JACKSON WEBSTER’S NOT-DEAD SISTER

Paranormal Middle Grade / 68K Words

Jackson Webster is losing everything important to him. First, it was Coyote’s Den, his family’s favorite pizza arcade. Then it was Dad. Then, his sister Mackenzie disappears four days before his birthday. Jackson doesn’t want to believe that anything bad could have happened to his sister…but then her ghost shows up, and Jackson’s the only one who can see her. Before he can figure out how to tell Mom that Mack’s dead, her body shows up, too. Not in a ditch or a shallow grave—she walks through the front door. Now there’s two of them! But this Mack is different. Unlike the funny and helpful ghost sister who’s still hanging around, this flesh-and-blood Mackenzie is impatient, abrupt, and impulsive.

Ghost Mackenzie wants her body back so she can graduate, save money for college, and finally go on a date with the girl she likes. The other Mackenzie wants to skip class, quit her job, and jump off the side of a mountain. But which one is his real sister? If Jackson doesn’t figure out what happened to Mackenzie, her reckless body could end up in the morgue, and Jackson can’t handle losing one more thing.

INSPIRATION:

My husband made an offhand comment one day: I always thought it would be cool if someone wrote a story where someone died and then became a ghost AND a zombie. I loved the idea, so I stole it. The character of Jackson was inspired by my tween son and his love of old-school pizza arcades. (Fun Fact: We once drove 800 miles to visit a Chuck E. Cheese because it had a cooler animatronic band than the Chuck E. Cheese within walking distance of our house).