Michelle Hauck's Blog, page 71
June 1, 2015
Query Kombat Round 1
Get that thick skin in place because here we go! Round 1
Hop on over to Mike's and SC's blogs to see the rest of the match-ups and entries! They are spread all over the place. Some here, some there. We've got a little bit of everything: Adult, NA, YA, MG, and PB! This round lasts until June 4th at 8 pm.
On Thursday the hosts will call out for extra judges to come and break ties, or in case of extra close votes to try and get a more decisive margin.
The entry with the most votes for Victory moves forward to the agent round on June 8th! Kombatants will have a chance to revise at that time. Entries must be revised and returned to the QueryKombat at gmail dot com email by Saturday, June 6th at 5:00 pm Eastern. Follow the exact same format.
Now before we begin:
Read this post again to remind yourselves of the rules and guidelines of commenting and judging. Below I've reposted the main ideas:
Reminders for the Entrants:
No commenting on your own entries!!!!!! Not until the last day of the round, so Thursday. If there is a problem with your entry, shout out to us on twitter as soon as you can. (@Michelle4Laughs) If you don't have a Twitter, you may comment on your entry telling me the mistake.
Also, we tried our hardest to make the match-ups as fair as possible and against as similar stories as possible. But, obviously, this is impossible to do perfectly and some match-ups may seen very random. We apologize for this but it's an evil of the system.
Kombatants should comment on 6 other match-ups to help share the love around!
Reminders for the Judges:
Wait until after one of us hosts comments on each entry first and reply to that comment to cast your votes. Try making your votes objective instead of subjective (but if you really love an entry subjectively, don't even feel bad about saying it was a subjective vote - subjectivity rules!).
Make sure to post under your nicknames!
And judges: seriously, thank you so, SO much for doing this. It's a very tough job and isn't for the faint-hearted.
Reminders for Everyone:
Try not to comment until after one of us hosts have made the first comment!
NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!! GO GO GO!!! We'll be Tweeting under #QueryKombat!
QK Round 1: IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A REDO versus BABY BLUES RUSE
Entry Nickname: If You Give a Girl a RedoTitle: The Art of AlmostWord count: 110,000Genre: Upmarket Women’s Fiction
Query:
Pediatric surgeon Anna Marin already carries too many regrets. She’s still not over the one who got away or the fallout from her mother’s devastating stroke. On a flight home to marry the wrong man, she vows to save herself further remorse by breaking off her engagement. It’s time move on—from all of it.But when Anna wakes as her 20-year-old self en route to study in Australia, it seems fate has a different idea: a second chance with Charlie Beckham, the older man she was drawn to but never pursued out of loyalty to her eventual fiancé Nick Halstead. This time Anna falls hard, and being with Charlie is even better than what she’s spent more than a decade imagining.
Yet if the rest of Anna’s history plays out as it once did, in a few months her mother will suffer a debilitating stroke that renders her unable to care for Anna’s six-year-old sister Noelle. Crushed by the loss, Noelle will begin a downward spiral from which she never recovers.
Try as she might to alter her mother’s path, it soon becomes clear that Anna must make an impossible decision: walk away from the love of her life—again—or stay with Charlie and allow her family’s future to be marred by illness and abandonment. Adding to Anna’s distress, Nick arrives in Australia to win her back. Seeing him as the boy she used to know, Anna finally realizes she also played a part in their relationship’s unraveling.
As her one-day fiancé changes his course, and complications emerge in her relationship with Charlie, Anna’s even more confused by what the past, present, and future hold. All the while she wonders when her time in the past will run out, or whether the clock’s been rewound for good.
First 250 words:
The front door slammed. Automatically my body stiffened. What I needed to do was move, and fast. Yet I stood still, staring down the garment bag hanging from the closet door. Just the thought of unzipping it exhausted me. I couldn’t fathom how I’d manage a night of small talk engineered to boost already-inflated egos.
I pushed the bag aside and looked into the full-length mirror to confirm what I already knew: thanks to seven hours under a surgical cap, my hair was a disaster. And to my knowledge no product existed to tame curls that looked like you’d spent the night doing cartwheels in a wind tunnel.
“Anna Jane?” came Nick’s voice from the foyer. “You ready?”
I grabbed my robe and wrapped it around me. “I’m not quite—”
He burst into the closet. “What the—you’re not even dressed? The car’s gonna be here in ten minutes!”
I was the one who agreed to attend the black tie benefit, and I was the one who offered up pro bono time knowing full well I’d be late getting home. But still it was him I was angry with. “O’Keefe needed a peds surgeon for the Kelley case. An OR opened up and they’ve been waiting for weeks, and tonight’s just—”
“Just what, Anna? Tonight’s just what?”
I turned to unzip the bag for a reason to break his gaze. “I can’t control the schedule, Nick.”
What I didn’t admit was that a colleague had offered his time too, but I’d insisted.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Baby Blues RuseTitle: The Calling Of OneWord Count: 88KGenre: Adult Upmarket Apocalyptic
Query:
Mikenna Lawson wakes up every morning wishing she wasn’t the last human ever born. When the human race makes the permanent decision to stop reproducing, Mikenna imagines herself as the second Eve, and repopulating the Earth.
But Mikenna doesn’t know she was born during a time when reproduction was illegal; that her mother, Anna, had risked both their lives for a chance at life. So when she learns from her Aunt Rebekah that she was sterilized at birth, her hopes come crashing down. One day she’s Googling images of babiesto see if they look like the ones she sees in her dreams. The next day she’s contemplating suicide so someone else can be the last. And despite her wonderful husband, Mikenna abstains from sexual relations because of its emotional connection to her sterilization.
As Mikenna nears menopause, and the human race dwindles, she discovers what she should’ve known years before: she was never sterilized. Rebekah had known all along that the doctor who delivered Mikenna saved her from the sterilization.
The truth tears at Mikenna’s heart as the dream of having a child, and continuing the human race, becomes possible. But she’ll have to decide if fulfilling her own desire is worth subjecting an innocent child to the burdens of an empty world.
First 250 words:
Each leaden footstep Anna took through her unlit home brought her closer to the garage; closer to victory; and each painstaking step symbolized defiance against The Decision. At the end of the hallway she measured the distance to her next supporting wall and shuffled on. But a growing ache halted her at the dining room table. In desperation, she grasped the closest chair, breathing quick, rapid breaths. Her back shuddered, as if the Earth had just shifted across her spine, and it threatened to bring her body down in a crumbling mess. Her contracting muscles pulsed, hastening her daughter toward an undeserved life.
“Oh, my precious little girl,” Anna whispered, “I’m sorry I got you into this. I’m sorry, Mikenna, but one day you’ll know . . . my heart was selfless.”
At the point of collapse, Anna grit her teeth, and with a huff of determination, heaved herself up. She pushed off, and continued on with trembling knees through her hiding place, her cage. Five steps more, and Anna turned toward the living room. David stood to the side of the window, concealing himself in the darkness, holding the curtain back slightly with his pointer finger. A shaft of light from the afternoon sun snuck past and landed on the carpet, exposing a flurry of dust.
“I’m ready,” Anna beckoned. “David . . . please?”
Anna waited. Her labored breathing filled the silence.
“Where are They?” David mocked, looking outside. “They have to know.”
“They can’t,” Anna pleaded. “Please, God, They can’t."
Query:
Pediatric surgeon Anna Marin already carries too many regrets. She’s still not over the one who got away or the fallout from her mother’s devastating stroke. On a flight home to marry the wrong man, she vows to save herself further remorse by breaking off her engagement. It’s time move on—from all of it.But when Anna wakes as her 20-year-old self en route to study in Australia, it seems fate has a different idea: a second chance with Charlie Beckham, the older man she was drawn to but never pursued out of loyalty to her eventual fiancé Nick Halstead. This time Anna falls hard, and being with Charlie is even better than what she’s spent more than a decade imagining.
Yet if the rest of Anna’s history plays out as it once did, in a few months her mother will suffer a debilitating stroke that renders her unable to care for Anna’s six-year-old sister Noelle. Crushed by the loss, Noelle will begin a downward spiral from which she never recovers.
Try as she might to alter her mother’s path, it soon becomes clear that Anna must make an impossible decision: walk away from the love of her life—again—or stay with Charlie and allow her family’s future to be marred by illness and abandonment. Adding to Anna’s distress, Nick arrives in Australia to win her back. Seeing him as the boy she used to know, Anna finally realizes she also played a part in their relationship’s unraveling.
As her one-day fiancé changes his course, and complications emerge in her relationship with Charlie, Anna’s even more confused by what the past, present, and future hold. All the while she wonders when her time in the past will run out, or whether the clock’s been rewound for good.
First 250 words:
The front door slammed. Automatically my body stiffened. What I needed to do was move, and fast. Yet I stood still, staring down the garment bag hanging from the closet door. Just the thought of unzipping it exhausted me. I couldn’t fathom how I’d manage a night of small talk engineered to boost already-inflated egos.
I pushed the bag aside and looked into the full-length mirror to confirm what I already knew: thanks to seven hours under a surgical cap, my hair was a disaster. And to my knowledge no product existed to tame curls that looked like you’d spent the night doing cartwheels in a wind tunnel.
“Anna Jane?” came Nick’s voice from the foyer. “You ready?”
I grabbed my robe and wrapped it around me. “I’m not quite—”
He burst into the closet. “What the—you’re not even dressed? The car’s gonna be here in ten minutes!”
I was the one who agreed to attend the black tie benefit, and I was the one who offered up pro bono time knowing full well I’d be late getting home. But still it was him I was angry with. “O’Keefe needed a peds surgeon for the Kelley case. An OR opened up and they’ve been waiting for weeks, and tonight’s just—”
“Just what, Anna? Tonight’s just what?”
I turned to unzip the bag for a reason to break his gaze. “I can’t control the schedule, Nick.”
What I didn’t admit was that a colleague had offered his time too, but I’d insisted.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Baby Blues RuseTitle: The Calling Of OneWord Count: 88KGenre: Adult Upmarket Apocalyptic
Query:
Mikenna Lawson wakes up every morning wishing she wasn’t the last human ever born. When the human race makes the permanent decision to stop reproducing, Mikenna imagines herself as the second Eve, and repopulating the Earth.
But Mikenna doesn’t know she was born during a time when reproduction was illegal; that her mother, Anna, had risked both their lives for a chance at life. So when she learns from her Aunt Rebekah that she was sterilized at birth, her hopes come crashing down. One day she’s Googling images of babiesto see if they look like the ones she sees in her dreams. The next day she’s contemplating suicide so someone else can be the last. And despite her wonderful husband, Mikenna abstains from sexual relations because of its emotional connection to her sterilization.
As Mikenna nears menopause, and the human race dwindles, she discovers what she should’ve known years before: she was never sterilized. Rebekah had known all along that the doctor who delivered Mikenna saved her from the sterilization.
The truth tears at Mikenna’s heart as the dream of having a child, and continuing the human race, becomes possible. But she’ll have to decide if fulfilling her own desire is worth subjecting an innocent child to the burdens of an empty world.
First 250 words:
Each leaden footstep Anna took through her unlit home brought her closer to the garage; closer to victory; and each painstaking step symbolized defiance against The Decision. At the end of the hallway she measured the distance to her next supporting wall and shuffled on. But a growing ache halted her at the dining room table. In desperation, she grasped the closest chair, breathing quick, rapid breaths. Her back shuddered, as if the Earth had just shifted across her spine, and it threatened to bring her body down in a crumbling mess. Her contracting muscles pulsed, hastening her daughter toward an undeserved life.
“Oh, my precious little girl,” Anna whispered, “I’m sorry I got you into this. I’m sorry, Mikenna, but one day you’ll know . . . my heart was selfless.”
At the point of collapse, Anna grit her teeth, and with a huff of determination, heaved herself up. She pushed off, and continued on with trembling knees through her hiding place, her cage. Five steps more, and Anna turned toward the living room. David stood to the side of the window, concealing himself in the darkness, holding the curtain back slightly with his pointer finger. A shaft of light from the afternoon sun snuck past and landed on the carpet, exposing a flurry of dust.
“I’m ready,” Anna beckoned. “David . . . please?”
Anna waited. Her labored breathing filled the silence.
“Where are They?” David mocked, looking outside. “They have to know.”
“They can’t,” Anna pleaded. “Please, God, They can’t."
QK Round 1: FORGET YOU, STALIN versus FIGHTING THE SOUTH
Entry Nickname: Forget You, Stalin, We're Outta HereTitle: Night WitchWord Count: 115,000Genre: Adult Historical Fiction
Query:
Nadya’s whole existence is engineered to deceive. Her Motherland itself, the Soviet Union of Stalin’s era, is misery disguised as a means to glory. Her marriage to Party functionary Peter was born of blackmail. Even her studies in aerial navigation, as seriously as she takes them, serve only to occupy her time with something interesting. No one would dare wage war on the mighty Soviets.
In June of 1941, the illusion is blown wide open. The Nazi war machine quickly swallows up vast areas of land and millions of men, including Nadya’s beloved brother. Nadya does not stand passively by, weeping and watching her entire world crumble. Instead, she puts her studies to use and joins the elite “Night Witches”, an air regiment made up almost entirely of women, as a navigator. For the next four years, coping with loss after devastating loss, two things keep her alive: her skills in the air, and her love for Nikolai, factory worker turned front-line soldier, whom she met before the war began.
But freedom, too, is an illusion. After Nadya discovers some heinous truths about her husband, she flees for her life, with Nikolai. In a nation so oppressed by paranoia, the Leader’s death is not enough to promise the freedom these hardened war veterans seek. Nadya is under no illusions about what it will take to earn it, and she prepares herself to turn her back on the Motherland that betrayed her, after she so bravely defended it.
First 250 Words:
Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. September 1940
The tall man with the shock of sandy hair apologized for stepping on my foot, when it really hadn’t been more than a bumping of toes. I smiled and assured him it was all right, and took a seat on the metro across from him. It had been a very good day. At Osoaviachim, the flight navigation training school, I’d done very well on an exam, earning an unsmiling but appreciative nod from the hard-faced instructor. These good days, full of accomplishment and progress, were typical since I was accepted to Osoaviachim.
So it happened that a little grin remained as I caught the eye of the sandy-haired man again. When he returned my smile, I noticed his eyes. Bright, gemlike blue, with corners that crinkled upward at me. My own smile broadened. Something in my chest tightened. My heart sped up. I held his gaze for a moment before looking away and trying not to fidget my fingers.
The train slowed; he stood. “I hope I didn’t injure your foot too badly.” His voice was deep, masculine, smooth as silk. A Don Juan, I thought, but not a contemptible one.
“Not at all, Comrade.” I was very much enjoying flirting ever so benignly with this man, looking at him askance and allowing the corners of my mouth to curve up.
His blue, blue eyes sparked. “Have a pleasant evening.”
I watched his back as the train moved off, until I couldn’t see him any more.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Fighting the SouthTitle: The First in the SunWord count: 72KGenre: Realistic YA Query: Two teen girls, separated by more than forty years and decades of racism, learn how intoxicating first love can be—and how dangerous, especially when that new romance is an interracial relationship in Mississippi. In 1995, Morgan’s father leaves her family, and she deals in the best way she knows how: binge drinking and cutting. But when Miss Eugenia, Morgan’s elderly neighbor and long-time family friend, takes her to the local theatre to keep her out of trouble, Morgan meets Sam, a popular guy from the richest school in Jackson. As their chemistry heats up, Morgan’s friends bully her for dating someone who is black, and she finds unexpected comfort in Miss Eugenia when she reveals her own teenage interracial romance. While Morgan is still trying to rebuild after her dad’s abandonment, the hostility towards her and Sam grows, culminating in a brutal attack. In 1952, seventeen-year-old Genie, the young Miss Eugenia, has it all. With a mayor for a father, she’s part of Jackson’s elite, and nothing is off-limits. That is, nothing except the freedom to make decisions without her controlling mother. But when Genie falls in love with Terry, the son of her family’s help, their relationship shows her that not only do her parents control her choices, but so does a society that disapproves of black and white people being friends, much less dating. As the two secretly meet at night, they plot to escape Mississippi, and they are close to leaving when the unexpected happens—Genie is pregnant. When their actions are revealed, Genie must choose between her parents or Terry and their newborn child. First 250 words: When the back door hit its frame with the tenderness of a rifle shot, Morgan catapulted up from the floor. The room was spinning, and her mouth was dry. Her head felt like a guitar had been smashed over it. She regretted every sip, gulp, and chug of the cheap vodka and orange juice she drank last night to celebrate Sarah’s sixteenth birthday. “Hon, you still here?” her mom yelled from the kitchen. Morgan glanced at her watch. 7:29. Shit. Her mom knocked on the door. “Just a second,” Morgan said, lifting her hand over her mouth to see if she reeked of alcohol. She launched over to the mirror, its frame still decorated with My Little Pony and Fraggle Rock stickers placed there a million years ago. She attacked the smears of mascara under her eyes with a tissue and sprayed herself with Calvin Klein’s “One” six or seven times. Her mom couldn’t bust her for sneaking out. She’d lose her only chance to get enrolled in the acting classes at the swanky local theatre. After she’d begged to attend for months, her mom offered a deal: If Morgan would stop sneaking out to drink, especially with the hot older guys Jason and Billy, and would stop cutting her skin with a razor, then she could take the lessons. After she took real acting classes, not just the ones at her high school, Morgan knew she’d be discovered somehow and land on Broadway. When her mom knocked again, Morgan took a deep breath and opened the door.
Query:
Nadya’s whole existence is engineered to deceive. Her Motherland itself, the Soviet Union of Stalin’s era, is misery disguised as a means to glory. Her marriage to Party functionary Peter was born of blackmail. Even her studies in aerial navigation, as seriously as she takes them, serve only to occupy her time with something interesting. No one would dare wage war on the mighty Soviets.
In June of 1941, the illusion is blown wide open. The Nazi war machine quickly swallows up vast areas of land and millions of men, including Nadya’s beloved brother. Nadya does not stand passively by, weeping and watching her entire world crumble. Instead, she puts her studies to use and joins the elite “Night Witches”, an air regiment made up almost entirely of women, as a navigator. For the next four years, coping with loss after devastating loss, two things keep her alive: her skills in the air, and her love for Nikolai, factory worker turned front-line soldier, whom she met before the war began.
But freedom, too, is an illusion. After Nadya discovers some heinous truths about her husband, she flees for her life, with Nikolai. In a nation so oppressed by paranoia, the Leader’s death is not enough to promise the freedom these hardened war veterans seek. Nadya is under no illusions about what it will take to earn it, and she prepares herself to turn her back on the Motherland that betrayed her, after she so bravely defended it.
First 250 Words:
Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. September 1940
The tall man with the shock of sandy hair apologized for stepping on my foot, when it really hadn’t been more than a bumping of toes. I smiled and assured him it was all right, and took a seat on the metro across from him. It had been a very good day. At Osoaviachim, the flight navigation training school, I’d done very well on an exam, earning an unsmiling but appreciative nod from the hard-faced instructor. These good days, full of accomplishment and progress, were typical since I was accepted to Osoaviachim.
So it happened that a little grin remained as I caught the eye of the sandy-haired man again. When he returned my smile, I noticed his eyes. Bright, gemlike blue, with corners that crinkled upward at me. My own smile broadened. Something in my chest tightened. My heart sped up. I held his gaze for a moment before looking away and trying not to fidget my fingers.
The train slowed; he stood. “I hope I didn’t injure your foot too badly.” His voice was deep, masculine, smooth as silk. A Don Juan, I thought, but not a contemptible one.
“Not at all, Comrade.” I was very much enjoying flirting ever so benignly with this man, looking at him askance and allowing the corners of my mouth to curve up.
His blue, blue eyes sparked. “Have a pleasant evening.”
I watched his back as the train moved off, until I couldn’t see him any more.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Fighting the SouthTitle: The First in the SunWord count: 72KGenre: Realistic YA Query: Two teen girls, separated by more than forty years and decades of racism, learn how intoxicating first love can be—and how dangerous, especially when that new romance is an interracial relationship in Mississippi. In 1995, Morgan’s father leaves her family, and she deals in the best way she knows how: binge drinking and cutting. But when Miss Eugenia, Morgan’s elderly neighbor and long-time family friend, takes her to the local theatre to keep her out of trouble, Morgan meets Sam, a popular guy from the richest school in Jackson. As their chemistry heats up, Morgan’s friends bully her for dating someone who is black, and she finds unexpected comfort in Miss Eugenia when she reveals her own teenage interracial romance. While Morgan is still trying to rebuild after her dad’s abandonment, the hostility towards her and Sam grows, culminating in a brutal attack. In 1952, seventeen-year-old Genie, the young Miss Eugenia, has it all. With a mayor for a father, she’s part of Jackson’s elite, and nothing is off-limits. That is, nothing except the freedom to make decisions without her controlling mother. But when Genie falls in love with Terry, the son of her family’s help, their relationship shows her that not only do her parents control her choices, but so does a society that disapproves of black and white people being friends, much less dating. As the two secretly meet at night, they plot to escape Mississippi, and they are close to leaving when the unexpected happens—Genie is pregnant. When their actions are revealed, Genie must choose between her parents or Terry and their newborn child. First 250 words: When the back door hit its frame with the tenderness of a rifle shot, Morgan catapulted up from the floor. The room was spinning, and her mouth was dry. Her head felt like a guitar had been smashed over it. She regretted every sip, gulp, and chug of the cheap vodka and orange juice she drank last night to celebrate Sarah’s sixteenth birthday. “Hon, you still here?” her mom yelled from the kitchen. Morgan glanced at her watch. 7:29. Shit. Her mom knocked on the door. “Just a second,” Morgan said, lifting her hand over her mouth to see if she reeked of alcohol. She launched over to the mirror, its frame still decorated with My Little Pony and Fraggle Rock stickers placed there a million years ago. She attacked the smears of mascara under her eyes with a tissue and sprayed herself with Calvin Klein’s “One” six or seven times. Her mom couldn’t bust her for sneaking out. She’d lose her only chance to get enrolled in the acting classes at the swanky local theatre. After she’d begged to attend for months, her mom offered a deal: If Morgan would stop sneaking out to drink, especially with the hot older guys Jason and Billy, and would stop cutting her skin with a razor, then she could take the lessons. After she took real acting classes, not just the ones at her high school, Morgan knew she’d be discovered somehow and land on Broadway. When her mom knocked again, Morgan took a deep breath and opened the door.
QK Round 1: THE PIED PIPER versus PARANORMAL FEAR
Entry Nickname: The Pied PiperTitle: Where Did You Sleep Last NightWord Count: 75KGenre: Adult Supernatural Thriller
Query:
Children’s fairy tales can grow up to become nightmares.
When Professor Philip Reeves dreams, he vanishes. Instead of waking up in his safe, suburban Bellingham, Washington home, he’s sent all over the globe. Helplessness overwhelms him as the almost weekly night-time disappearances threaten his marriage, finances, and career.
Phil’s wife Becky digs deep into his family history and unearths a fairy curse that haunted his ancestors. But the motives of the hidden people can be misleading. Becky suspects the fairies are sending a message through the unusual destination pattern. While the Reeves try to untangle the fairy’s riddle, their six-year-old daughter Janie develops a deadly imaginary friendship with the Pied Piper. The vengeful ghost, known to Janie alternately as “Piper” and “Hunter,” is stalking the final descendant of the Hamelin children.
A terrorist attack in Germany leads authorities to falsely imprison Phil and put out a warrant for Becky at the moment Hunter makes his move. With the police closing in, Becky must overcome terrifying visions, find Janie, and stop the Piper from fulfilling his dark legacy.
First 250 words:
Philip sat up sharply. His temple slammed into the slat of an upper bunk.
“God-” He stopped short of blasphemy.
He immediately grabbed at his head, trying ineffectively to mute the pain. Wooden slats shouldn’t have been there. He felt panic bubbling in his chest and fought to stamp it down.
The bed didn’t feel right, he thought irritably, as his head ached. He struggled to shake off a night’s worth of grogginess and sour dreams. His hand hadn’t been resting on his wife’s hip or the dip in her side as it should be. Becky should be there. As he lay back down, he realized the mattress was too thin to be his own, and the unfamiliar pillow weakly cradling his head housed a reminder of someone else's cigarettes. In the pale, morning light, he saw that a threadbare bed sheet had gotten tangled up in his legs.
Inhaling slowly, exhaling with forced control, Phil set his mind to analyzing the problem. For starters, he was fully dressed. That much was good. In most situations, waking up fully clothed would be even more alarming. For most people, it would mean they’d blacked out the night before, leaving a wake of destruction behind drug or drink-fueled adventures. That didn’t describe Phil. He’d gone to his very sensible suburban bed dressed for this night’s potential event. It was the third time this had happened to him in two weeks, and he was officially over
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Paranormal Fear, An Exorcist's Murder TrialTitle: King of SkinsWord Count: 91,500Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Query:
Zhao Ling, a flippant criminal defense attorney faces the toughest case of career: acquitting an accused murderer who only has a supernatural alibi.
His client is a professional exorcist whose only crime was banishing a spirit from an already dead body. Who wouldn’t buy that? Zhao certainly doesn’t until he’s visited by his client’s employer and paranormal mob boss, the King of Skins. A body lender, the King, allows his clients to take a ride in someone else's body for a price. The King threatens to add Zhao to his collection of skins, unless Wayne is acquitted.
On the journey to free his client, Zhao ventures into Saint Louis’s supernatural underground, a bizarre place of preternatural street thugs, obsidian guardians, and emotion brokers. There Zhao is harassed by a rival paranormal gang leader, a broker by the name of Lady Sorrow. She reveals that Zhao’s life isn’t the only one on the line. If the King is left to his own devices, everyone may soon be joining his collection.
First Two Hundred and Fifty Words:
I had forgotten to lock the door that night, not that it would have made a difference, not to the King of Skins. He was a thing of a deranged child’s nightmares or an insane man’s dreams. I later learned, no one says no to the King. Not if they wanted to stay in one, healthy piece.
Until five months ago I had been your average criminal defense attorney slightly crazy, underpaid and struggling with a mountain of debt. Then the King arrived in my office, late one evening, and destroyed every preconceived notion I had of the world.
I had always had an irrational phobia of the night and the darkness especially when alone. Even with every light in my office turned on to full intensity, I disliked having my back turned to a doorway or an open space for too long. Irrational thoughts of a boogeyman sneaking up behind me always crept into my thoughts. It never occurred to me that the one would come walking right into my face.
He strolled into my office, the lingering scent of death his cologne. This wasn’t a man who demanded attention, he simply acknowledged it as his own. Of course when confronted with such an auspicious looking character, it’s only appropriate to address him correctly; “Who are you and what the hell are you doing in my office at eleven pm?” No one has ever accused my mouth of coordinating with my brain.
Query:
Children’s fairy tales can grow up to become nightmares.
When Professor Philip Reeves dreams, he vanishes. Instead of waking up in his safe, suburban Bellingham, Washington home, he’s sent all over the globe. Helplessness overwhelms him as the almost weekly night-time disappearances threaten his marriage, finances, and career.
Phil’s wife Becky digs deep into his family history and unearths a fairy curse that haunted his ancestors. But the motives of the hidden people can be misleading. Becky suspects the fairies are sending a message through the unusual destination pattern. While the Reeves try to untangle the fairy’s riddle, their six-year-old daughter Janie develops a deadly imaginary friendship with the Pied Piper. The vengeful ghost, known to Janie alternately as “Piper” and “Hunter,” is stalking the final descendant of the Hamelin children.
A terrorist attack in Germany leads authorities to falsely imprison Phil and put out a warrant for Becky at the moment Hunter makes his move. With the police closing in, Becky must overcome terrifying visions, find Janie, and stop the Piper from fulfilling his dark legacy.
First 250 words:
Philip sat up sharply. His temple slammed into the slat of an upper bunk.
“God-” He stopped short of blasphemy.
He immediately grabbed at his head, trying ineffectively to mute the pain. Wooden slats shouldn’t have been there. He felt panic bubbling in his chest and fought to stamp it down.
The bed didn’t feel right, he thought irritably, as his head ached. He struggled to shake off a night’s worth of grogginess and sour dreams. His hand hadn’t been resting on his wife’s hip or the dip in her side as it should be. Becky should be there. As he lay back down, he realized the mattress was too thin to be his own, and the unfamiliar pillow weakly cradling his head housed a reminder of someone else's cigarettes. In the pale, morning light, he saw that a threadbare bed sheet had gotten tangled up in his legs.
Inhaling slowly, exhaling with forced control, Phil set his mind to analyzing the problem. For starters, he was fully dressed. That much was good. In most situations, waking up fully clothed would be even more alarming. For most people, it would mean they’d blacked out the night before, leaving a wake of destruction behind drug or drink-fueled adventures. That didn’t describe Phil. He’d gone to his very sensible suburban bed dressed for this night’s potential event. It was the third time this had happened to him in two weeks, and he was officially over
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Paranormal Fear, An Exorcist's Murder TrialTitle: King of SkinsWord Count: 91,500Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Query:
Zhao Ling, a flippant criminal defense attorney faces the toughest case of career: acquitting an accused murderer who only has a supernatural alibi.
His client is a professional exorcist whose only crime was banishing a spirit from an already dead body. Who wouldn’t buy that? Zhao certainly doesn’t until he’s visited by his client’s employer and paranormal mob boss, the King of Skins. A body lender, the King, allows his clients to take a ride in someone else's body for a price. The King threatens to add Zhao to his collection of skins, unless Wayne is acquitted.
On the journey to free his client, Zhao ventures into Saint Louis’s supernatural underground, a bizarre place of preternatural street thugs, obsidian guardians, and emotion brokers. There Zhao is harassed by a rival paranormal gang leader, a broker by the name of Lady Sorrow. She reveals that Zhao’s life isn’t the only one on the line. If the King is left to his own devices, everyone may soon be joining his collection.
First Two Hundred and Fifty Words:
I had forgotten to lock the door that night, not that it would have made a difference, not to the King of Skins. He was a thing of a deranged child’s nightmares or an insane man’s dreams. I later learned, no one says no to the King. Not if they wanted to stay in one, healthy piece.
Until five months ago I had been your average criminal defense attorney slightly crazy, underpaid and struggling with a mountain of debt. Then the King arrived in my office, late one evening, and destroyed every preconceived notion I had of the world.
I had always had an irrational phobia of the night and the darkness especially when alone. Even with every light in my office turned on to full intensity, I disliked having my back turned to a doorway or an open space for too long. Irrational thoughts of a boogeyman sneaking up behind me always crept into my thoughts. It never occurred to me that the one would come walking right into my face.
He strolled into my office, the lingering scent of death his cologne. This wasn’t a man who demanded attention, he simply acknowledged it as his own. Of course when confronted with such an auspicious looking character, it’s only appropriate to address him correctly; “Who are you and what the hell are you doing in my office at eleven pm?” No one has ever accused my mouth of coordinating with my brain.
QK Round 1: I KISSED A GHOUL versus SKINS OF THE FATHER
Entry nickname: I Kissed A GhoulTitle: Under the Icy LakeWord count: 54KGenre: YA Horror
Query:
Fifteen-year-old Marianne doesn’t remember floating in midair or shattering windows without touching them. Her mom was the one who saw it happen. The day after, all Marianne can recall is a single image: a silent shore under a starless sky, with something in the depths groping its way towards her.
With an unseen force flinging objects at her hard enough to crack a chalkboard and scrawling “THIS IS MINE” across her math exam, Marianne is certain that the presence stalking her through the water was more than just a dream. She breaks her shell of bookish anonymity to confide in loner goth-girl Rhiannon, whose badassery she’s long admired from a safe distance. When Rhiannon’s psychic but flaky mother refuses to help, Rhiannon declares that they can deal with whatever is haunting Marianne by themselves. But their attempt to communicate with it only calls down the full force of its rage: now it's throwing knives.
Marianne's assailant will do whatever it takes to claim her place in the real world and leave her trapped under the icy lake she glimpsed in her dream. Rhiannon, who’s becoming more than a friend, is one more weakness it can use against her. Marianne must confront the truth about what – and who – her enemy is before it finds a way to possess her completely.
First 250 words:
The silence still clings to me.
If I close my eyes it's there waiting for me, filling my mouth, heavy as water. Ready to swallow me again.
I rest my forehead against the window, willing the ordinary sounds around me to wash the memory away. Ilisten to the windshield wipers, the spatter of the rain, the rattle in the wheel-well. In the driver’s seat beside me, Mom breathes in little hitches, trying not to let me hear her crying.
I risk a glance at her; she's wiping her eyes. Her hair is usually tied up in a neat sweep of gleaming black, silver threads glinting through it. Today she's just yanked it through an elastic, pieces straggling dull and stringy around her face. Before I can look away again her gaze meets mine and she attempts a half-smile.
It hurts to see it. I study the flowers in my lap. They're for Aunt Marjorie. Lilies, big splashy orange ones. The smell is giving me a headache. Mom slams on the brakes and I have to clutch the bouquet to stop it from sliding to the floor; she grates out a few choice swear words at the car ahead of us.
"I left your father a message." She says the words like she's throwing rocks. "I sure hope he calls you."
I take the rocks in like water - like a lake, an icy lake, swallowing their impact without a splash, letting them sink.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Skins of the FatherTitle: The Sumerlin CurseWord count: 66KGenre: YA Southern Gothic
Query:
Sixteen-year-old George Sumerlin is a boy, no matter what he looks like.
Born under a wicked family curse, he has the wings of a bat, horns of a bull, and the scaly tail of a lizard. While it doesn’t stop him from dribbling a basketball, it does keep him trapped on his family’s derelict plantation. He calls it prison. Mama calls it protection. The islanders would not understand him. They would kill him.
When Grace, a young hoodoo-doctor, sneaks through George’s window to kill a monster—him!—George sees an opportunity: prove he’s not the creature that’s been terrorizing her village and maybe she’ll use her folk magic to help him escape, or even break his curse. He promises to help her track down the real monster—something she calls a Boo Hag, which haunts the marshes—even if it will suck his soul, or worse, take his skin. His scaly butt is worth risking, though he never imagined what dangerous family secrets their search would unearth—secrets that put Grace’s soul in the Boo Hag’s sights and prove George is more of a beast than he realized.
First 250 words:
Today, the third Wednesday of July, is a good day to run away.
Everything has gone according to routine.
This morning, Clarence walked here from the village, taking the dirt road I can just make out through the slits in the fence. I’ve never been to the village—I’ve never left the yard—but I know where the road leads because I’ve stared at its serpentine black line on the map pinned to my bedroom wall.
Clarence passes me the ball. We always play basketball after morning studies. Today we graphed quadratic equations—snore—and finished our unit on the War of Northern Aggression. Because even when time seems to be the only thing I have in unlimited quantities, there’s never enough to kill on learning about the South’s “glorious cause.”
I dribble the ball between my legs, masterfully avoiding my scaly tail, and float it off my claws. Swish! It catches only the bottom of the net. Clarence claps and says something about how good I’m getting. It’s a small consolation for being trapped here like a rabid animal.
A magnolia-scented breeze picks up. It hits me like the air blowing out of Mama’s hair dryer. The million degrees of south Georgia heat and humidity bake the tips of my leathery wings. Sour moisture pools on my brow, drenching my dark bangs and curling the hairs around my ears and horns.
I dribble…dribble…dribble again, then fire a fading jump-shot. Swish! Clarence pulls down the rebound and passes it back. Again and again.
Query:
Fifteen-year-old Marianne doesn’t remember floating in midair or shattering windows without touching them. Her mom was the one who saw it happen. The day after, all Marianne can recall is a single image: a silent shore under a starless sky, with something in the depths groping its way towards her.
With an unseen force flinging objects at her hard enough to crack a chalkboard and scrawling “THIS IS MINE” across her math exam, Marianne is certain that the presence stalking her through the water was more than just a dream. She breaks her shell of bookish anonymity to confide in loner goth-girl Rhiannon, whose badassery she’s long admired from a safe distance. When Rhiannon’s psychic but flaky mother refuses to help, Rhiannon declares that they can deal with whatever is haunting Marianne by themselves. But their attempt to communicate with it only calls down the full force of its rage: now it's throwing knives.
Marianne's assailant will do whatever it takes to claim her place in the real world and leave her trapped under the icy lake she glimpsed in her dream. Rhiannon, who’s becoming more than a friend, is one more weakness it can use against her. Marianne must confront the truth about what – and who – her enemy is before it finds a way to possess her completely.
First 250 words:
The silence still clings to me.
If I close my eyes it's there waiting for me, filling my mouth, heavy as water. Ready to swallow me again.
I rest my forehead against the window, willing the ordinary sounds around me to wash the memory away. Ilisten to the windshield wipers, the spatter of the rain, the rattle in the wheel-well. In the driver’s seat beside me, Mom breathes in little hitches, trying not to let me hear her crying.
I risk a glance at her; she's wiping her eyes. Her hair is usually tied up in a neat sweep of gleaming black, silver threads glinting through it. Today she's just yanked it through an elastic, pieces straggling dull and stringy around her face. Before I can look away again her gaze meets mine and she attempts a half-smile.
It hurts to see it. I study the flowers in my lap. They're for Aunt Marjorie. Lilies, big splashy orange ones. The smell is giving me a headache. Mom slams on the brakes and I have to clutch the bouquet to stop it from sliding to the floor; she grates out a few choice swear words at the car ahead of us.
"I left your father a message." She says the words like she's throwing rocks. "I sure hope he calls you."
I take the rocks in like water - like a lake, an icy lake, swallowing their impact without a splash, letting them sink.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Skins of the FatherTitle: The Sumerlin CurseWord count: 66KGenre: YA Southern Gothic
Query:
Sixteen-year-old George Sumerlin is a boy, no matter what he looks like.
Born under a wicked family curse, he has the wings of a bat, horns of a bull, and the scaly tail of a lizard. While it doesn’t stop him from dribbling a basketball, it does keep him trapped on his family’s derelict plantation. He calls it prison. Mama calls it protection. The islanders would not understand him. They would kill him.
When Grace, a young hoodoo-doctor, sneaks through George’s window to kill a monster—him!—George sees an opportunity: prove he’s not the creature that’s been terrorizing her village and maybe she’ll use her folk magic to help him escape, or even break his curse. He promises to help her track down the real monster—something she calls a Boo Hag, which haunts the marshes—even if it will suck his soul, or worse, take his skin. His scaly butt is worth risking, though he never imagined what dangerous family secrets their search would unearth—secrets that put Grace’s soul in the Boo Hag’s sights and prove George is more of a beast than he realized.
First 250 words:
Today, the third Wednesday of July, is a good day to run away.
Everything has gone according to routine.
This morning, Clarence walked here from the village, taking the dirt road I can just make out through the slits in the fence. I’ve never been to the village—I’ve never left the yard—but I know where the road leads because I’ve stared at its serpentine black line on the map pinned to my bedroom wall.
Clarence passes me the ball. We always play basketball after morning studies. Today we graphed quadratic equations—snore—and finished our unit on the War of Northern Aggression. Because even when time seems to be the only thing I have in unlimited quantities, there’s never enough to kill on learning about the South’s “glorious cause.”
I dribble the ball between my legs, masterfully avoiding my scaly tail, and float it off my claws. Swish! It catches only the bottom of the net. Clarence claps and says something about how good I’m getting. It’s a small consolation for being trapped here like a rabid animal.
A magnolia-scented breeze picks up. It hits me like the air blowing out of Mama’s hair dryer. The million degrees of south Georgia heat and humidity bake the tips of my leathery wings. Sour moisture pools on my brow, drenching my dark bangs and curling the hairs around my ears and horns.
I dribble…dribble…dribble again, then fire a fading jump-shot. Swish! Clarence pulls down the rebound and passes it back. Again and again.
QK Round 1: NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCE versus BEST(IARY) WESTERN
Entry Nickname: No such thing as a coincidence
Title: Coincidences
Word count: 80k
Genre: NA Paranormal
Query:
Being invisible is good for three things: bank vaults, men’s locker rooms, and saving the world.
For Ami and her partner, Luke, being able to become invisible is part of their job. Their unknown employer assigns them to make “coincidences” happen, from reuniting long lost lovers to toppling empires. But their next job goes way beyond what they’re comfortable with—stopping a bio-terrorism attack on San Francisco. Breaking into illegal laboratories and Federal buildings to figure out who’s behind the outbreak makes bank vaults seem easy.
It doesn’t help that Ami is too in love with Luke to even enjoy the locker rooms. She might finally have a chance to push their relationship past the friend-zone if it wasn’t for angry FBI agents chasing them down hilly streets and invading their homes in the middle of the night.
With the clock ticking down to the planned Independence Day attack, Ami and Luke must prevent the pathogen’s release, escape the FBI pursuers, and handle their feelings for each other. With thousands of lives hanging in the balance, they’re going to need more than a coincidenceto pull it all off.
First 250 Words:
Three big perks to invisibility:
1. Bank vaults
2. Men’s locker rooms
3. Saving the world.
Vaults, well, I’ve only done that once, and I had a good excuse. Men’s locker rooms could be fun, but really, there’s only one person who I want to see naked and he made it clear we’re just friends. Repeatedly. Like how over the past twenty minutes, as we’ve bumped along the pockmarked Mexican toll road, he’d said exactly three words to me. And one of those had been ‘no.’
And the saving the world bit?
Not as fun as it looks in the movies.
#
The car Luke rented looked like it had been in a demolition derby. My head hit the window as we bounced over a small crater, knocking my sunglasses into my nose.
I rubbed at my forehead, giving Luke, my partner, a pointed look.
He didn’t look over. Not that I was surprised—he was focused on the road and something else that took his mind miles away. Before I thought better of it, I reached over, chose an arm hair, and plucked it out by the root.
“Hey! What was that for?” His thoughts seared into my mind while he rubbed his arm like I’d stabbed him. One of the bonuses of our position: telepathic link. It’s great for when we’re both invisible and need to talk, but a serious liability when it means I accidentally start chattering in his head. I swear I busted the switch that keeps my thoughts to myself. Now it shorts out like wiring that’s been chewed by some neurological rat.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Best(iary) Western: Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy
Title: Fugitive Motel
Word count: 90K
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy Bildungsroman
Query:
Teenage Iris overcomes her anger at her father’s deceits and accepts her birthright to become the next Innkeeper of a hotel for supernatural monsters.
During the day, Iris Vox sleepwalks through high school. At night, she plays the grown-up behind the reception desk of her father’s Kansas hotel: checking supernatural Others in and out, seeing to their out-of-the-ordinary needs, and dealing with their dangers. Keeping the Other world safe and secret is the only life Iris has ever known, but it’s one that's becoming harder now that her “juicer” dad spends so much more time pooled in his bathtub as a human smoothie.
Just as sleep is a luxury to Iris, so is the truth. Her father, always loving but never forthright, won’t admit that something’s changed in his "condition". Deeply angry at her father’s lies, Iris turns to her guests for human contact, learning about their curses and sorrows, finding her role as a listener and a solace. Confronted with the rise of a dangerous magical threat, Iris finally learns the truth of her father’s mortality and has to make peace with becoming the next Innkeeper, or get out of the secret business for good.
First 250:
5:45 a.m. and a man staggers in through the automatic, smoked-glass doors. Glad for some action, I look up from my magazine to take a better look at my customer. Nothing special about him, just a salesman coming in after driving all night from one meeting to the next. An older man with skin like a re-used paper bag.
But the stagger…it’s not quite right. Drunks usually weave. This guy is lurching forward like he’s got an absolute goal. Our desk. Me.
Yep. Pale, sullen, haggard with a side of desperate determination? Definitely looks like one of ours.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“Have you got a room, miss?” he slurs.
The man grips the rim of the counter to steady himself, his very clean fingernails pointing toward me. With a great effort he lifts his left hand and slaps it on the counter twice. That’s good. It’s half of the sign. Still, he’s not finished performing.
“What are you looking for exactly, sir?” I prompt.
You have to say it or you can’t come in!
There’s a long anxious pause as he tries to remember what to do next. He’s now gripping the countertop so tightly that his nail beds are turning whitish gray where the pink flesh should show through.
“Rest and feed,” the man answers, trawling the words out of some hard-to-access place in his brain, laying them heavily out on the counter.
Bingo.
It’s the right answer, the part of the code he missed before.
Title: Coincidences
Word count: 80k
Genre: NA Paranormal
Query:
Being invisible is good for three things: bank vaults, men’s locker rooms, and saving the world.
For Ami and her partner, Luke, being able to become invisible is part of their job. Their unknown employer assigns them to make “coincidences” happen, from reuniting long lost lovers to toppling empires. But their next job goes way beyond what they’re comfortable with—stopping a bio-terrorism attack on San Francisco. Breaking into illegal laboratories and Federal buildings to figure out who’s behind the outbreak makes bank vaults seem easy.
It doesn’t help that Ami is too in love with Luke to even enjoy the locker rooms. She might finally have a chance to push their relationship past the friend-zone if it wasn’t for angry FBI agents chasing them down hilly streets and invading their homes in the middle of the night.
With the clock ticking down to the planned Independence Day attack, Ami and Luke must prevent the pathogen’s release, escape the FBI pursuers, and handle their feelings for each other. With thousands of lives hanging in the balance, they’re going to need more than a coincidenceto pull it all off.
First 250 Words:
Three big perks to invisibility:
1. Bank vaults
2. Men’s locker rooms
3. Saving the world.
Vaults, well, I’ve only done that once, and I had a good excuse. Men’s locker rooms could be fun, but really, there’s only one person who I want to see naked and he made it clear we’re just friends. Repeatedly. Like how over the past twenty minutes, as we’ve bumped along the pockmarked Mexican toll road, he’d said exactly three words to me. And one of those had been ‘no.’
And the saving the world bit?
Not as fun as it looks in the movies.
#
The car Luke rented looked like it had been in a demolition derby. My head hit the window as we bounced over a small crater, knocking my sunglasses into my nose.
I rubbed at my forehead, giving Luke, my partner, a pointed look.
He didn’t look over. Not that I was surprised—he was focused on the road and something else that took his mind miles away. Before I thought better of it, I reached over, chose an arm hair, and plucked it out by the root.
“Hey! What was that for?” His thoughts seared into my mind while he rubbed his arm like I’d stabbed him. One of the bonuses of our position: telepathic link. It’s great for when we’re both invisible and need to talk, but a serious liability when it means I accidentally start chattering in his head. I swear I busted the switch that keeps my thoughts to myself. Now it shorts out like wiring that’s been chewed by some neurological rat.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Best(iary) Western: Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy
Title: Fugitive Motel
Word count: 90K
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy Bildungsroman
Query:
Teenage Iris overcomes her anger at her father’s deceits and accepts her birthright to become the next Innkeeper of a hotel for supernatural monsters.
During the day, Iris Vox sleepwalks through high school. At night, she plays the grown-up behind the reception desk of her father’s Kansas hotel: checking supernatural Others in and out, seeing to their out-of-the-ordinary needs, and dealing with their dangers. Keeping the Other world safe and secret is the only life Iris has ever known, but it’s one that's becoming harder now that her “juicer” dad spends so much more time pooled in his bathtub as a human smoothie.
Just as sleep is a luxury to Iris, so is the truth. Her father, always loving but never forthright, won’t admit that something’s changed in his "condition". Deeply angry at her father’s lies, Iris turns to her guests for human contact, learning about their curses and sorrows, finding her role as a listener and a solace. Confronted with the rise of a dangerous magical threat, Iris finally learns the truth of her father’s mortality and has to make peace with becoming the next Innkeeper, or get out of the secret business for good.
First 250:
5:45 a.m. and a man staggers in through the automatic, smoked-glass doors. Glad for some action, I look up from my magazine to take a better look at my customer. Nothing special about him, just a salesman coming in after driving all night from one meeting to the next. An older man with skin like a re-used paper bag.
But the stagger…it’s not quite right. Drunks usually weave. This guy is lurching forward like he’s got an absolute goal. Our desk. Me.
Yep. Pale, sullen, haggard with a side of desperate determination? Definitely looks like one of ours.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“Have you got a room, miss?” he slurs.
The man grips the rim of the counter to steady himself, his very clean fingernails pointing toward me. With a great effort he lifts his left hand and slaps it on the counter twice. That’s good. It’s half of the sign. Still, he’s not finished performing.
“What are you looking for exactly, sir?” I prompt.
You have to say it or you can’t come in!
There’s a long anxious pause as he tries to remember what to do next. He’s now gripping the countertop so tightly that his nail beds are turning whitish gray where the pink flesh should show through.
“Rest and feed,” the man answers, trawling the words out of some hard-to-access place in his brain, laying them heavily out on the counter.
Bingo.
It’s the right answer, the part of the code he missed before.
QK Round 1: TEXTING BUDDIES AT 8% versus FED TO THE CROCODILES
Entry Nickname: Texting Buddies at 8%
Title: We’re Okay
Word Count: 71K
Genre: YA LGBT Contemporary
Query:
High school seniors Gabe Brown and Ryan Mitchell are the only ones who walked away from a bus crash that sent twenty students to their deaths. The accident was the largest tragedy the town of Pensilton, Georgia, where apple pies still cool on windowsills, had ever seen.
Six months later, everyone else is ready to move on.
Gabe’s mayoral candidate father expects his son to lead his soccer team to the state championship. Gabe’s girlfriend, who’s also Ryan’s twin sister, is too busy with securing her Yale admission to really take note of Gabe’s changes since the accident. In fact, no one seems to notice. Or they choose not to notice. Except Ryan.
For both boys, their daily covert text conversations become their way of coping with reality. Between their unabashed honesty and vulnerability, Gabe and Ryan find a strange peace. But when Gabe breaks their rules, and visits Ryan in person, feelings that could be chalked up to digital misinterpretations, come to life.
With their senior year drawing to a close, and their paths about to diverge, their world of stolen glances, late-night texts, and brief touches is about to disappear. Only if they’re brave enough—and honest enough—can both boys make their romance a reality. No matter the consequences.
First 250 Words:
Gabe Brown had been sitting in the hospital waiting room for nearly an hour. An accident on the freeway had leaked into downtown Pensilton. So, instead of getting signed out from his twelve day stint inside the hospital, he sat.
With his right hand still in a cast, colored purple by a young, persistent girl on his hospital floor, Gabe focused on his own iPhone, typing away with swift and accurate poundings. His left hand rested on the arm rest, drumming his fingers to a song from yesteryear. Any other time, the illusive musical memory would have driven him insane; but his focus was drawn to something else.
That ‘something else’ was the screen that held thousands of texts back and forth from the boy sitting next to him, who’s fingers were less than an inch from his own.
If he had a choice, though he’d never admit it, Gabe would have happily stayed like that forever. That thought dissolved the moment the double doors slid open with a hiss. Instinctively, his fingers stopped moving and pocketed the phone. With a casual rise of his head, Gabe stood and walked towards his family, feet in time with Ryan’s movements.
“I’m okay,” Gabe gruffly said, giving a painful one arm handshake and back clasping to his father. He heard, just barely over Ryan’s mother’s doting, his hospital mate mention he was also fine.
As their families signed them out, Ryan could only think one thing.
Since when did they become liars?
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Fed to the CrocodilesTitle: The Second KingWord count: 85KGenre: YA Contemporary
Query:
Prince Alexander spent his childhood planning his future reign the way a little girl might plan her wedding. He never dreamed of a wedding himself; he knew there could never be one. Although twenty first century princes have the luxury of marrying commoners, there’s a catch. Said commoner is expected to lack a Y-chromosome.
Upon receiving a music scholarship to attend the country’s most prestigious boarding school, Declan ‘Nobody-in-Particular’ Blythe expects to spend his days hunched over a piano, a pariah amongst the precious spawn of the upper class. Instead, he meets Alex.
Hopelessly entangled in one another, reality sets in for the pair when Alex’s father gives him an ultimatum: ensure their romance stays secret, or give up the throne. Concealing their relationship from the public eye is easier said than done, however – particularly after a photo of Declan goes viral and he becomes a celebrity in his own right. With cameras recording each glance he and Alex share, and a devoted fan base analyzing their every word, Alex finds himself under increasing pressure from his family to choose responsibility and propriety over love.
When Declan begins to receive anonymous threats, Alex realizes that someone is willing to harm his boyfriend to protect the reputation of the royal family. Alex could never imagine a future where he wasn’t king. But he’s starting to wonder if a future without the freedom to be with Declan is any future at all.
First 250 words:
I have many things to be grateful for. I’m grateful for my status. I’m grateful for my wealth and privilege. I’m grateful for the personal bodyguards that station themselves outside any building I happen to be visiting.
Most of all, I’m grateful for my school friends who are so used to all of the above they don’t notice it anymore.
It was snowing so heavily I felt genuinely sorry for the soldiers standing on the front porch of Zane’s mansion. They were sheltered from the snowfall, at least, but not from the bitter cold. They stood silently, one eyeing me through the window, the other watching the front yard. Their breaths came out in almost opaque puffs of mist.
If Zane’s parents had been home I would’ve insisted one come inside to watch from the warmth of the kitchen, perhaps with a cup of coffee. I’d done it before; it’s what my parents would have wanted. Around them I was ever the hospitable, thoughtful role model. Today was different, though. Today was a gathering of sixty or so Bramppath College students. In addition to us, a select group of girls from our sister school, Ashford Academy, had been invited.
Although the room was filled with, for the most part, the precious offspring of the upper class, none of them needed armed guards to follow them between various appointments. If downplaying that meant not inviting the security inside, well, so be it.
That, and I was a little bit too high to be bothered making anybody coffee.
Title: We’re Okay
Word Count: 71K
Genre: YA LGBT Contemporary
Query:
High school seniors Gabe Brown and Ryan Mitchell are the only ones who walked away from a bus crash that sent twenty students to their deaths. The accident was the largest tragedy the town of Pensilton, Georgia, where apple pies still cool on windowsills, had ever seen.
Six months later, everyone else is ready to move on.
Gabe’s mayoral candidate father expects his son to lead his soccer team to the state championship. Gabe’s girlfriend, who’s also Ryan’s twin sister, is too busy with securing her Yale admission to really take note of Gabe’s changes since the accident. In fact, no one seems to notice. Or they choose not to notice. Except Ryan.
For both boys, their daily covert text conversations become their way of coping with reality. Between their unabashed honesty and vulnerability, Gabe and Ryan find a strange peace. But when Gabe breaks their rules, and visits Ryan in person, feelings that could be chalked up to digital misinterpretations, come to life.
With their senior year drawing to a close, and their paths about to diverge, their world of stolen glances, late-night texts, and brief touches is about to disappear. Only if they’re brave enough—and honest enough—can both boys make their romance a reality. No matter the consequences.
First 250 Words:
Gabe Brown had been sitting in the hospital waiting room for nearly an hour. An accident on the freeway had leaked into downtown Pensilton. So, instead of getting signed out from his twelve day stint inside the hospital, he sat.
With his right hand still in a cast, colored purple by a young, persistent girl on his hospital floor, Gabe focused on his own iPhone, typing away with swift and accurate poundings. His left hand rested on the arm rest, drumming his fingers to a song from yesteryear. Any other time, the illusive musical memory would have driven him insane; but his focus was drawn to something else.
That ‘something else’ was the screen that held thousands of texts back and forth from the boy sitting next to him, who’s fingers were less than an inch from his own.
If he had a choice, though he’d never admit it, Gabe would have happily stayed like that forever. That thought dissolved the moment the double doors slid open with a hiss. Instinctively, his fingers stopped moving and pocketed the phone. With a casual rise of his head, Gabe stood and walked towards his family, feet in time with Ryan’s movements.
“I’m okay,” Gabe gruffly said, giving a painful one arm handshake and back clasping to his father. He heard, just barely over Ryan’s mother’s doting, his hospital mate mention he was also fine.
As their families signed them out, Ryan could only think one thing.
Since when did they become liars?
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Fed to the CrocodilesTitle: The Second KingWord count: 85KGenre: YA Contemporary
Query:
Prince Alexander spent his childhood planning his future reign the way a little girl might plan her wedding. He never dreamed of a wedding himself; he knew there could never be one. Although twenty first century princes have the luxury of marrying commoners, there’s a catch. Said commoner is expected to lack a Y-chromosome.
Upon receiving a music scholarship to attend the country’s most prestigious boarding school, Declan ‘Nobody-in-Particular’ Blythe expects to spend his days hunched over a piano, a pariah amongst the precious spawn of the upper class. Instead, he meets Alex.
Hopelessly entangled in one another, reality sets in for the pair when Alex’s father gives him an ultimatum: ensure their romance stays secret, or give up the throne. Concealing their relationship from the public eye is easier said than done, however – particularly after a photo of Declan goes viral and he becomes a celebrity in his own right. With cameras recording each glance he and Alex share, and a devoted fan base analyzing their every word, Alex finds himself under increasing pressure from his family to choose responsibility and propriety over love.
When Declan begins to receive anonymous threats, Alex realizes that someone is willing to harm his boyfriend to protect the reputation of the royal family. Alex could never imagine a future where he wasn’t king. But he’s starting to wonder if a future without the freedom to be with Declan is any future at all.
First 250 words:
I have many things to be grateful for. I’m grateful for my status. I’m grateful for my wealth and privilege. I’m grateful for the personal bodyguards that station themselves outside any building I happen to be visiting.
Most of all, I’m grateful for my school friends who are so used to all of the above they don’t notice it anymore.
It was snowing so heavily I felt genuinely sorry for the soldiers standing on the front porch of Zane’s mansion. They were sheltered from the snowfall, at least, but not from the bitter cold. They stood silently, one eyeing me through the window, the other watching the front yard. Their breaths came out in almost opaque puffs of mist.
If Zane’s parents had been home I would’ve insisted one come inside to watch from the warmth of the kitchen, perhaps with a cup of coffee. I’d done it before; it’s what my parents would have wanted. Around them I was ever the hospitable, thoughtful role model. Today was different, though. Today was a gathering of sixty or so Bramppath College students. In addition to us, a select group of girls from our sister school, Ashford Academy, had been invited.
Although the room was filled with, for the most part, the precious offspring of the upper class, none of them needed armed guards to follow them between various appointments. If downplaying that meant not inviting the security inside, well, so be it.
That, and I was a little bit too high to be bothered making anybody coffee.
QK Round 1: DEATH BY DOZIER versus A GIRL AND HER SERIAL KILLER
Entry Nickname: Death by DozierTitle: After You DiedWord count: 70KGenre: Young Adult Historical Thriller
Query:
Asher Flemming's starting to think he's haunted, or crazy -- or a murderer. With his luck, he's all three. The night Asher's girlfriend finally said I love you is the night she died. He was there for her murder, he might have even committed it, but whatever buried the details of her death deep in his mind isn't letting a single second free.
17-year old Asher remembers nothing from the night in 1968 his girlfriend was killed. Though the cops found Asher covered in her blood outside a mansion in Florida, he knows there's no way he'd ever hurt or kill anyone. But, the evidence says otherwise, as the only suspect, Asher is convicted and sentenced to five years at theDozier Reform School.
Hidden by the headlines about Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement, is the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. In the state of Florida, juvenile boys from truants to murderers are hidden away in the sinister Dozier school; those who manage to escape with broken bones are the lucky ones. Asher's afraid he may end up like many of the other students beneath unmarked graves, or worse, they may end up his next victims.
When he wakes up outside, covered in blood with no memory of the days before, he fears he's killed someone else. As Asher's possible body count grows, he knows the answers he needs are trapped within his own mind. Asher's stuck between being a victim or a killer. He needs to prove the murders aren't connected to him or risk losing his sanity and freedom forever.
First 250:
Before January 1st, 1968
If you're anything like me, you never wondered what your girlfriend would look like as a corpse. For the record -- she was just as pretty. Even though I remember nothing else from that night, I remember her face, as beautiful in death as it had been every single day of her life. There were a million things I expected to happen once Avery was my girlfriend, but murder never crossed my mind.
Her long white dress whips behind her as she disappears into the trees. It lashes, like a flag caught in a hurricane. In her wake, she leaves flowers that she wove into her hair, instead of devastation. The hot afternoon sun bears down on us. We've been out here so long, sweat glues my hair to my face. The wind carries the scent of a brush fire on its wings. My heart races as I chase after her, excitement buzzing in my veins.
"Avery?" I call out, between breaths. The words seem to seep out of me, as slow and tired as I am.
"The time to hesitate is through." Her voice is high, beautiful, it rings through the trees. She's been singing The Doors all day, thanks to my t-shirt. Somehow, even though she taunts me with songs, she still manages to remain hidden.
The trees swallow me. In the shade, the temperature drops by a few degrees, but I still feel like I'm being boiled, that's Florida for you, hot enough to smother you even in January.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: A Girl and Her Serial KillerTitle: The ConfidantWord count: 62kGenre: Young Adult Thriller
Query: 18-year-old Stella Stokes has a secret: the main character in her novels, Gideon, a dashing English serial killer, actually talks to her. He’s been by her side, offering peanut gallery commentary, advice, and affection for every pathetic turn in her adolescent life, and as much as some of the darker suggestions he makes scare her, she’s never been worried to have him. After all, he’s not real; he can’t really kill anyone, nor can he make her do the killing for him.
The summer following high school graduation, Stella and her best friend, supernatural-obsessed, almost-transitioned FTM Quinn, decide to take a few weeks to explore California. However, their first stop at an idyllic beach town isn’t quite as calming as they would’ve hoped: a prank-gone-horribly-wrong leaves Quinn and Stella standing over four dead bodies. The killer? Gideon. As they clean up the mess and beeline out of town as fugitives, Stella is convinced that they’re in terrible danger, but Quinn refuses to accept it. Quinn pulls a timid Stella into a quest to discover just what Gideon is—ghost, demon, byproduct of a mental illness, or something else entirely. And, as the bodies stack up and the authorities close in, Stella has to resist cracking under pressure, or risk caving into Gideon’s deepest desire to see her kill with him.
First 250 words:
"You're barmy if you don't think a paid professional screwing up your haircut is adequate reason to kill them.”
After a solid minute of looking through my drawer for a good bikini, I thrust out the first two semi-matching blue polka dot pieces of water-friendly fabric I see.
"No Gideon, you're barmy or whatever you just said if you think I'm going to murder someone because she cut my hair too short,” I reply. “Besides, aren't you English? It’s say your cut looks great and suffer in silence. Besides, my bob doesn’t look bad.”
I know Gideon's staring at me, like anyone would when engaged in deep conversation about murdering, but I ignore him, dropping my shorts and pulling off my panties.
"Testy today, aren't we? A bit out of character for you.”
I slip on my bikini bottoms and thank the universe that my bikini top is still tied at the top.
"Don't you dare make writer puns with me right now. We're still talking about you wanting me to kill my fr—acquaintances.”
I pull on the bikini top, but Gideon grabs the back straps before I have the chance. As much as Gideon gives me the creeps every other second, I can't deny how good it feels to have his hands press against my skin as he ties the knot.
"Not too tight, is it, poppet?" he whispers in my ear.
I sigh, his smooth, tenor voice my off button. Or on.
“No. Thanks."
Query:
Asher Flemming's starting to think he's haunted, or crazy -- or a murderer. With his luck, he's all three. The night Asher's girlfriend finally said I love you is the night she died. He was there for her murder, he might have even committed it, but whatever buried the details of her death deep in his mind isn't letting a single second free.
17-year old Asher remembers nothing from the night in 1968 his girlfriend was killed. Though the cops found Asher covered in her blood outside a mansion in Florida, he knows there's no way he'd ever hurt or kill anyone. But, the evidence says otherwise, as the only suspect, Asher is convicted and sentenced to five years at theDozier Reform School.
Hidden by the headlines about Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement, is the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. In the state of Florida, juvenile boys from truants to murderers are hidden away in the sinister Dozier school; those who manage to escape with broken bones are the lucky ones. Asher's afraid he may end up like many of the other students beneath unmarked graves, or worse, they may end up his next victims.
When he wakes up outside, covered in blood with no memory of the days before, he fears he's killed someone else. As Asher's possible body count grows, he knows the answers he needs are trapped within his own mind. Asher's stuck between being a victim or a killer. He needs to prove the murders aren't connected to him or risk losing his sanity and freedom forever.
First 250:
Before January 1st, 1968
If you're anything like me, you never wondered what your girlfriend would look like as a corpse. For the record -- she was just as pretty. Even though I remember nothing else from that night, I remember her face, as beautiful in death as it had been every single day of her life. There were a million things I expected to happen once Avery was my girlfriend, but murder never crossed my mind.
Her long white dress whips behind her as she disappears into the trees. It lashes, like a flag caught in a hurricane. In her wake, she leaves flowers that she wove into her hair, instead of devastation. The hot afternoon sun bears down on us. We've been out here so long, sweat glues my hair to my face. The wind carries the scent of a brush fire on its wings. My heart races as I chase after her, excitement buzzing in my veins.
"Avery?" I call out, between breaths. The words seem to seep out of me, as slow and tired as I am.
"The time to hesitate is through." Her voice is high, beautiful, it rings through the trees. She's been singing The Doors all day, thanks to my t-shirt. Somehow, even though she taunts me with songs, she still manages to remain hidden.
The trees swallow me. In the shade, the temperature drops by a few degrees, but I still feel like I'm being boiled, that's Florida for you, hot enough to smother you even in January.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: A Girl and Her Serial KillerTitle: The ConfidantWord count: 62kGenre: Young Adult Thriller
Query: 18-year-old Stella Stokes has a secret: the main character in her novels, Gideon, a dashing English serial killer, actually talks to her. He’s been by her side, offering peanut gallery commentary, advice, and affection for every pathetic turn in her adolescent life, and as much as some of the darker suggestions he makes scare her, she’s never been worried to have him. After all, he’s not real; he can’t really kill anyone, nor can he make her do the killing for him.
The summer following high school graduation, Stella and her best friend, supernatural-obsessed, almost-transitioned FTM Quinn, decide to take a few weeks to explore California. However, their first stop at an idyllic beach town isn’t quite as calming as they would’ve hoped: a prank-gone-horribly-wrong leaves Quinn and Stella standing over four dead bodies. The killer? Gideon. As they clean up the mess and beeline out of town as fugitives, Stella is convinced that they’re in terrible danger, but Quinn refuses to accept it. Quinn pulls a timid Stella into a quest to discover just what Gideon is—ghost, demon, byproduct of a mental illness, or something else entirely. And, as the bodies stack up and the authorities close in, Stella has to resist cracking under pressure, or risk caving into Gideon’s deepest desire to see her kill with him.
First 250 words:
"You're barmy if you don't think a paid professional screwing up your haircut is adequate reason to kill them.”
After a solid minute of looking through my drawer for a good bikini, I thrust out the first two semi-matching blue polka dot pieces of water-friendly fabric I see.
"No Gideon, you're barmy or whatever you just said if you think I'm going to murder someone because she cut my hair too short,” I reply. “Besides, aren't you English? It’s say your cut looks great and suffer in silence. Besides, my bob doesn’t look bad.”
I know Gideon's staring at me, like anyone would when engaged in deep conversation about murdering, but I ignore him, dropping my shorts and pulling off my panties.
"Testy today, aren't we? A bit out of character for you.”
I slip on my bikini bottoms and thank the universe that my bikini top is still tied at the top.
"Don't you dare make writer puns with me right now. We're still talking about you wanting me to kill my fr—acquaintances.”
I pull on the bikini top, but Gideon grabs the back straps before I have the chance. As much as Gideon gives me the creeps every other second, I can't deny how good it feels to have his hands press against my skin as he ties the knot.
"Not too tight, is it, poppet?" he whispers in my ear.
I sigh, his smooth, tenor voice my off button. Or on.
“No. Thanks."
QK Round 1: A SPARKLING WILDFLOWER versus MIDDLE GRADE LEVERAGE
Entry Nickname: A Sparkling Wildflower Among Giant Stinky WeedsTitle: Blue and the Icky Sticky BoysWord Count: 32,000Genre: Middle Grade
Query:
Beulah “Blue” Warren journeys from one adventure to the next with tons of humor and sass.
Blue spends every waking moment surrounded by smelly ole boys: her three brothers, her father, her best friend - even the family dog...but that's never stopped her from being her usual marvelous self. When she is sent to the principal’s office, she handles it like a boss (even Ferris Bueller would be proud). When the witchy neighbor next door trashes her front yard, Blue doesn’t just get even, she gets ahead. No clean underwear because she hasn’t done the laundry? No worries. That’s what little brother’s Superman underwear is for. Yes, it was fairly devastating when the entire school happened to see them, but some things are unavoidable.
Blue crushes anything that comes her way…until the day she explores the attic. Her mother’s death certificate shows the date she died is the same as her littlest brother’s birthday. Her father has been lying to them all along. Her mother didn’t pass away in a car accident, she died giving birth to Arnie. Blue will need to muster all the strength she has to forgive her brother, trust in her father, and let her mother go once and for all. Maybe her life’s curse – her rotten brothers – will be her biggest blessing after all.
First 250 Words:
I gripped his foot tightly as I wrapped the cord around his ankle. He looked up at me and the fear in his eyes made my hands tremble. I turned his face away so I didn’t have to see his pain. I lifted him over the edge and tried not to think about what I was going to do. What I had to do.
“Noooooo!”
Startled, I lost my hold and he went tumbling over the balcony head first. I winced when his body hit the concrete below.
Splat.
“Mr. Bunny Boo! Nooooo!” Arnie ran out of the room, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Daaaaaad!”
I sighed. That didn’t quite go as planned, but it often didn’t. Mr. Bunny Boo was just another casualty of war. Oh, and my brother’s favorite stuffed animal, of course. I wasn’t surprised when my dad called me downstairs a moment later.
“It was an accident,” I said before my father had a chance to speak. “I was only going to dangle him, I wasn’t really going to let go. It’s just Arnie snuck up from behind and scared me.”
Arnie sniffed dramatically, wiping away his giant crocodile tears. I looked away. Did the kid have to be so darn cute? That wasn’t going to get me any sympathy.
“March right outside and find your brother’s bunny. What were you thinking, Beulah?”
Uh oh. I knew I was in serious trouble when my dad used my real name. But with a name like Beulah, shouldn’t that be punishment enough?
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Middle Grade Leverage
Title: Team L.O.S.E.R.
Word count: 49,000
Genre: Upper Middle Grade Contemporary
Query:
Eighth grade president, Corbin Webster is used to hard work. But when he’s forced to accept the position as mentor to a team of outcast sixth grade delinquents, reality smacks him upside the head. It is one thing to be told to teach his team right from wrong. It’s quite another to discover that they’re a car thief, a pick-pocket, a hacker, and a girl who cosplays a different character each day and who refuses to answer to her real name.
To foster kindness and team spirit, Corbin has them find a student who needs their help. When they choose a boy whose lunch is stolen daily, Corbin stages an intervention. There they find that this bully is physically abused, and his father controls his family by starving them. In order to get proof of the real abuser’s criminal activities, and to put him away for good, Corbin must use the illegal skills that landed his group on Team Loser in the first place.
First 250 Words:
The early morning light haloed two birds perched in the tree outside our kitchen window. They sang like they were in the opening credits of a Disney movie. Gramps' scrambled eggs were a perfect bright yellow so I scooped them from the pan, and onto his plate. “Come and eat before I throw it away,” I yelled.
“Corbin Webster, do I look like a track star to you?” His cane made crabby thunks on the worn linoleum but he had to duck his head to hide a smile. He might fool the salesmen at the front door, but I knew better. Gramps put the great in great-grandpa. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be in some random person’s foster home.
“I don’t need any eggs,” he said. “Coffee is fine.”
“You’ll eat them and like it.” I tried to sound stern instead of worried. “Besides, there’s plenty.” If I didn't watch him, he’d starve himself to make sure I didn't go hungry. “Mrs. Sanchez brought over a dozen this morning when she dropped off the suit. Her chickens lay too many for her to eat.”
“That’s different.” He picked up his fork and shoveled some into his mouth. “It would be a crying shame for food to go to waste.” I finished my coffee and carried my plate to the sink. He whistled low. “Dang boy, you look sharp. Turn around."
I made an awkward spin so he could see how well her alterations had made his old suit fit.
Query:
Beulah “Blue” Warren journeys from one adventure to the next with tons of humor and sass.
Blue spends every waking moment surrounded by smelly ole boys: her three brothers, her father, her best friend - even the family dog...but that's never stopped her from being her usual marvelous self. When she is sent to the principal’s office, she handles it like a boss (even Ferris Bueller would be proud). When the witchy neighbor next door trashes her front yard, Blue doesn’t just get even, she gets ahead. No clean underwear because she hasn’t done the laundry? No worries. That’s what little brother’s Superman underwear is for. Yes, it was fairly devastating when the entire school happened to see them, but some things are unavoidable.
Blue crushes anything that comes her way…until the day she explores the attic. Her mother’s death certificate shows the date she died is the same as her littlest brother’s birthday. Her father has been lying to them all along. Her mother didn’t pass away in a car accident, she died giving birth to Arnie. Blue will need to muster all the strength she has to forgive her brother, trust in her father, and let her mother go once and for all. Maybe her life’s curse – her rotten brothers – will be her biggest blessing after all.
First 250 Words:
I gripped his foot tightly as I wrapped the cord around his ankle. He looked up at me and the fear in his eyes made my hands tremble. I turned his face away so I didn’t have to see his pain. I lifted him over the edge and tried not to think about what I was going to do. What I had to do.
“Noooooo!”
Startled, I lost my hold and he went tumbling over the balcony head first. I winced when his body hit the concrete below.
Splat.
“Mr. Bunny Boo! Nooooo!” Arnie ran out of the room, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Daaaaaad!”
I sighed. That didn’t quite go as planned, but it often didn’t. Mr. Bunny Boo was just another casualty of war. Oh, and my brother’s favorite stuffed animal, of course. I wasn’t surprised when my dad called me downstairs a moment later.
“It was an accident,” I said before my father had a chance to speak. “I was only going to dangle him, I wasn’t really going to let go. It’s just Arnie snuck up from behind and scared me.”
Arnie sniffed dramatically, wiping away his giant crocodile tears. I looked away. Did the kid have to be so darn cute? That wasn’t going to get me any sympathy.
“March right outside and find your brother’s bunny. What were you thinking, Beulah?”
Uh oh. I knew I was in serious trouble when my dad used my real name. But with a name like Beulah, shouldn’t that be punishment enough?
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Middle Grade Leverage
Title: Team L.O.S.E.R.
Word count: 49,000
Genre: Upper Middle Grade Contemporary
Query:
Eighth grade president, Corbin Webster is used to hard work. But when he’s forced to accept the position as mentor to a team of outcast sixth grade delinquents, reality smacks him upside the head. It is one thing to be told to teach his team right from wrong. It’s quite another to discover that they’re a car thief, a pick-pocket, a hacker, and a girl who cosplays a different character each day and who refuses to answer to her real name.
To foster kindness and team spirit, Corbin has them find a student who needs their help. When they choose a boy whose lunch is stolen daily, Corbin stages an intervention. There they find that this bully is physically abused, and his father controls his family by starving them. In order to get proof of the real abuser’s criminal activities, and to put him away for good, Corbin must use the illegal skills that landed his group on Team Loser in the first place.
First 250 Words:
The early morning light haloed two birds perched in the tree outside our kitchen window. They sang like they were in the opening credits of a Disney movie. Gramps' scrambled eggs were a perfect bright yellow so I scooped them from the pan, and onto his plate. “Come and eat before I throw it away,” I yelled.
“Corbin Webster, do I look like a track star to you?” His cane made crabby thunks on the worn linoleum but he had to duck his head to hide a smile. He might fool the salesmen at the front door, but I knew better. Gramps put the great in great-grandpa. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be in some random person’s foster home.
“I don’t need any eggs,” he said. “Coffee is fine.”
“You’ll eat them and like it.” I tried to sound stern instead of worried. “Besides, there’s plenty.” If I didn't watch him, he’d starve himself to make sure I didn't go hungry. “Mrs. Sanchez brought over a dozen this morning when she dropped off the suit. Her chickens lay too many for her to eat.”
“That’s different.” He picked up his fork and shoveled some into his mouth. “It would be a crying shame for food to go to waste.” I finished my coffee and carried my plate to the sink. He whistled low. “Dang boy, you look sharp. Turn around."
I made an awkward spin so he could see how well her alterations had made his old suit fit.
QK Round 1: TRIAC GIRL versus STELLAR TWINS KICKIN' IT COSMIC-STYLE
Entry Nickname: TRIAC GirlTitle: Prime VectorWord count: 77,000Genre: YA Sci-fi
Query:
Born into military service, eighteen-year-old Catita believes she’s meant to spend her life protecting her city, its citizens and the system. Like her departed mom, she wants nothing more than to join the Queen’s special operations force of highly trained commandos.
When the Queen’s secret project files are taken, Catita lands in the middle of a century-old feud to control a virus that gives its host immortality. Against her better judgment, she enlists the help of Tek Dar, an infuriating but sometimes charming renegade from the old planet, Earth. Tek’s job is simple; help Catita thread the desert lands of Mars in search for clues that will lead her back to the stolen files. But Tek has his own agenda, to save his sister’s life.
As Catita uncovers the truth about her origin and the queen she so desperately wants to serve, her view of the system she believes in begins to fall apart. Now Catita must race to recover the stolen files before the thief deciphers the encrypted information and Catita becomes the queen’s personal fountain of youth.
First 250 Words:
Tek tugs at the collar of his jacket. Something about wearing a QEC uniform makes him itchy all over. Though, he has to admit the damn thing is comfortable. It fits him like a second skin.
Out of habit, Tek crouches to blend into the shadows in the alley across the narrow street from 47 Trinity. The three-foot sconces, hanging on either side of the steel double doors, make the entrance glow in the dimming afternoon light.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Carlo asks, his deep voice resonates around them.
“There’s no going back now,” Tek responds, taking a deep breath. Then another, as the synthetic atmosphere of Mars leaves him breathless for a moment, like he just swam five kilometers back on Earth. The gentle gravitational pull makes up for the low levels of oxygen. Every step, every movement is effortless. “Wait, here. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
“And if you don’t?” Carlo shoots a glance over his shoulder to make sure they’re still alone.
“Head back to Resolana. Make sure you leave the city before dark,” Tek warns.
“You got it. Que no? I don’t care to find out what curfew drones think of this getup,” Carlo says. He flexes his biceps, pulling at the leathery fabric near the waist. Then adds: “Hurry, we still have to see about your dad’s payment.”
“Yeah. I just hope all this was worth the risk,” Tek sighs.
“I trust your dad,” Carlo shrugs.
“Don’t.”
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Stellar Twins Kickin it Cosmic-StyleTitle: EmergenceWord Count: 66kGenre: YA Space Opera
Query:
The year is 2088. Solar flares have turned Earth to a dusty red planet, and mankind has terraformed Mars into utopia. So far, only the lucky have gone–or so it would seem.
Sixteen-year-old Joey Westen never thought she’d go to Mars. Her life of painting the walls in her lead-lined home was good enough for her, until a golden letter arrived in the mail. She and her twinbrother, Jesse, won a spot in the Emergence Program. They’ll be jetting off on the next flight to humanity’s new home, a lush paradise, and the shuttle leaves tomorrow.
Joey knows her life will never be the same, but she doesn’t know a psycho-killer is hidden onboard her Spacebus. A group of extremists has targeted the Emergence Program. They’ve managed to sabotage every shuttle to Mars thus far, a truth kept from the general public, and their sights are set on the next mission. It only took minutes in space for Joey and Jesse to realize something’s wrong, as a total ship lockdown was not in the brochure. After meeting their roommates, the Matsuda twins(notorious hackers and shady secret-keepers), they discover everybody’s lives are in danger. They didn’t travel to the deepest pits of space just to die in a high-tech tin can. These two sets of siblings will throw everything in their arsenal to survive the attacks. Sacrifice anything just to make it to their promised land.
First 250:
Of all the chores, she hated this one the most. Joey pulled a helmet over her head and fastened the latch to her anti-radiation suit. So much work, every Monday, just to get the weekly post.
After flipping on her oxygen tank, she hit a red button on the wall. A buzzer sounded and the solid outer door of her home crept opened, sucking the air from the room. Almost instantly, a glare of blinding light stung her eyes. The sun’s flare raged today, no different from yesterday, and the same forecast as tomorrow.
Joey slid down her visor. A deep crimson sky reflected in the tinted lens of her old spacesuit, which still bore the tag from Goodwill. She trudged across dusty earth, a cloud of scarlet haze kicking up as she stopped. While peering through shaded glass, she imagined the land as her mother described it. The reddish tint, which covered the parched countryside before her, transformed to crisp green meadows and pools of turquoise shaded water. Heavy layers of gray smog gave way to puffy white clouds.
Her fantasy ended when a ray of sunlight beamed through her visor. She lifted her arm to block its shimmer, cast by the monstrous glass dome a mile away. A-Sector, safe from the scorched world. A few steps closer and she glimpsed people. No suits, flowing clothes, strolling along neon-lit streets people.
A beep sounded in her helmet and she looked at the O² gauge on her wrist. “Five-percent. Jesse’s gonna be salty.”
Query:
Born into military service, eighteen-year-old Catita believes she’s meant to spend her life protecting her city, its citizens and the system. Like her departed mom, she wants nothing more than to join the Queen’s special operations force of highly trained commandos.
When the Queen’s secret project files are taken, Catita lands in the middle of a century-old feud to control a virus that gives its host immortality. Against her better judgment, she enlists the help of Tek Dar, an infuriating but sometimes charming renegade from the old planet, Earth. Tek’s job is simple; help Catita thread the desert lands of Mars in search for clues that will lead her back to the stolen files. But Tek has his own agenda, to save his sister’s life.
As Catita uncovers the truth about her origin and the queen she so desperately wants to serve, her view of the system she believes in begins to fall apart. Now Catita must race to recover the stolen files before the thief deciphers the encrypted information and Catita becomes the queen’s personal fountain of youth.
First 250 Words:
Tek tugs at the collar of his jacket. Something about wearing a QEC uniform makes him itchy all over. Though, he has to admit the damn thing is comfortable. It fits him like a second skin.
Out of habit, Tek crouches to blend into the shadows in the alley across the narrow street from 47 Trinity. The three-foot sconces, hanging on either side of the steel double doors, make the entrance glow in the dimming afternoon light.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Carlo asks, his deep voice resonates around them.
“There’s no going back now,” Tek responds, taking a deep breath. Then another, as the synthetic atmosphere of Mars leaves him breathless for a moment, like he just swam five kilometers back on Earth. The gentle gravitational pull makes up for the low levels of oxygen. Every step, every movement is effortless. “Wait, here. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”
“And if you don’t?” Carlo shoots a glance over his shoulder to make sure they’re still alone.
“Head back to Resolana. Make sure you leave the city before dark,” Tek warns.
“You got it. Que no? I don’t care to find out what curfew drones think of this getup,” Carlo says. He flexes his biceps, pulling at the leathery fabric near the waist. Then adds: “Hurry, we still have to see about your dad’s payment.”
“Yeah. I just hope all this was worth the risk,” Tek sighs.
“I trust your dad,” Carlo shrugs.
“Don’t.”
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: Stellar Twins Kickin it Cosmic-StyleTitle: EmergenceWord Count: 66kGenre: YA Space Opera
Query:
The year is 2088. Solar flares have turned Earth to a dusty red planet, and mankind has terraformed Mars into utopia. So far, only the lucky have gone–or so it would seem.
Sixteen-year-old Joey Westen never thought she’d go to Mars. Her life of painting the walls in her lead-lined home was good enough for her, until a golden letter arrived in the mail. She and her twinbrother, Jesse, won a spot in the Emergence Program. They’ll be jetting off on the next flight to humanity’s new home, a lush paradise, and the shuttle leaves tomorrow.
Joey knows her life will never be the same, but she doesn’t know a psycho-killer is hidden onboard her Spacebus. A group of extremists has targeted the Emergence Program. They’ve managed to sabotage every shuttle to Mars thus far, a truth kept from the general public, and their sights are set on the next mission. It only took minutes in space for Joey and Jesse to realize something’s wrong, as a total ship lockdown was not in the brochure. After meeting their roommates, the Matsuda twins(notorious hackers and shady secret-keepers), they discover everybody’s lives are in danger. They didn’t travel to the deepest pits of space just to die in a high-tech tin can. These two sets of siblings will throw everything in their arsenal to survive the attacks. Sacrifice anything just to make it to their promised land.
First 250:
Of all the chores, she hated this one the most. Joey pulled a helmet over her head and fastened the latch to her anti-radiation suit. So much work, every Monday, just to get the weekly post.
After flipping on her oxygen tank, she hit a red button on the wall. A buzzer sounded and the solid outer door of her home crept opened, sucking the air from the room. Almost instantly, a glare of blinding light stung her eyes. The sun’s flare raged today, no different from yesterday, and the same forecast as tomorrow.
Joey slid down her visor. A deep crimson sky reflected in the tinted lens of her old spacesuit, which still bore the tag from Goodwill. She trudged across dusty earth, a cloud of scarlet haze kicking up as she stopped. While peering through shaded glass, she imagined the land as her mother described it. The reddish tint, which covered the parched countryside before her, transformed to crisp green meadows and pools of turquoise shaded water. Heavy layers of gray smog gave way to puffy white clouds.
Her fantasy ended when a ray of sunlight beamed through her visor. She lifted her arm to block its shimmer, cast by the monstrous glass dome a mile away. A-Sector, safe from the scorched world. A few steps closer and she glimpsed people. No suits, flowing clothes, strolling along neon-lit streets people.
A beep sounded in her helmet and she looked at the O² gauge on her wrist. “Five-percent. Jesse’s gonna be salty.”
