Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of JJ Clapton’s A Stage Over Ruthless Stars, a YA sci-fi with a dual POV (gay and aro) releasing February 1, 2025! (Links to the ebook are below, but it’ll be available in paperback upon release as well.) Here’s the story:
Aznan is a chronically ill high school drop out living on a space station with an illness that hates gravity. But he’s going to be a famous inventor… That’s if he can win the biggest tech competition in the system. Held at his space station’s circus, and judged by titans of industry, it’s one massive showcase to demonstrate his homemade tech in front of a live audience.
To win, he’ll need his ex-best friend’s help. Kairo hasn’t spoken to him in three years, not since he left school to join the circus as an aerialist, but Aznan can handle that. Oh, and the local favourites just turned up dead. That, not so much.
Everyone’s saying sabotage. Murder and riches.
A competition worth killing for.
And when a second team dies right in front of Aznan’s eyes, the official reassurances of glitches and accidents no longer hold. The body count is rising. The Grand Showcase is blasting closer. With nobody willing to stop the show, Aznan and Kairo must unearth the truth or risk their lives with one final act.
And here’s the cover, designed by the author!
Buy it: Amazon | Books2Read
JJ Clapton is a queer, autistic writer of science fiction and fantasy across multiple age ranges. Originally from London, she grew up retreating from life into the stories in her head. When she became sick with a chronic illness as a teen, she relied on the stories to help her escape. After more than half her life spent somewhere between housebound and bedbound, stories have been a constant companion and light even in the hardest of times. JJ loves to write stories in which characters like her exist and have adventures even if she doesn’t get to have many herself. Apart from being an avid reader, she loves craft, watching sports, and stimming to music. She now lives in Lanzarote where she enjoys meowing at all the local cats (of which there are many!). And has a lovely, vicious, cute little cat of her own called Rocky.
