Spooktacular Pitch #51: JENNIFER STRANGE

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Title: JENNIFER STRANGE
Genre: YA Paranormal Horror
Word Count: 55,000

Pitch:

Fifteen-year-old Marcus is next in line to lead his family of Ghost Hunters, but only if he can find a powerful Medium with a unique gift to join their clan. While on assignment to help a mother find the ghost of her son, Marcus stumbles on Jennifer Strange and her unique ability to touch ghosts. Now Marcus must not only help Jennifer overcome her disbelief in the supernatural, but train her to to defeat a soul-eating wraith before it devours the lost ghost and the Blackwell family. 

First 250:

If a house is the face of a home, my Grandmother’s house was an obvious mental case. Whenever I saw Mom’s photo of crumbling Blackwell Manor, it always sent bumps prickling up my neck. Now, the real version loomed in front of me. I couldn’t tell the structure apart from the surrounding woods. Trees, weeds, and briars climbed slowly with enveloping vines that clung to the brick and dark wood. The forest ate the home like a snake carefully digesting a mouse.

Soon, Blackwell Manor would be swallowed whole.

“I’m not going.”

“Be polite, Marcus,” Mom warned.

I shuddered and tucked my hands deep in my pockets. “This place gives me the creeps”

“I thought so too at your age, but give it a try. Your Grandmother wants to meet you.”

“If the old bird didn’t want to meet me for thirteen years,” I said with a snort, “she doesn’t want to meet me now.”

“Look, Grandma said she could help you. I don’t know what else to do, honey.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know this isn’t going to help anything. None of your other plans to fix this worked either. It’s done. Just accept it.”

With tight lips, Mom shook her head. She was pissed. For once, I didn’t care. I was tired of Mom always changing the subject when I asked her about her photo of Grandmother Miriam’s house. I turned and looked out the window at the sprawling red and gold hills of the surrounding North Carolina Mountains.