Leap Second

Danny Marsh is a Double-A second baseman one bad week from being released. He chases a pitch he had no business swinging at, goes down off the catcher’s knee, and gets up one second ahead of the world. Nobody sees it. His mild concussion happened in the same instant the stadium clock threw a leap second that shouldn’t exist. From then on, Danny lives every moment before the people around him get there.

What follows is the best season of his life: a call-up to the majors, a leaping double play on every highlight show, and a pennant race in Denver. But his lead doesn’t hold still. It jumps ahead, it snaps back, and it keeps landing closer to zero, and a body that has forgotten how to work in real time is one pitch away from getting badly hurt. In Boulder, a timekeeping researcher nobody wants to listen to is tracking the same strange numbers in the Earth’s rotation. In New York, the league has opened a quiet file on a player whose numbers shouldn’t be possible.

Danny can’t explain what happened to him, and trying would only make it sound worse. The longer he hides it, the further he drifts from his wife, Erin, and his best friend, Marcus. In the end he has to decide what he’s willing to give up to stand in the same moment as the people he loves.

Drafting

The first draft is nearly finished. I’m writing the last few chapters now and expect it to be ready for beta readers in the coming weeks. It’s a lean draft, about 55,000 to 60,000 words. A full revision comes after the beta read, and that’s where the book grows toward its finished length, so what beta readers notice now will shape what gets deepened. No publication date yet. News will be posted here first.

One email when Leap Second is finished and available. Nothing else, and you can leave the list any time.

I'm looking for a small group of readers for the finished draft — people who'll actually reach the last page and tell me where it sagged. No publishing experience required. Being a reader who finishes books is the whole qualification.