WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION In 1955, mixed-race Ethan Harper leaves his progressive hometown for a summer in Alabama where he's not welcome, except by resident free spirit, Juniper Jones. ***** After getting himself into a bout of trouble, 16-year-old Ethan Harper's parents send him to Ellison, Alabama, to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer. But the year is 1955, and Alabama is a far cry from his beloved home of Arcadia, Washington. As much as it's hotter in temperature, it's colder in every other way, and Ethan learns the hard way that people see his mere existence as a threat. Amidst all the mayhem, a fiery, free-spirited, oddball walks into Ethan's life. Her name is Juniper Jones. She is the first person in Ellison who seems unfazed by their racial differences, and she promises to give Ethan a summer he will always remember, filled with endless adventure and discovery. With Juniper, Ethan can breathe, he can be, despite the incessant attention and bullying their newly formed friendship attracts. Can the two survive the summer, run in the light and block out the noise of the outside world? [Published version comes out June 16, 2020 with Wattpad Books!] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]

My name is Julie Quinn and I've been a New Yorker all my life. Life was good. I was swamped with work doing a job that I loved and I was dating the best boyfriend I'd ever had the pleasure to. I have always been a strong-willed and independent woman - or as my best friend puts it "control freak" - and even more after the accident, but what happened on the eve of my 30th birthday was enough to bring down Wonder Woman.

Katrina's best friend Marco dies in a mall shooting when they're fourteen years old. Three years later, she's starting her senior year of high school and beginning to forget, at last. Her life had become as bearable as it could possibly be, until Ian - Marco's older brother - comes back to town. He comes back changed, dangerous, and enigmatic. Katrina can't stay away, despite the overflow of memories his presence brings to her. A catastrophic relationship is born, one the world never wanted and most definitely won't permit. (cover art by hagenmarley)

Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road is a hilarious and heartfelt ride around the world, wherein the author eats dog, obsesses about chewing gum, gets stranded on an island, does dirty things, reveres rock n roll and muses about everything from death to Star Trek to the President Obama to jail time. Now available on Wattpad, Wayward has been a surprise hit at both iTunes and Amazon, reaching #1 on both retailers' travel charts. It chronicles a year in the life of the author, who lived in 12 countries over 12 months, one month at a time. It's kind of funny, kind of sad and kind of weird. Forbes describes the book: "Wayward isn’t strictly a travelogue or a guide by any means. The book reads like a diary, with chapters dedicated to everything from watching Obama’s inauguration in an Argentinian bar, to viewing a dubbed version of the newest Star Trek film in France and trying to understand the plot despite not speaking French, to remembering the ecstasy and pain of his first love just before breaking up with his then-boyfriend in Berlin, to eating dog in Vietnam, to his experience working with Patti Smith in New York. Gates’ lively, conversational writing style bring all the disparate pieces together for an engaging, enjoyable read."