Title: How to Take a Life
Word Count: 83,000
Song: “Redemption” by The Strange Familiar
Pitch: Eliot always thought she’d be a Healer. But when she places as a Reaper she's forced to take lives instead of save them. Now she must accept her fate or be stripped of her birthright.
250:
Eliot James believed in fate. She believed in it as if it was a physical thing she could make a wish on and then tuck into her pocket for safe keeping. She ignored the half-whispered predictions from her classmates about what their evaluations would say and continued to capture their tight smiles and wide eyes in thin, sweeping lines across the surface of her folder.
Music pumped from the earbuds of someone a row or two behind her. Someone else shuffled papers as if going over the transcripts and birth certificates they were required to bring for testing would somehow help them get the placement they wanted. But the incantations and charms they’d been taught at Fuller Academy—which masqueraded as a normal private school to the rest of the town—weren’t really a factor. Each student was born with a gift. Before the end of the day, Eliot would know for certain if she would spend the rest of her life killing people or saving them.
Her creamy leather jacket bunched around her forearm when she tugged her watch down her wrist. It’s getting late. They’ll have to hurry if they’re gonna get through all of us today.
She swiveled in her chair when a knitting needle poked her shoulder. Amelia leaned back, still pointing the blue metallic needle in Eliot’s direction. Amelia’s eyes were so dark it was hard to distinguish her pupils from her irises.
“Do you think anyone’s ever cheated on the evaluation?” Amelia asked.
Music pumped from the earbuds of someone a row or two behind her. Someone else shuffled papers as if going over the transcripts and birth certificates they were required to bring for testing would somehow help them get the placement they wanted. But the incantations and charms they’d been taught at Fuller Academy—which masqueraded as a normal private school to the rest of the town—weren’t really a factor. Each student was born with a gift. Before the end of the day, Eliot would know for certain if she would spend the rest of her life killing people or saving them.
Her creamy leather jacket bunched around her forearm when she tugged her watch down her wrist. It’s getting late. They’ll have to hurry if they’re gonna get through all of us today.
She swiveled in her chair when a knitting needle poked her shoulder. Amelia leaned back, still pointing the blue metallic needle in Eliot’s direction. Amelia’s eyes were so dark it was hard to distinguish her pupils from her irises.
“Do you think anyone’s ever cheated on the evaluation?” Amelia asked.
This premise is very intriguing! I would absolutely love to read more. Please send query letter + first 3 chapters pasted in email to Marissa[dot]Fuller[at]AnaiahPress[dot]com. Subject: [How To Take A Life] + query
ReplyDeleteI'd like to award this band member a Silver Record!
ReplyDeleteThis looks intriguing! It's hard to tell from the pitch and extract which way this story could go (I'd love some dark comedy along the lines of DEAD LIKE ME), but I'd definitely like to find out! If you'd be interested in querying me with this, I'd love to read more!
My submission guidelines:
Please send a query letter (including author bio) and the requested pages (attached as a Word/rtf file) to "submissions[at]broadlandliterary[dot]com" with the subject line "Pitch Slam Submission – Your Novel's Title (Genre)".
Love the idea of this one. Happy to see it got some requests! Good luck! ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am glad the ninjas sneaked in. Want to see this book on a shelf ;)
ReplyDelete