat. “Will you be going to the dance?”

I shrug a shoulder. “Dances are a lot more fun when you’ve got a date to spoil all night, which I don’t. Never thought to ask anyone.” And if I did ask someone, it’d be the girl in front of me.

She sighs and leans onto the counter, putting her chin in her hands. “Well, congratulations. You’ll hang on to your soul.”

Or not. I bite back a smile. “Not a dancer, I’m guessing?”

She shakes her head. “Never been a fan. Formal dances are the invention of Satan.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You have dances confused with Chem. That’s where Satan focused all his energy.”

She pushes me, smirking. “I’m serious. A girl has to suffer through frilly decorations, spiked punch, and the guy trying to get in her pants afterward, and for what? A corsage, maybe some dinner, and two hours of dancing, which results in foot blisters.” She hops off the stool and grabs the push-broom. “I’m so glad I’ll never have to go to another one again. Homeschooling for the win.”

’Kay. So now I’m really glad I never asked her.

“See, I’m insulted,” I say, moving around the counter. “Guys don’t always try to get in your pants. And dances aren’t that bad.” Maybe a little bad, but not complete torture.

She starts sweeping, huffing a little. “So says Lewis Creek’s god of baseball. Of course dances are awesome for you.” She holds the broom to her chest, throwing her hand up to her forehead like she’s in Gone with the Wind or some crap. “Oh, Austin! I never knew there was a difference between fastballs and sliders, but whisper it in my ear while we dance all night in the bed of your truck.”

I wiggle my eyebrows. “And by ‘dance,’ you mean what, exactly?” She swats the broom at me. I hold up my hands in surrender. “All right, all right! But I will say that, after a few beers, truck dancin’ is a blast. You should try it.”

She rolls her eyes and resumes sweeping, turning her back to me. Okay, then. Challenge accepted. I dig my phone out of my pants pocket and scroll through the music app until I find a halfway decent slow song. You can never go wrong with some Luke Bryan. Girls eat that shit up.

As the opening notes of “Crash My Party” fill the room, Marisa stops. Her head pops up, and she whirls around, cocking an eyebrow. “Um, what do you think you’re doing?”

Grinning, I place the phone on the counter and hold out my hand. “I’m on a mission to prove that not all dance dates are evil. I’ll have you know, I’m a darn good date.”

Her gaze flickers from my outstretched hand to my face. “Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack.” With the way my heart’s pounding, that’s entirely possible. Even though it sounds cheesy as hell, I think I finally know what girls mean when they talk about having butterflies in their gut, or stomach, or whatever. But even that’s not a good way to describe it. The butterflies feel like they’re all over the place.

And now I’m thinking about butterflies. Lord, help me.

She narrows her eyes. “You’ve been drinking moonshine again, haven’t you?”

Maybe the Luke Bryan song wasn’t as foolproof as I’d thought. “Please?”

She opens her mouth like she’s going to argue again, but instead she sighs and sets the broom against one of the coolers. “That’s not fair,” she says, crossing the distance between us. “No one in her right mind can resist that accent.”

When she slips her hand into mine, I pull her against me in one swift movement. She sucks in a breath, looking up at me with wide eyes.

“What?” I ask, resting my hands just above her hips. “Too close?” 

She smiles. Looping her arms around my neck, she says, “I think it’s just right.”

Author Bio:
Michelle Smith was born and raised in North Carolina, where she developed a healthy appreciation for college football, sweet tea, front porches, and a well-placed “y’all.” She’s a lover of all things happy, laughs way too much, and fully believes that a little bit of kindness goes a long way. Michelle lives near the Carolina coast with her family.

Author Social Media Links: 

Website: http://msmithbooks.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichelleA_Smith

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michelle-Smith/102249256558130

Tumblr: http://michellesmithya.tumblr.com/

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Positively Beautiful by Wendy Mills

Welcome to Adventures in Reading. Today, I am participating in a blog tour for Positively Beautiful. Generally I don't do blog tours anymore unless I either read the book and adored it or I haven't read it, but am very excited for it. Positively Beautiful fell into the former category.

Book Information:

Book Title: Positively Beautiful
Author: Wendy Mills
Published Date: March 3rd, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Book Link: Goodreads
Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis:

Jodi Picoult for teens meets Lurlene McDaniel. Beautiful written, beautifully moving, a vivid contemporary story of a girl’s unusual but terrible dilemma - and the love story that springs from it. 

Erin’s life is taken up with her best friend, Trina, her crush on smoky-eyed, unattainable Michael, and fending off Faith, the vision of perfection who’s somehow always had a knife in for Erin. Her dad, a pilot, died when she was very young, but Erin and her mom are just fine on their own.

Then everything changes forever when Erin’s mom announces she has breast cancer and even worse, the cancer is linked to a rare gene mutation. The chances that Erin has inherited it are frighteningly high. Would it be better to get tested and have major preemptive surgery or spend as much life as she has left in blissful ignorance?

As Erin grapples with the terrible dilemma, her life spirals downward, alleviated only by the flying lessons she starts taking. Up in the sky, following in her dad’s footsteps, Erin finds freedom chasing the horizon. She also finds solace in Ashley, a girl she meets in an online support group. But when, in a moment of madness, Erin flies away to find her new friend, she finds herself on a journey that will take her through not only shock and despair—but ultimately, to a new understanding of the true meaning of beauty and love.

My Thoughts:

I actually posted a review last month and I'll link to it here, but what I really wanted to talk about was Erin's relationship with her mom. It's such an important part of the book and it was my favorite part of the book. I don't see a lot of positive mother-daughter relationships in YA, so I was happy that Mills chose to write a positive mother-daughter relationship. I related a lot to Erin's relationship with her mom because I have always been very close with my own mom. Watching Erin deal with her mom's illness was absolutely heartbreaking and I kept thinking about how I would have reacted if I was in her position with my mom. It was a beautiful book that made me so thankful that my mom is in decent health. I just couldn't imagine going through what they went through.

Author Biography:

WENDY MILLS was born in Virginia and spent several years in North Carolina, but now lives with her family on the tropical island of Bokeelia, off the south-west coast of Florida where she spends her time writing and dodging hurricanes. She has published adult mysteries with Poisoned Pen Press, and Positively Beautiful is her first young adult novel.  Visit her online at www.wendymillsbooks.com or on Twitter @WendyMillsBooks.

This is a US only giveaway for 1 hardcover of POSITIVELY BEAUTIFUL by Wendy Mills. Entrants must be 13 years or older.

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POSITIVELY BEAUTIFUL Blog Tour Schedule

March 2^nd à Jenuine Cupcakes

March 3^rd à YA Bibliophile

March 4^th à Book Revels

March 5^th à  The Hardcover Lover

March 6^th à Bookiemoji

March 9^th à Dana Square

March 10^th à Lovin Los Libros

March 11^th à The Book Belles

March 12^th à Adventures in Reading

March 13^th à Who Ru Blog

Blog Tour & Giveaway: The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1) by Jodi Meadows

Hello everyone, and welcome to Adventures in Reading. Normally I don't do blog tours unless I've read the book and loved it or I haven't read the book, but am extremely excited for it. This time, it's the latter.

BOOK INFORMATION

 TITLE: The Orphan Queen

AUTHOR: Jodi Meadows

SERIES: The Orphan Queen #1

PUBLISHER: Katherine Tegen Books

PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2015

FIND IT: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, IndieBound

SYNOPSIS: 

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others,

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

Necessity forced Wilhelmina to become good at many things -- including forgery. She regularly uses this skill to steal food and clothing shipments, create "official" identification documents, and obtain supplies to help her reach her goal of retaking her kingdom.

My Thoughts
I haven't read The Orphan Queen yet, but by the time this post goes up I will have an ARC loaned to me by a fellow blogger, and will have probably dove into it. I do think Wilhelmina will be a badass character. I am sure there will be times when I want to yell at her for making stupid decisions, but I think I'll end up falling in love with her.

AUTHOR INFO

Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. She is the author of the INCARNATE Trilogy and the forthcoming ORPHAN QUEEN Duology (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen).

*A Kippy is a cat.

CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR

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Harper Collins has graciously offered to give away a copy of The Orphan Queen to one of my readers. This is for US mailing addresses only and will run from midnight on March 2, 2015 until March 8, 2015 at 11:59PM EST. Please fill out the rafflecopter entry below and good luck!

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Blog Tour: When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill

ABOUT WHEN JOSS MET MATT:

In the tradition of New Adult superstar Jessica Sorensen, Ellie Cahill’s debut novel is a charming friends-with-benefits story . . . with a twist!

What if after every bad breakup, there was someone to help “cleanse your palate”—someone who wouldn’t judge you, who was great in bed, someone you were sure not to fall in love with? “Sorbet sex” could solve everything—as long as it never got too sweet.

Joss and Matt have been friends since freshman year of college, meeting one night after Joss is dumped by her boyfriend. After a few drinks, Matt humors her with a proposition: that he’ll become her go-to guy whenever she needs to heal a broken heart. In return, she’ll do the same for him. The #1 Rule: They’ll never fall in love with each other. People scoff at the arrangement. But six years later, Joss and Matt are still the best of friends . . . with benefits.

Through a string of boyfriends and girlfriends—some almost perfect, some downright wrong—Joss and Matt are always there for each other when the going gets tough. No strings. No attachments. Piece of cake. No problem. After all, since they wrote the rules, surely they can play by them. Or can they?

Advance praise for When Joss Met Matt:

“Hands down, one of my favorite New Adult reads . . . Ellie Cahill is definitely one to watch!”—New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack 

“This is one of those books that make you forget everything around you. Prepare to be consumed by this story.”—Sophie Jordan, New York Times bestselling author of Wild

“Fun, sexy, and full of amazing chemistry, When Joss Met Matt is an entertaining escape that will leave you smiling with every turn of the page.”—Cassie Mae, author of The Real Thing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ellie Cahill is a freelance writer and also writes books for young adults under the name Liz Czukas. She lives outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her husband, son, and the world’s loudest cat.

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Blog Tour: Jesus Jackson by James Ryan Daley

Jesus Jackson by James Ryan Daley

Genre: YA/Mystery

Published: 10/7/2014

Publisher: Poisoned Pencil

Book Link: Goodreads

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Jonathan Stiles is a 14 year-old atheist who is coping with his first day of ninth grade at the fervently religious St. Soren’s Academy when his idolized older brother Ryan is found dead at the bottom of a ravine behind the school. As his world crumbles, Jonathan meets an eccentric stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jesus Christ (except for his white linen leisure suit and sparkling gold chains). Jesus Jackson, as he calls himself, offers to provide faith to Jonathan. He also suggests that Ryan s death may not have been an accident after all.

 Jonathan teams up with Henry, his new best friend at St. Soren s, to investigate. The two boys find footprints leading to the ravine that match Ryan s sneakers. They are assisted by Ryan s grieving girlfriend, Tristan, who also thinks the accident theory is bunk. The police, however, will not listen. But Jonathan knows something the police do not know: Shortly before his death, Ryan was doing cocaine with fellow footballer and number one suspect Alistair not far from the ravine where his body was found. An inspired Jonathan battles sanctimonious school psychologists, overzealous administrators, and a cavalry of Christian classmates on his quest to discover the truth about Ryan’s death and about god, high school, and the meaning of life, while he’s at it. But he keeps getting distracted by Cassie Alistair s quirky younger sister who holds the keys to the answers Jonathan is searching for, but who also makes him wonder if he should be searching for them at all.”

Excerpt:

When I first saw Jesus, he was standing like a statue on the fifty-yard line of the high school football field, one arm pointed at the goalpost and the other cocked back—fingers curled around an imaginary pigskin, locked at the ready for a pantomimed hail-Mary in the final seconds of a make believe bowl game. It was a glorious moment to behold...at least, that is, until an invisible opponent rushed his offensive line. Jesus had to fake right, spin left, and duck around a pretend tight end to make a harrowing dash for the touchdown. He hit a few straight-arm blocks, pulled some fancy footwork, and half a second later he was jogging across the goal line, spiking the ball, and moonwalking clear from one side of the end zone to the other.

Now I know what you’re thinking, but stop right there. And trust me: This guy was totally Jesus. The long, straw-brown hair, straggly beard, gaunt frame, and clear-bright eyes; he was a dead ringer for the son of God. The only difference, as far as I could tell, between the Jesus on the football field and the one hanging on the cross in the school auditorium, was his clothes. The latter wore nearly none, of course, while this one was done up all dapper in a white linen suit, patent leather loafers, and a wide-collared, pastel pink button-down disco shirt, opened just enough to reveal a tuft of flaxen hair and a sparkling gold chain.

But before I get too far into this story, I need to stop and explain a couple things to you. First, you need to know that this little run-in with the savior was happening on a cold and dewy Saturday morning, at about nine am. It was the first of September—about fifteen weeks after my fourteenth birthday, roughly three months since my last day of junior high, and exactly two hours after my big brother’s body was found, life- less and broken, at the bottom of a sixty-foot ravine behind St. Soren’s. I don’t want to dwell on this detail too much at the moment (we’ll get into it all later, trust me), but I just thought you ought to know. For perspective.

Oh yeah, and another thing: I don’t actually believe in Jesus. Didn’t then, don’t now. Not even a little.

So anyway, I watched the old king-of-kings run a victory lap around the track—arms raised, hair streaming behind him in the wind—but just as I was about to wander off, he stopped again on the fifty-yard line, waved his left hand high over his head, and called out, “Hey, you!”

I looked behind me to see if he was referring to someone else, but no one was there. We met eyes and I pointed to my chest with a shrug.

“Yeah, you,” he yelled. “Come on down here, would ya?”

I didn’t have anything else to do at the moment (the cops and paramedics wouldn’t let me near the ravine), and to tell you the truth, I was happy for the distraction. So I put my hands  in my pockets and strolled all the way down the aisle, through the bleachers, and onto the field.

Jesus just stood there, grinning at me more like a salesman than a savior, waiting for me to reach him. And as soon as I stepped onto the grass, he hopped back and began bouncing on his toes, his hands cradling another imaginary football.

“All right,” he said, staring down the field. “Go long.” “Excuse me?”
“Go long.”
“Why?”

He started bobbing, weaving, dodging pretend defensemen. “It’s the fourth quarter; we’ve got twelve seconds and we’re down by five. Now go long.”

“But you don’t have a real ball.”

He shook his head, unimpressed with my logic. “And you aren’t a real wide receiver and this isn’t the real Super Bowl, and I’m not about to get sacked by a real defensive lineman named the Arkansas Annihilator. Don’t be so concerned with reality all the time. Just go long!”

I realized that I was not about to beat this guy in an argu- ment. And seeing as how my current options were to go long with Jesus or go back to the crowd of cops and detectives and school administrators and weeping parents and one very dead older brother in a ravine behind the school, I decided on the former.

“Fine.” I said. “Fine.” And I ran.

I didn’t run very fast, but it felt good to put my body into action, to pump some blood back through all the numbness. I’d been so still and so frozen since the morning, when I first found my mother in the kitchen surrounded by pancakes and bacon and fruit salad and coffee and pastries and juice (she liked to cook when she was upset), and learned that Ryan had apparently fallen while taking a jog after football practice the previous afternoon. But right then, on that field, I could feel my body begin to warm, the sensation returning (just a little) to my limbs.

The funny thing is, Jesus must have been hiding a real ball somewhere (though I can’t imagine where) because when I finally made it down around the ten-yard line and turned to make the imaginary catch, I got smacked clear off my feet by a solid, real, and perfectly spiraling football.

The pass hit me right beneath the rib cage, knocking the wind out of me. I fell hard and gasped for air. My eyes shut while I struggled to catch my breath and when I finally opened them, there was Jesus, standing straight over me, reaching a hand down to help me up.

“Sorry about that,” he said, hoisting me to my feet. “I was just trying to make a point.”

I rubbed my chest and winced. “I get it. You’ve got one hell of an arm. You could go pro.”

“That wasn’t exactly my point.” He extended his right hand. “I’m Jesus.”

I shook it. “I figured. It’s a good look for you. You really pull it off.”

Jesus tugged at his lapel. “Well, thank you.”

“Aren’t you supposed to wear, like...robes, though? And sandals? And, you know, do things more holy then mess around on a football field?”

“No,” he chuckled, pulling a business card from his pocket. “You’ve got me mixed up. I’m not that Jesus. I’m Jesus Jackson.”

He handed me the card. I looked it over. It read:

Jesus Jackson: Spiritual Contractor 100% faith guaranteed!
Call for a FREE ESTIMATE!

Author Bio:

Hi. I’m James. I’m a writer, editor, and designer of various paper-based and digital things. Since finishing my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004, I’ve been spending most of my time teaching writing to college students, creating websites about video games, and writing mystery novels about pensive young ne’erdowells. When I’m not obsessively poring over pixels and pronouns, I can usually be found arguing with strangers on the Internet or seeking out adventure with my indomitable wife and two indefatigable daughters.

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