QK Round 2: Mini Mutants versus BingBamBoomBFF
Entry Nickname: Mini MutantsTitle: Hunted SoulsWord Count: 65kGenre: YA high fantasy with sci-fi elements
Query:
When eighteen-year-old Bixby codes in a hospital, his soul takes a detour to Centerra, a world where giants hunt humans for magic, harvesting it from their blood to gain temporary super powers. Prisoners are kept as specimens for experimentation, as giants seek to make magic permanent, since the gods stripped it from them as part of an ancient Punishment. If humans in Centerra, all eighteen and under, rescue any of their friends, giants retaliate by killing another prisoner. They call it "insurance."
A band of teens and kids adopt Bixby into their system of underground forts, so long as he follows rule number one: Don't be a hero. His choice is to hide below the forest floor when giants' hunting parties pass through, doing nothing for those who get captured, or risk expulsion from the group. The art of fitting in will determine his survival, and he's already an odd one out given he can't seem to discover his own power. His hopefully soon-to-be-girlfriend, Otsu, shares his powerless anomaly, so he swallows his pride, obeying his overprotective leader and ignoring taunts.
But love makes one do stupid things. His house mate, Sacheen, shared a hospital floor with him on Earth, where he watched her suffer and die. When the giants take her, he knows he can't live with himself if he does nothing. Otsu agrees, but insists on rescuing everyone; saving only Sacheen would result in another's death. They travel towards the giants' developed territory, and when they reach the castle, they hear rumors of four humans who will possess powers capable of destroying the giants' race. These four will be identified by a delayed manifestation of specific abilities, so by entering the castle before discovering their hidden strengths, Bixby and Otsu have just given the giants a key to their survival.
First 250 Words: Bixby stared at the world through a fish tank. His body clenched in pain while delirium hazed his senses. The bed shook passing over an elevator crack, flooding his throat with nausea. Doctors pressed his abdomen.
"What's your pain score?" Meh, a one. His sarcasm gurgled into a groan. At eighteen, he refused to forfeit his battle against cancer.
A chill ran through his right forearm, and he watched white bubbles form beneath the skin. Perfect timing for you to blow, IV. I don't need drugs. A nurse dug a needle in his left wrist, failing to find a good vein. Please, take your time. He mentally told her off with a slew of words that would send his mother running for soap. Mom. She here? He sunk deeper into the aquarium, pain clogging his ears and eyes. His mother kissed his cheek, rubbing her hand on his bare head, tears spilling over his face. The deep tugged at his chest. Don't leave her. Damn it, fight!
* Bixby’s eyes blinked open, his brain struggling through the fog of deep sea dreaming. A forest of maroon oaks cloaked in purple mist blurred into view. The scent of fresh soil filled his nose. Something tapped his forehead. A small creature with spiky, black hair and velvet moth wings hovered before his nose. Her fingers poked at his skull.
"Wake up! Giants are here!"
Alarmed, he sat up. The fairy fluttered to a sleeping girl with milky skin, slanted eyes, and pink lips.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: BingBamBoomBFF
Title: Sucker Punching Magic
Word count: 75,000
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Query:
The first time Luz Bangor inadvertently triggered her innate magic, it compelled her grandma to elope with a long-distance trucker, forcing Luz’s brilliant younger brother Eric to quit high school to support the family. The magical mishap, her floundering GPA and her attention deficit disorder slapped a ginormous loser L on Luz’s forehead, which she doesn't expect to peel off anytime soon. Not when she keeps toying with magic she doesn't know how to use. And not when everyone compares her to Eric. Then he goes missing. Desperate to save him and redeem herself, Luz turns to her unpredictable magic. But her spell backfires, putting her straight into the path of her brother’s powerful enemies, the Fairy Syndicate.
Home-schooled Jude Kozlowski, whose allergy to light causes him to shift into a troll, wants the world to accept him as a decent guy, not the “who’s that tramping over my bridge” stereotype. But his huge frame and pistachio skin scare normal humans and his shyness keeps him from meeting anyone else. Even his part-time paper-pushing job has him working alone. Fitting in seems hopeless.
That is, until Luz crashes into his cubicle at First Metro Finance, thugs on her heels. Smitten and presented with the unexpected chance to be a hero, Jude vows to help Luz rescue her brother. When the villains snatch Luz, Jude pursues. He braves neighborhood vigilantes, a spoiled poodle and a troll biker gang to track Luz to Underhill, the fairy fortress. There, the unlikely pair must square off with the evil Fairy Godmother or lose Eric—and each other—forever.
First 250 Words:
Jude Kozlowski jerked his head up. He could blame a lot of things on The Fairy Tale Effect, but missing the bus wasn’t one of them. He’d been at the stop, nose deep in calculus homework when the Number Ten shot by, ruffling his hair.
At 4:35 in the afternoon, on a clear day in downtown Milwaukee, 6’2” Jude made a big target. Hard to believe the bus driver hadn't spotted him. Yet the guy hadn't even slowed.
Jude leaped to his feet. Book, paper and pencil in hand, he barreled down the sidewalk in pursuit.
He needed his job. The order and routine. The chance to be normal.
If he waited for the next bus, he’d be late. His heart racing the pounding of his feet, he dodged the parking meters and the guys who cradled cheap wine in paper bags outside the military surplus store.
Down the block, the bus’s brakes shrieked. Its axles groaned. The side doors disgorged a bearded dwarf in a trench coat. Jude bounded over the dwarf and reached the curb as a woman wearing a Hamburger Heaven uniform hurried through the bus’s front doors.
Jude followed, but before his foot touched the step, the gnome at the wheel flinched. Eyes wide, he hastily cranked the Plexiglas doors closed. The reflection of Jude’s lumpy, pistachio green skin played over the window.
“I need a ride.” Going for friendly, Jude grinned. Wrong move. In the glass, his smile appeared strained—too full, a baring of teeth.
Query:
When eighteen-year-old Bixby codes in a hospital, his soul takes a detour to Centerra, a world where giants hunt humans for magic, harvesting it from their blood to gain temporary super powers. Prisoners are kept as specimens for experimentation, as giants seek to make magic permanent, since the gods stripped it from them as part of an ancient Punishment. If humans in Centerra, all eighteen and under, rescue any of their friends, giants retaliate by killing another prisoner. They call it "insurance."
A band of teens and kids adopt Bixby into their system of underground forts, so long as he follows rule number one: Don't be a hero. His choice is to hide below the forest floor when giants' hunting parties pass through, doing nothing for those who get captured, or risk expulsion from the group. The art of fitting in will determine his survival, and he's already an odd one out given he can't seem to discover his own power. His hopefully soon-to-be-girlfriend, Otsu, shares his powerless anomaly, so he swallows his pride, obeying his overprotective leader and ignoring taunts.
But love makes one do stupid things. His house mate, Sacheen, shared a hospital floor with him on Earth, where he watched her suffer and die. When the giants take her, he knows he can't live with himself if he does nothing. Otsu agrees, but insists on rescuing everyone; saving only Sacheen would result in another's death. They travel towards the giants' developed territory, and when they reach the castle, they hear rumors of four humans who will possess powers capable of destroying the giants' race. These four will be identified by a delayed manifestation of specific abilities, so by entering the castle before discovering their hidden strengths, Bixby and Otsu have just given the giants a key to their survival.
First 250 Words: Bixby stared at the world through a fish tank. His body clenched in pain while delirium hazed his senses. The bed shook passing over an elevator crack, flooding his throat with nausea. Doctors pressed his abdomen.
"What's your pain score?" Meh, a one. His sarcasm gurgled into a groan. At eighteen, he refused to forfeit his battle against cancer.
A chill ran through his right forearm, and he watched white bubbles form beneath the skin. Perfect timing for you to blow, IV. I don't need drugs. A nurse dug a needle in his left wrist, failing to find a good vein. Please, take your time. He mentally told her off with a slew of words that would send his mother running for soap. Mom. She here? He sunk deeper into the aquarium, pain clogging his ears and eyes. His mother kissed his cheek, rubbing her hand on his bare head, tears spilling over his face. The deep tugged at his chest. Don't leave her. Damn it, fight!
* Bixby’s eyes blinked open, his brain struggling through the fog of deep sea dreaming. A forest of maroon oaks cloaked in purple mist blurred into view. The scent of fresh soil filled his nose. Something tapped his forehead. A small creature with spiky, black hair and velvet moth wings hovered before his nose. Her fingers poked at his skull.
"Wake up! Giants are here!"
Alarmed, he sat up. The fairy fluttered to a sleeping girl with milky skin, slanted eyes, and pink lips.
VERSUS
Entry Nickname: BingBamBoomBFF
Title: Sucker Punching Magic
Word count: 75,000
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Query:
The first time Luz Bangor inadvertently triggered her innate magic, it compelled her grandma to elope with a long-distance trucker, forcing Luz’s brilliant younger brother Eric to quit high school to support the family. The magical mishap, her floundering GPA and her attention deficit disorder slapped a ginormous loser L on Luz’s forehead, which she doesn't expect to peel off anytime soon. Not when she keeps toying with magic she doesn't know how to use. And not when everyone compares her to Eric. Then he goes missing. Desperate to save him and redeem herself, Luz turns to her unpredictable magic. But her spell backfires, putting her straight into the path of her brother’s powerful enemies, the Fairy Syndicate.
Home-schooled Jude Kozlowski, whose allergy to light causes him to shift into a troll, wants the world to accept him as a decent guy, not the “who’s that tramping over my bridge” stereotype. But his huge frame and pistachio skin scare normal humans and his shyness keeps him from meeting anyone else. Even his part-time paper-pushing job has him working alone. Fitting in seems hopeless.
That is, until Luz crashes into his cubicle at First Metro Finance, thugs on her heels. Smitten and presented with the unexpected chance to be a hero, Jude vows to help Luz rescue her brother. When the villains snatch Luz, Jude pursues. He braves neighborhood vigilantes, a spoiled poodle and a troll biker gang to track Luz to Underhill, the fairy fortress. There, the unlikely pair must square off with the evil Fairy Godmother or lose Eric—and each other—forever.
First 250 Words:
Jude Kozlowski jerked his head up. He could blame a lot of things on The Fairy Tale Effect, but missing the bus wasn’t one of them. He’d been at the stop, nose deep in calculus homework when the Number Ten shot by, ruffling his hair.
At 4:35 in the afternoon, on a clear day in downtown Milwaukee, 6’2” Jude made a big target. Hard to believe the bus driver hadn't spotted him. Yet the guy hadn't even slowed.
Jude leaped to his feet. Book, paper and pencil in hand, he barreled down the sidewalk in pursuit.
He needed his job. The order and routine. The chance to be normal.
If he waited for the next bus, he’d be late. His heart racing the pounding of his feet, he dodged the parking meters and the guys who cradled cheap wine in paper bags outside the military surplus store.
Down the block, the bus’s brakes shrieked. Its axles groaned. The side doors disgorged a bearded dwarf in a trench coat. Jude bounded over the dwarf and reached the curb as a woman wearing a Hamburger Heaven uniform hurried through the bus’s front doors.
Jude followed, but before his foot touched the step, the gnome at the wheel flinched. Eyes wide, he hastily cranked the Plexiglas doors closed. The reflection of Jude’s lumpy, pistachio green skin played over the window.
“I need a ride.” Going for friendly, Jude grinned. Wrong move. In the glass, his smile appeared strained—too full, a baring of teeth.
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