Vanderough University prepares its graduates for life on Mars. Herbert Hoover Palminteri enrolls at VU with the hope of joining the Martian colony in 2044 as a member of its eleventh graduating class. He thinks if he just keeps his head down and gets his studies done, he’ll get the... marks he needs to join the esteemed engineer corps on the red planet. But then Herbert is tapped to join a notorious secret society: The Order of the Scepter & Gavel. As a new pledge, Herbert has to prove himself in a series of dangerous initiation rites, even if it means risking his life and the lives of his friends.
Many years later, when Herbert thinks the scandals of his youth are finally dead and buried, a murder occurs in the Martian colony, and Herbert starts to suspect it is linked to the secret Order of the Scepter & Gavel of his past.read more
BIOGRAPHY Nicholas Ponticello is an educator and writer in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley with degrees in mathematics and astrophysics and later earned his master's in education from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ponticello is interested in exploring the intersection of scie... nce, sustainability, mental health, and education, and hopes to encourage more systems thinking and sustainability-themed curricula at the secondary school level.
Mr. Ponticello is also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. In 2020, he was awarded the Sue Alexander Grant for his work on a YA novel provisionally titled WHAT IF I DID? What If I Did? is based on his experience coping with debilitating OCD and his struggle to overcome it through years of cognitive behavioral therapy. Mr. Ponticello completed the six-week intensive outpatient clinic at UCLA and went on to become an advocate for the International OCD Foundation. He has written for the IOCDF blog and has spoken on a panel about relationships and OCD at the annual IOCDF Conference.
Mr. Ponticello grew up in Northern California and began his career as the operations manager at KOMENAR Publishing in Oakland, CA. He is a longtime runner, and has coached champion cross-country and track & field teams at the high school level. Mr. Ponticello is also the author of Do Not Resuscitate, a fictional biography that considers transhumanism and the intersection of technology and sustainability. He has studied writing under Kim Krizan (Before Sunrise, Zombie Tales 2061) and Bruce Miller (Handmaid's Tale, ER). Do Not Resuscitate won a Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award, an INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award, and a CIPA EVVY Award. His second novel, The Maiden Voyage of the Destiny Unknown, also won a Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award and was listed as one of 100 Notable Books from the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition.read more