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Exclusive Art Reveal of A MAP TO THE SUN

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Priya Sridhar

Staff Writer

A 2016 MBA graduate and published author, Priya Sridhar has been writing fantasy and science fiction for fifteen years, and counting, as well as contributing columns to Chalkpack Magazine and drawing a webcomic for five years. She also enjoys reading, biking, movie-watching, and classical music. One of her stories made the Top Ten Amazon Kindle Download list, and Alban Lake published her novella Carousel. Priya lives in Miami, Florida with her family and posts monthly at her blog A Faceless Author. Website Twitter: @PriyaJSridhar

Graphic novels about girls playing sports will always win me over.  I’m not a sports person in real life, as evidenced when a camera fell on me during a sports game. With that said, I enjoy the narratives. Fictional stories talk about family, school life, and coming of age. Not many exist that avoid sports cliches. For the moment, Crimson Hero has won my heart over. A manga about a girl trying to form a high school volleyball team, it discusses coming of age and balancing school and sports lives. Not all stories have a Rocky moment where the underdogs win, and that makes a rare victory all the sweeter.

We Americans  now have our version of Crimson Hero: A Map to the Sun. It will come out in 2019, but for the moment we have a sneak peek of the art. Here we get a graphic novel about basketball, surfing friendship, and coming into your own. Sloane Leong writes and draws the story. I like the loose art style and different character designs. We also rarely get graphic novels that draw palm trees swaying in the wind so accurately. I could hear the sea breezes and the palm frond crinkling.

Cover of A Map to the Sun

Synopsis

Summers always seem to burn bright and fast for Ren but never faster than when she met Luna. Daring and independent, Luna and Ren spend their last middle school break together, only to have their short whirlwind friendship end with Luna’s sudden move away and all without a goodbye.

Two rough high school years later and Ren is being forced to join a basketball team for her poor school record with a crew of other misfits or face expulsion…and as quick as she left, Luna is back and ready to play too. Cliques, bullies, gangs, crushes, rivals and basketball: summer is back with a vengeance.

view exclusive art below

A Map of the Sun excerpt 1A Map of the Sun excerpt 3A Map of the Sun excerpt 4A Map of the Sun excerpt 5A Map of the Sun excerpt 6A Map of the Sun excerpt 7A Map of the Sun excerpt 8

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