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.
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