While creating a new children’s book, author and illustrator, Nicholas, age twenty-two, conceives of an innovative new currency. His idea could dramatically transform how people earn money and make a living. A side benefit of the currency: It could potentially eliminate a fast-growing global problem that no one has been able to solve.

 Conflicted about promoting his financial concept, he instead takes an unplanned career detour as an art director with a company that develops and markets innovative gadgets and gifts.

 The Creative Trade unfolds during an idyllic, Santa Barbara, California, summer. Focused solely on his job, Nicholas believes he is living the dream life. He ignores all the warning signs that his success-driven life is slowly unraveling. A chance meeting with Paige — an aspiring musician and songwriter — unlocks a subtle, synergistic music and art connection between them. As they get to know each other, Paige witnesses a phenomenon that she discovers only she can see. Initially thrown by the experience, Paige quickly embraces the unknown and explores the unlimited range of her creative abilities. Strengthening her connection to this mystifying source of creativity leads her to a secret relationship critical to Nicholas’s survival and future.

 The Creative Trade takes place in 1979, a decade ending, transformational year. The Creative Trade is a summer story of loss and personal discovery that explores the courage required to sustain a creative life and the invisible depths of human connectivity.