What does it mean to be human in the face of loss, fear, and anger?
Those are the challenges faced by a young Iowa farm boy and a martial arts video game fighter as the "Kumite Adventures" follow their personal struggles and evolving friendship. Both characters are fresh and relatable, yet complex, immersed in an elegant virtual world alive with unusual inhabitants and fraught with unexpected dangers.
BOOK ONE OF THE KUMITE ADVENTURES
DARKNESS
At the very moment he’s overwhelmed by grief and guilt, 14-year-old Chris Kelly finds himself mysteriously thrust into the virtual world of his martial arts video game Kumite. Pain is quickly replaced by confusion when Power, the game controller, forces him to compete.
Although Chris excels at playing Kumite on his computer, it’s entirely different when the challenges are real. He has no idea how to fight, plus Laster, his favorite game fighter and teammate, turns out to be arrogant and impatient. To make them a stronger team, a skeptical Laster reluctantly agrees to train the boy. The game resumes, but doesn’t go well. And it’s only at Laster’s encouragement that Chris uses some unique non-fighting moves of his own that allow them to win the competition.
Chris and Laster form an unlikely friendship, and the virtual fighter decides to help the human boy return home. They escape the game realm, prompting Power to send his army of cyberninjas and a deadly terminator after them. Suddenly, the challenges they face are not about scoring game points but instead staying alive — even as they enter the human world.
This immersive odyssey of self-discovery, set in fantastical realms with incredible adventures, follows a troubled boy on an unexpected journey that allows him to find his courage, forgiveness, and a much-needed brother.
BOOK TWO OF THE KUMITE ADVENTURES
CHAOS
Chris Kelly always viewed his foggy adventures in the Kumite world as impossible fantasies brought on by wild imagination and depression. But they must have been real — he just saw actual cyberninjas in a friend’s video!
Chris follows scouting cyberninjas back into Kumite only to discover a once-elegant virtual world in ruins, the result of a peculiar virus. He finds his friends, the whimsical minininjas, who help him regenerate several game fighters. Chris is thrilled to learn that Laster, who he thought was destroyed, is still alive — although he’s been reduced to digital dust by Power as punishment for helping Chris escape the Kumite world.
Laster is regenerated, but Chris’ joy turns to concern when he realizes the once-peaceful demeanor of his virtual brother has turned to anger and revenge. Chris, the fighters, and minininjas, escape to Chris’ world to find Power has invaded his hometown, abducted the high school football players and cheerleaders, and is creating a bizarre virtual stadium over the school track and field.
The mystery of why this is happening, and how it all started two years earlier, unfolds as Chris’ friends from his world and Kumite unite to defeat Power. But their ability to succeed is threatened by the unpredictable actions of Laster, who’s struggling to understand his own emerging humanity.
AVAILABLE SOON
BOOK THREE OF THE KUMITE ADVENTURES
ILLUMINATION
Chris and Laster’s quest to find missing teens brought into Kumite against their will by Power takes them to a distant virtual realm. Plant-based humanoids called Umbachis immediately fly out of the sky and take their portal control, leaving them stranded in a beautiful alien world. Chris and Laster find the teens, but also encounter the ruthless Diovans. Driven by profit, these miners invade regions of cyberspace, decimate all in their path by absorbing matter, converting it to pure energy, and selling it.
Laster’s sophisticated power, and the energy-rich Kumite world he comes from, are the next targets for the Diovans — just as soon as they’ve obliterated this realm. As the destruction of their world nears, the peaceful Umbachis barter return of the portal control to Chris and Laster for an alliance. As they’re about to return to Kumite for help, Chris and Laster are captured by the Diovans, who run experiments on the virtual fighter to better understand the world they’re about to invade.
Chris escapes and persuades the reluctant teens to go for help. They return with a ragtag army of survivors from worlds decimated by the Diovans. Vengeance fuels the survivors’ assault against the well-armed miners, evening the odds. The fighting is deadly with both sides taking heavy losses until a mysterious power, working through a transformed Laster, brings the madness to an abrupt halt — leaving everyone, especially Laster, forever changed.
AVAILABLE SOON