Wednesday, September 21, 2016

YA Contemporary: END OF DAYS

Genre: YA Contemporary

Title: END OF DAYS

Word Count: 56,000

Special Question: If your main character could be any Star Wars character, who would they choose and why? Gracie would love to be General Leia, because she would be jealous of the way Leia’s evolved into such a secure, powerful figure. I think she’s more like Finn, because they’ve both suddenly found themselves in a position different from what they’ve known their whole lives.


35 Word Pitch: 

Three ex-best friends have one last chance to reconnect on a 1,400-mile road trip, but they’ll have to confront the breakup between two of them that divided them in the first place.


First 250 Words:

When my mom is sad, she’s sad in Spanish.

Our relationship has always relied on her spotty English and my spottier Spanish somehow converging into a conversation, but sometimes, when she’s emotional, she forgets about that. I pick out love, call, and, miss you while she wipes away tears, and my heart clenches with each of them.

“I’ll come home for Thanksgiving break,” I tell her, even though we still haven’t decided that.

She nods anyway, hugging me one more time. She says a few more words into my shoulder, but I only hear Ada. I tense automatically.

“Be careful.”

I can’t tell if she’s referring to the trip or the girl.

“Don’t let her hurt you.”

I don’t know why I wondered. I squeeze her shoulders and don’t say anything, because I’d rather not lie to my mom right before I leave her for months. She looks tiny, standing in our doorway in her work clothes. She’s filling our small apartment with her big sadness, and there’s nothing I can do about it because Prudence won’t stop texting me from downstairs.

“I’ll call you along the way,” I promise.

“Have fun,” she says, like she’s just remembered.

My phone buzzes in my hand again like Prudence is agreeing with her. A part of me wants to have fun, wants to jump up and down and thrill at the idea of this trip. A bigger part of me, though, can only imagine my mom puttering around our apartment with me gone.



13 comments:

  1. You have the reflexes of a Jedi! I'd love to see the query and first 50 pages--pages attached as a Word doc, please--to queryjennifer[at]lizadawson[dot]com. Thank you!

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  2. You have the reflexes of a Jedi: I'd love to take a look at this. Please send your query and pages to lauren@triadaus.com, and include "Query" and "Pitch Slam" in the subject line. I look forward to reading! - Lauren Spieller / TriadaUS Literary Agency

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  3. I'd love to see more of this! Please send the first 50 pages as a word doc attachment (along with a query letter in the body of the email) to patricia[at]marsallyonliteraryagency[dot]com, and make sure to include "Pitch Slam Request" in the subject line. Thank you!

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  4. The force is strong with this one! I would love to take a look. Please send to andrea [at] harveyklinger.com.

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  5. That first line! The force is strong with this one. Send the query and MS to laura [at] redsofaliterary [dot] com!

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  6. You have the reflexes of a Jedi! Please send me the first 50 pages as a Word doc or PDF at melissa@rpcontent.com. Thanks!

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  7. These are the pages I'm looking for :)

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  8. Disciplined, you are!

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  9. You have the reflexes of a Jedi.

    ReplyDelete