QK Round 2: Delicious Vicious Cycles vs. I Fell for a Convicted Felon
Title: VERA WITH A VENGEANCEEntry Nickname: Delicious Vicious CyclesWord count: 74KGenre: YA Contemporary, Own Voices
Query:
17-year-old entrepreneur Vera Davis starts a business to sell revenge in VERA WITH A VENGEANCE, a 74,000-word young adult contemporary novel. Vera and I are both Jewish and sexual assault survivors.
When a car accident paralyzes Vera’s college basketball hotshot brother and kills her parents, she's suddenly in charge of the medical bills, the mortgage, and her own anger and helplessness. Vera's always been good at getting back at people who hurt her, but she can’t exactly get revenge on the curve in the road where her father lost control of the car.
Meager insurance payouts leave Vera desperate for money, so she starts a business: when the traditional justice system fails her clients, Vera wrecks wrongdoers’ careers and cars, relationships and reputations. She revels in taking down racists and sexual assaulters, but her crush--her brother’s best friend--thinks her style of vengeance is morally wrong.
Then, while helping a client get payback for a leaked nude picture, Vera finds new evidence about her family’s “accident.” Turns out there is someone for Vera to blame, but the perpetrator had her own very good reason to seek vengeance.
Now Vera must decide whether getting even is worth getting blood on her hands.
First 250:
This creeper keeps staring at me with this little half smile, like he thinks I want his eyes undressing me. His face, all chin and cheekbones, reeks of always getting what he wants—women, money, free drinks in first class en route to Ibiza. I want to walk away, but his wife is shopping for an evening gown, and I need the commission to pay the energy bill.
I focus on her, and hold up a green dress to hide my body. “This would look great with your eyes.”
Her eyes are blue, but the green dress sells well, and if she buys it, I’ll hit the monthly quota for a higher commission percentage. I can only work so much after school, and I have to make the hours count.
She turns to Creeper. “What do you think?”
“I’d like to see more.” His eyes flicker down to my calves and back up to my chest. For all his wife can tell, he’s checking out the dress, but his gaze burns my skin.
I hold the dress higher to cover my breasts and look at my boss for rescue. He mouths work it. If I didn’t need this job so badly…I force myself to smile.
Creeper’s gold smartwatch buzzes, and he glances away from me. Those watches cost ten grand. Ten grand would keep the lights on and pay for three months of the mortgage. Ten grand could keep Levi and me from losing the house our parents raised us in.
VERSUS
Title: Unreasonable Doubts
Entry nickname: I fell for a convicted felon
Word Count: 91,000
Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Query:
29 year-old Liana Cohen is an idealistic public defender fighting to overturn the convictions of her indigent clients, whether they are guilty or innocent. But after several years of standing up for hardened criminals and repeat offenders, she is careening toward burn-out. Her boss has given her an ultimatum: recommit to the mission, or find a new job. Liana would give anything to have one client, just one, whom she can believe in. Someone to reignite her passion for the cause and salvage her career.
In this charged emotional state, Liana's professional struggle spills over to her personal life. While she loves Jakob Weiss, her long-term boyfriend, she's not ready to embrace his self-assured vision of their future together.
Determined to get back on track, Liana pins her hopes on her newest client, Danny Shea, a convicted rapist. Danny's astonishing blend of confidence and vulnerability intrigues Liana, who finds him intelligent, magnetic and compelling. And he could well be innocent.
As their attorney-client relationship transforms into something less than arms-length, Danny painstakingly makes a place for himself in Liana’s world. After Liana wins Danny a reversal on a legal technicality and he is released from prison, she is confronted with a man who is both free and single-minded in his desire to be with her. Danny’s attentions intensify just as Jakob proposes marriage. Liana is forced to choose.
First 250 Words:
July, 2012
Dear Ms. Cohen,
Forgive me for being so direct, but I have no choice.
I need you to do something for me, something that goes beyond just doing your job. I’m begging you to put aside what you think you know about me based upon my conviction and from reading the testimony of the witnesses at trial, and to search out the man behind those words. It’s critical that you know in your heart, as my public defender, but even more so, as a woman, that I couldn’t, and I didn’t, rape Jennifer Nash or anyone else. I need you to believe in me.
My case could have been assigned to any attorney, but I have you. I believe there’s a reason for this, and I know that with you on my side I will emerge from this terrible darkness that has engulfed me since this false accusation was lodged. I pray that you’ll have the courage to stand with me.
Sincerely,
Danny Shea
Who is this guy? Liana wondered.
Chapter 1
“Liana, you have a call on line 1 – Randy Napoli from the New York Law Journal. Want me to ask him what it’s about?”
“No, thanks.You can put him through, Tony,” Liana said. She and Randy had the kind of friendship that sometimes flourishes because both parties know that it exists only in cyberspace and they’ll never actually have to meet. When Randy needed an angle or had a legal question, Liana would provide background information, off the record.
Query:
17-year-old entrepreneur Vera Davis starts a business to sell revenge in VERA WITH A VENGEANCE, a 74,000-word young adult contemporary novel. Vera and I are both Jewish and sexual assault survivors.
When a car accident paralyzes Vera’s college basketball hotshot brother and kills her parents, she's suddenly in charge of the medical bills, the mortgage, and her own anger and helplessness. Vera's always been good at getting back at people who hurt her, but she can’t exactly get revenge on the curve in the road where her father lost control of the car.
Meager insurance payouts leave Vera desperate for money, so she starts a business: when the traditional justice system fails her clients, Vera wrecks wrongdoers’ careers and cars, relationships and reputations. She revels in taking down racists and sexual assaulters, but her crush--her brother’s best friend--thinks her style of vengeance is morally wrong.
Then, while helping a client get payback for a leaked nude picture, Vera finds new evidence about her family’s “accident.” Turns out there is someone for Vera to blame, but the perpetrator had her own very good reason to seek vengeance.
Now Vera must decide whether getting even is worth getting blood on her hands.
First 250:
This creeper keeps staring at me with this little half smile, like he thinks I want his eyes undressing me. His face, all chin and cheekbones, reeks of always getting what he wants—women, money, free drinks in first class en route to Ibiza. I want to walk away, but his wife is shopping for an evening gown, and I need the commission to pay the energy bill.
I focus on her, and hold up a green dress to hide my body. “This would look great with your eyes.”
Her eyes are blue, but the green dress sells well, and if she buys it, I’ll hit the monthly quota for a higher commission percentage. I can only work so much after school, and I have to make the hours count.
She turns to Creeper. “What do you think?”
“I’d like to see more.” His eyes flicker down to my calves and back up to my chest. For all his wife can tell, he’s checking out the dress, but his gaze burns my skin.
I hold the dress higher to cover my breasts and look at my boss for rescue. He mouths work it. If I didn’t need this job so badly…I force myself to smile.
Creeper’s gold smartwatch buzzes, and he glances away from me. Those watches cost ten grand. Ten grand would keep the lights on and pay for three months of the mortgage. Ten grand could keep Levi and me from losing the house our parents raised us in.
VERSUS
Title: Unreasonable Doubts
Entry nickname: I fell for a convicted felon
Word Count: 91,000
Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Query:
29 year-old Liana Cohen is an idealistic public defender fighting to overturn the convictions of her indigent clients, whether they are guilty or innocent. But after several years of standing up for hardened criminals and repeat offenders, she is careening toward burn-out. Her boss has given her an ultimatum: recommit to the mission, or find a new job. Liana would give anything to have one client, just one, whom she can believe in. Someone to reignite her passion for the cause and salvage her career.
In this charged emotional state, Liana's professional struggle spills over to her personal life. While she loves Jakob Weiss, her long-term boyfriend, she's not ready to embrace his self-assured vision of their future together.
Determined to get back on track, Liana pins her hopes on her newest client, Danny Shea, a convicted rapist. Danny's astonishing blend of confidence and vulnerability intrigues Liana, who finds him intelligent, magnetic and compelling. And he could well be innocent.
As their attorney-client relationship transforms into something less than arms-length, Danny painstakingly makes a place for himself in Liana’s world. After Liana wins Danny a reversal on a legal technicality and he is released from prison, she is confronted with a man who is both free and single-minded in his desire to be with her. Danny’s attentions intensify just as Jakob proposes marriage. Liana is forced to choose.
First 250 Words:
July, 2012
Dear Ms. Cohen,
Forgive me for being so direct, but I have no choice.
I need you to do something for me, something that goes beyond just doing your job. I’m begging you to put aside what you think you know about me based upon my conviction and from reading the testimony of the witnesses at trial, and to search out the man behind those words. It’s critical that you know in your heart, as my public defender, but even more so, as a woman, that I couldn’t, and I didn’t, rape Jennifer Nash or anyone else. I need you to believe in me.
My case could have been assigned to any attorney, but I have you. I believe there’s a reason for this, and I know that with you on my side I will emerge from this terrible darkness that has engulfed me since this false accusation was lodged. I pray that you’ll have the courage to stand with me.
Sincerely,
Danny Shea
Who is this guy? Liana wondered.
Chapter 1
“Liana, you have a call on line 1 – Randy Napoli from the New York Law Journal. Want me to ask him what it’s about?”
“No, thanks.You can put him through, Tony,” Liana said. She and Randy had the kind of friendship that sometimes flourishes because both parties know that it exists only in cyberspace and they’ll never actually have to meet. When Randy needed an angle or had a legal question, Liana would provide background information, off the record.
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