QK Round 1: To Be a Man vs. Stolen By Time
Title: THE EVENTIDE
Entry Nickname: TO BE A MAN
Word Count: 97,000
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Query:Val has studied, fought and completed her sailing expedition—faster than anyone else—to become chieftess of her tribe. Returning home, she discovers her twin brother is missing—kidnapped by the foreign conquerors—and if she doesn't find him soon, her tribe will go to war and be massacred by their enemies.Against her tribe’s wishes, Val finds her way into an Airyllen ship dressed as a boy. Surrounded by the people she believes are her enemies, her sole focus is locating her brother. But on the ship, Val discovers that not all Airyllens are pale-faced demons. As she earns Captain Devon's trust, Val is torn between her loyalty to the tribe and her newfound love for the captain—whose affections lie with someone else.Hiding her true identity from him may cost their friendship and break her heart. But if he learns who she is, he has an obligation to report to the king and Val risks losing her brother, the war and her life in this loose retelling of Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT.
First 250 Words:No one witnessed the tears staining my ocean-weathered face. Like my ancestors before me, I made this trip alone. If the elder who made that rule still lived, I’d personally see him to the spirit realm.
The purple mountains jutted into the sky, glistening as magic cascaded off them like an early morning fog encompassing the land. I leapt out of my seat. For most the Pass represented the boundary between the southern tribes and the pale-faced invaders. For me it meant home.
My rash movements caused the port side of my sailing canoe to dip under the water.
“Spirits!” If I capsized this close to the end, I’d die of humiliation.
Tonight, after eighty-two long days, the elders would name me chieftess. Chieftess Valerian. I could live with that.
You’re only chieftess if you beat Shecayah home. A voice in my head reminded me.
“Sure.” I rolled my eyes. The elders say the spirits whispering in your ear is a sign. I say my exhausted body is trying to trick me.
Letting my sail out, I tied the mainsheet and moved to the bow of my sailing canoe, the wind pulling strands of my black hair out of its braid and into my eyes.
I sat cross-legged on the bow and opened my pouch. Dust the color of the stars lay at the bottom. When I’d started my trek, Elder Fire gave me a full bag. I dumped the remnants in my hand. The silver stood out against my dark skin and I blew the powder away.
VERSUS
Title: ECHOES ACROSS TIMEEntry Nickname: Stolen by TimeWord count: 82,000Genre: YA Time Travel Romance
Query:
A seventeen-year-old Australian girl is haunted by the echo of a love more powerful than time, calling to her across the centuries.
Taylor’s life is on a fast track. Graduation is in four weeks, she’s dating the hot lead singer of a local band, and Sydney’s summer beaches beckon. Until Mum drags her across fifteen hundred kilometers of Australian Outback, to the middle-of-nowhere. And the haunting dreams of Anna begin.
In 1876, seventeen-year-old Anna rises before the sun, milks the cow, fetches water from the almost-dry creek, and stokes the oven. If her parents had remained in Europe, instead of moving to the wilderness of South Australia, her life would be different—civilized, perhaps, as Mother loves to say. In Europe, she would have avoided the raging bushfire that leaves her reputation as blackened as the burnt-out scrub. But then she’d not have met handsome fellow settler, Luke Hartmann.
In her dreams, Taylor lives every moment with Anna. But, as Taylor’s parents threaten divorce and her life spirals out of control, she ventures deeper into Anna’s world. The borders between reality and dreams become increasingly blurred, and Taylor falls for the perfect dream guy; Luke. When tragedy tears Anna’s family apart, Taylor must discover whether her dreams are pure fantasy—or if they recount a story more familiar than she could ever imagine. If she can’t find a way to combine the past and the present, she risks losing her mind and her heart forever.
FIRST 250 WORDS:
In Sydney, if you choose the place carefully and wear a top cut low enough, the bouncers don’t check your ID. Just as well, as both Cassie’s and mine would reveal we’re a few months short of legal.
Sweaty palmed, I tug at the hem of my short skirt. The queue shuffles toward the neon-enhanced entry. If we’re turned away before we get through the door, we haven’t broken any laws, we won’t get arrested; yet my heart pounds with the adrenalin rush.
Fear feeds the high.
Cassie couldn’t care less. She leans forward, brushing imaginary dirt from her knee, loose shirt billowing from her chest.
Standing at the door for hours, you’d think the bouncers would be sick of perving. Apparently not.
Fisting her hands on narrow hips, Cassie straightens, shooting a mega-watt smile at the ogling security guard.
Despite high wedges, I stretch to mutter in her ear. “Jeez Cass. It’s supposed to be Victoria’s Secret, right?
She laughs as though it was a killer line, flinging an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Tay. You want to get in, right?”
Hell yeah, I want to get in.
Cassie nods at the crucifix I slide up and down a fine chain around my neck. “Y’know you look like a god-botherer when you fiddle with that thing, right?”
I drop my hand. “Present from my grandparents.”
One perfect eyebrow arches at me. “Thought you didn’t have anything to do with them?”
Entry Nickname: TO BE A MAN
Word Count: 97,000
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Query:Val has studied, fought and completed her sailing expedition—faster than anyone else—to become chieftess of her tribe. Returning home, she discovers her twin brother is missing—kidnapped by the foreign conquerors—and if she doesn't find him soon, her tribe will go to war and be massacred by their enemies.Against her tribe’s wishes, Val finds her way into an Airyllen ship dressed as a boy. Surrounded by the people she believes are her enemies, her sole focus is locating her brother. But on the ship, Val discovers that not all Airyllens are pale-faced demons. As she earns Captain Devon's trust, Val is torn between her loyalty to the tribe and her newfound love for the captain—whose affections lie with someone else.Hiding her true identity from him may cost their friendship and break her heart. But if he learns who she is, he has an obligation to report to the king and Val risks losing her brother, the war and her life in this loose retelling of Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT.
First 250 Words:No one witnessed the tears staining my ocean-weathered face. Like my ancestors before me, I made this trip alone. If the elder who made that rule still lived, I’d personally see him to the spirit realm.
The purple mountains jutted into the sky, glistening as magic cascaded off them like an early morning fog encompassing the land. I leapt out of my seat. For most the Pass represented the boundary between the southern tribes and the pale-faced invaders. For me it meant home.
My rash movements caused the port side of my sailing canoe to dip under the water.
“Spirits!” If I capsized this close to the end, I’d die of humiliation.
Tonight, after eighty-two long days, the elders would name me chieftess. Chieftess Valerian. I could live with that.
You’re only chieftess if you beat Shecayah home. A voice in my head reminded me.
“Sure.” I rolled my eyes. The elders say the spirits whispering in your ear is a sign. I say my exhausted body is trying to trick me.
Letting my sail out, I tied the mainsheet and moved to the bow of my sailing canoe, the wind pulling strands of my black hair out of its braid and into my eyes.
I sat cross-legged on the bow and opened my pouch. Dust the color of the stars lay at the bottom. When I’d started my trek, Elder Fire gave me a full bag. I dumped the remnants in my hand. The silver stood out against my dark skin and I blew the powder away.
VERSUS
Title: ECHOES ACROSS TIMEEntry Nickname: Stolen by TimeWord count: 82,000Genre: YA Time Travel Romance
Query:
A seventeen-year-old Australian girl is haunted by the echo of a love more powerful than time, calling to her across the centuries.
Taylor’s life is on a fast track. Graduation is in four weeks, she’s dating the hot lead singer of a local band, and Sydney’s summer beaches beckon. Until Mum drags her across fifteen hundred kilometers of Australian Outback, to the middle-of-nowhere. And the haunting dreams of Anna begin.
In 1876, seventeen-year-old Anna rises before the sun, milks the cow, fetches water from the almost-dry creek, and stokes the oven. If her parents had remained in Europe, instead of moving to the wilderness of South Australia, her life would be different—civilized, perhaps, as Mother loves to say. In Europe, she would have avoided the raging bushfire that leaves her reputation as blackened as the burnt-out scrub. But then she’d not have met handsome fellow settler, Luke Hartmann.
In her dreams, Taylor lives every moment with Anna. But, as Taylor’s parents threaten divorce and her life spirals out of control, she ventures deeper into Anna’s world. The borders between reality and dreams become increasingly blurred, and Taylor falls for the perfect dream guy; Luke. When tragedy tears Anna’s family apart, Taylor must discover whether her dreams are pure fantasy—or if they recount a story more familiar than she could ever imagine. If she can’t find a way to combine the past and the present, she risks losing her mind and her heart forever.
FIRST 250 WORDS:
In Sydney, if you choose the place carefully and wear a top cut low enough, the bouncers don’t check your ID. Just as well, as both Cassie’s and mine would reveal we’re a few months short of legal.
Sweaty palmed, I tug at the hem of my short skirt. The queue shuffles toward the neon-enhanced entry. If we’re turned away before we get through the door, we haven’t broken any laws, we won’t get arrested; yet my heart pounds with the adrenalin rush.
Fear feeds the high.
Cassie couldn’t care less. She leans forward, brushing imaginary dirt from her knee, loose shirt billowing from her chest.
Standing at the door for hours, you’d think the bouncers would be sick of perving. Apparently not.
Fisting her hands on narrow hips, Cassie straightens, shooting a mega-watt smile at the ogling security guard.
Despite high wedges, I stretch to mutter in her ear. “Jeez Cass. It’s supposed to be Victoria’s Secret, right?
She laughs as though it was a killer line, flinging an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Tay. You want to get in, right?”
Hell yeah, I want to get in.
Cassie nods at the crucifix I slide up and down a fine chain around my neck. “Y’know you look like a god-botherer when you fiddle with that thing, right?”
I drop my hand. “Present from my grandparents.”
One perfect eyebrow arches at me. “Thought you didn’t have anything to do with them?”
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