Meet Carny Indigo Jessup.

Okay, so he doesn't have ear buttons (and never will), and doesn't have tats yet (although they're in his near future), but this is pretty much what Carny Jessup looks like. He's the young hero of Carny's Magic, coming May 29 from Loose Id.

Here's his very condensed version of his story:

I'll get right to the point. The best part of my life began when my aunt’s homophobic squeeze smashed his fist into my face. That is no shit.

I already knew a wizard named Jackson Spey lived on my side of town, so I figured I’d turn things around by becoming his apprentice. Problem was, Spey didn’t want an apprentice. He was going through some kind of midlife crisis. All he wanted was to build beautiful furniture and have sex with his beautiful husband, Adin. 

He still took me in, though. Guess he felt sorry for me. And the red paths I’d been seeing in the air really intrigued him.

Hey, I’m only 19, so how could I have foreseen the rest? That I’d fall for a breathtaking boy named Peter, who was at the center of some strange magic tied to Jackson’s past. And I’d have to deal with a sorcerer named Bezod, an evil pig who plagued all four of us and threatened to destroy our relationships.

But . . . sometimes you just have to fight for what’s right. Like love. I might’ve been new to the boyfriend gig and Jackson might’ve been a reluctant wizard, but when the time came, we were ready to kick some supernatural ass.