Instrumental

Book 1

The Weak Link: Instrumental Book 1

How do you face the enemy within?

It’s hard to become a professional ballet dancer when you have a serious case of stage fright.

An embarrassing performance has stripped sixteen-year-old Genevieve Larsen of her confidence and dulled her love for dance. It couldn’t have come at a worse time — Gen is deciding whether to leave for dance school or continue at her present studio. As she ramps up her dance program, her entrance into the high school’s prestigious marching band program has unexpectedly further squeezed her time, energy, and focus, turning a formerly fun class into a major complication.

John Vance is also trying to keep his head above water as he and his family grapple with the death of his mom through the first anniversary. That coupled with an imminent departure for school and the development of strong feelings for his sister’s best friend, Gen, leaves him filled with frustration and anxiety.

The stakes are high as Gen considers decisions that could impact her for years if she leaves family, friends, and her hometown behind to immerse herself in dance. They’re even higher for John as he attempts to hold his family together. As Gen and John rise to their challenges, they’ll need to figure out what chains and links to strengthen and which to destroy.

This lesson will be instrumental.

Not Hear: Instrumental Book 2

Excellence. Fixer. Closer. Winner.

Sixteen-year-old Anayah Kapur already has a reputation for domination. With a love for science and medicine, she goes after anything she puts her mind to with passion and determination.

Anayah is burning things up.

Until she’s with her family, who pours a huge bucket of ice water over her. As the youngest member, Anayah feels she’s treated as a baby, fighting to be seen, heard, and taken seriously. She feels especially eclipsed by her older sister, Priya, and is tired of the family’s preoccupation with her upcoming wedding.

As always, Anayah has a plan. Win her science competition, get first chair flute, come out of Priya’s shadow, and no boys because they’re immature distractions. But when things turn out too well, she’s in danger of losing the one thing she’s desperate to have.

Winning may be more than she can handle, and she’s about to learn the hardest instrumental lesson she’s ever faced. What does it actually take to be heard?

Self Portrait: Instrumental Book 3

Finding my rhythm. Creating my own distinct melody. Working out the harmony.

Matt Bellinger and Li Xiang couldn’t be more different.
Sixteen-year-old Matt has a serious lack of self-confidence due to being bullied in his old town. His father is getting remarried to someone tied to that time period, and he’s having fights with his brother — real fights. Matt has a small group of friends in Southerland, but his mother wants him to branch out and broaden his horizons, which is the last thing he wants to do.
Bubbly Xiang loves creating jewelry and clothes and hanging out with her friends, which she has had little difficulty making. An optimistic go-getter, her parents feel she lacks focus and bounces from activity to activity, switching hobbies frequently.
While sharing a couple of loves, like art and band, Matt and Xiang feel so different, each is afraid their interest in the other won’t be returned.
At the end of their sophomore year, they have the opportunity to be involved with a nearby university’s summer camp. Work and assignments quickly develop their artistic skills and talents. Experiences and new people help them to sketch out their personalities and interests in more detail. Trials test their relationship with one another.
Xiang is afraid camp is changing Matt. Matt is upset that Xiang doesn’t seem to share his happiness at fitting in.
A brief but critical experience, the arts camps help them to discover who they are and who they want to be, a self-portrait. If they can work through their challenges, fears, and self doubts, they will learn an instrumental lesson.

The List: Instrumental Book 4

Coming in 2026

Taylor Vance, her father, and older brother are slowly healing. After the death of their wife and mother, Lia Vance, they had nearly fallen apart, individually and as a family. Two years later, they’re not perfect, but they seem to have found a rhythm, and Taylor is happy with that and proud of them. Sixteen-year-old Taylor has also found refuge in her cello, which has taken on deeper importance as she chases opportunities that put her on a path to become a professional cellist.

During an attic clean out, Taylor finds a list of activities that her mother had written in college of activities she had wanted to accomplish during her life. Taylor wants to finish the list and bring the three Vances even closer together, sharing memories of Mom. Just when Taylor’s family embarks on the project, her father begins dating again, making Taylor fear she will lose her family all over again. Now Taylor hopes doing the list together will help her father fill a void and remind him of how great Mom was, which may encourage him to discontinue dating.

But the list isn’t quite doing what she thought it would, and Taylor finds changes aren’t always bad, even huge ones that she could have never foreseen. As she observes the trials and triumphs of the relationships of those around her, she tries to piece together her views and feelings on the topic as she navigates her own friendships. And when life feels overwhelming and no one seems to understand, she turns to her cello to help work things out.

A YA story filled with hope, persistence, and even a little humor featuring a family determined not to just live but to truly be alive.