SMOG - Chapters 1 & 2

Stellan could be flying a private jet from L.A to San Francisco, but instead he's just another passenger on a commercial flight. The possibility of the FAA finding out about his forged credentials forced him into an early retirement. He could be watching outdoor movies at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with his two sisters but after witnessing the death of his disturbed friend, both of them have fled Tinseltown to nurse their film careers and bullet wounds respectively. L.A was supposed to be more fun.

Stellan left Texas to escape the shadow of his abusive father and forget the death of his mother, and he wanted to do it in the sunshine. Instead he finds himself spending most of his time shielding his actress sister Juliet's fragile ego, and keeping his adopted sister Nix distracted long enough to forget the life of child prostitution that he rescued her from. There's also the matter of the one-for-one shoe start up that he co-owns with Jude, a brooding author with a past that threatens the hazy artifice Stellan has constructed around himself.

SMOG, my complete 61,000 word new adult novel, examines and humanizes the people trying to create a solid life in a city of smoke and mirrors. Told from the point of view of Stellan and the four most important people in his life, SMOG is kinder and gentler than LESS THAN ZERO, but never warm or fuzzy. This is a story not just of tan, homegrown hipsters, but of transplants with baggage struggling to be simultaneously carefree and purposeful.