About The Gemini Strand by L. J. Hasbrouck
Life on Mars is no fairy tale for Morgan, a scrappy adventurer who plunders Earth’s carcass in search of loot—and evidence of an elusive scientist. She hopes he can cure her father’s dementia, but instead he kidnaps her father and flees into the deceptive dreamlands of Mars. During her frantic search to locate them, Morgan begins experiencing strange hallucinations that make her think she’s losing her mind.
Meanwhile, Nil, a tormented killer struggling to repress his humanity, thinks his hallucinations are a flaw in his system. Soon his pesky emotions roar back to life, throwing a dagger into the whole “cold-blooded assassin” thing. While he pursues his next mark, a witty hacker trying to save Nil’s other victims, he battles with his disorienting visions and burgeoning emotions.
What he doesn’t realize is that he’s falling in love for the first time—and the hacker he’s falling for is also the scientist who kidnapped Morgan’s father.
Drawn together by their common target, Morgan and Nil harness their mysterious visions to find each other amidst holographic recreations of Oz, Wonderland, Neverland, Atlantis, and Camelot. Before she loses her father forever, Morgan must work with a killer and kidnapper to discover the sinister truth behind her father’s illness and her bond with Nil. And Nil is forced to decide between protecting the man he loves and helping the girl he’s inexplicably linked to.
Because they share more than disorienting hallucinations—and what they share will change everything they thought they knew about themselves.
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Author Bio:
I’m an INTJ (you might not put much stock into MBTI types but INTJ describes me better than I can describe myself). Also, when I play D&D, I align Chaotic Neutral. Apart from that, I’m always interested in art, prose, all things creative, psychology and true crime, and I’ve been a fan of anime and video games since my single-digit years. If I had to pick aesthetics, I’d go Dark Paradise ala Silent Hill or an umbrella of Dreamwave. I’m also a huge Pokemon dweeb.
My work typically includes diverse voices and speculative qualities with a dash of romance and slow-burn sexual tension. I am the author of two published series: the high fantasy The Lineage of Tellus, first published in 2014 by Greyhart Press, and the post-apocalyptic thriller Stalker/s, first published in 2019 by NineStar Press. NineStar Press also published my sci-fi novel The Gemini Strand in 2021. In addition, my short story, “The Hole”, has been published in the horror anthology Welcome Home from Lycan Valley Press. I’ve also been a professional editor since 2021 and signed with my agent at Corvisiero Literary Agency in 2024.