YA LGBTQ Contemporary Romance: HAPPINESS AND OTHER MYTHS

Genre: YA LGBTQ Contemporary Romance

Title: Happiness and Other Myths

Word Count: 73,000

Special Question: Elouise would probably end up being Pre-Obi Wan Luke but dressed in a Chewbacca costume… (All while wishing she was Princess Leia.)


35 Word Pitch:

Seventeen-year-old Elouise dons a hotdog suit and fake dates her bff to catch the eye of the park’s diving pirate. When fake feelings turn real, Elouise must choose between what she wants and really needs.


First 250:

Everybody says the summer after your senior year is the best, the one for the history books, the one you never forget. And for me, it starts right here in this tiny break room— with a stomach full of butterflies and a brain full of fireworks. This is going to be my summer; no doubt about it. I take a deep breath and slide my finger down the crisp page in front of me, searching for my name on the corkboard of destiny.

Seriously. That’s we call stuff like this at Magic Castles Playland. It’s not a bulletin board; it’s a “corkboard of destiny.” It’s not a list of job assignments; it’s a “character reveal chart.” I swear to god everything here is about as whimsical as it is rusty.

I look lower, past the names of the ride operators and the food service people, over housekeeping and maintenance, until I get to the costume crew. I pause at the listing for princess, it’s not my name. Okay, that’s fine, disappointing but fine. I knew it was a longshot when I put in for it. My finger dips lower, gliding past the prince, and the pirates, and all the other characters that I don’t have a prayer of being, until it hits my name: Elouise May Parker. I drop my head against the board. No, no, no. Not again. I can’t. This has to be a mistake.

Seeley nudges me out of the way. “What’s it say?”

“I’m the hot dog.”

Jedi Council Force System