QK Round 1: The Barringer Museum vs TB Ruined My Day

Title: We, Freaks
Entry Nickname: The Barringer Museum
Word count: 78K
Genre: Adult Speculative Fiction

Query:

Sideshow talkers claim the true freak is born, not made. That a pregnant mother’s obsession with an eerie run-in with a dog led to a fur-faced baby boy, or that a woman’s all-consuming fear of sea serpents etched scales on the fetus growing inside of her. To most audience members, these tales are purely advertising, an expected part of a tradition built on deceit and distortion.

But to two men, a museum owner in 19th century New York City and a PhD candidate in present-day Ann Arbor, MI, these boasts and backstories are improbably beginning to resemble truth.

As the museum owner risks his reputation on a folktale to fill his establishment with never-before-seen freaks, the student grows traumatized by a scientific study of the phenomenon and sets out to disprove it. At the center of both stories lie the individuals who never wanted their bodies to define them, those with tails or fur or gills whose lives are falling victim to men who can never understand their existence.

First 250:

Theodore Barringer had planned to spend his morning crafting an exhibit about a romance between Thomas Jefferson and America’s first swivel chair, but instead, he faced a conundrum: two women—or possibly one woman if he squinted at his present guests and let his vision overwhelm any mental analysis. They said she wanted to work at the museum. She said they were in search of a new job. The right one—she called herself Patrice—and the left one—she referred to herself as Alice—said they had heard he was hiring performers and they wanted to be two of them, and, of course, they were happy to call themselves as many as five, but would require costuming assistance for that many bodies.


“Well…” Theodore paused, uncommonly without words to finish his beginning. Because she—no, they (he must retain his focus on the outlines of the two so very separate bodies) sitting uncomfortably tall before him were beings he’d never once heard rumors of in New York City. There were giants, Circassian beauties, and wild men, but no humans quite like these—none so… authentic. At Spooner’s and the Eastern Dime Museum, Theodore could always discern the hoax: the 90 year-old woman boasting 160 years of age, the siblings from Virginia advertising Mayan heritage, the thin men who never weighed as little as they claimed they did… The frauds of humanity were growing commonplace in the city, but these women before him… he could not discern the craft of their deception.

V.

Title: Saving Grace
Entry Nickname: TB Ruined My Day
Word Count: 100K
Genre: Historical Fiction

Query:

It’s 1913 when Anna McIntosh, a young woman from the suburbs of Boston, secretly marries Charles Patrinos, a Greek immigrant. The sacrifices and hardships were to be expected, but when Charles surreptitiously leaves Anna alone and pregnant upon discovering he has TB, her struggles truly begin.

Meanwhile, Charles Patrinos is an honest man in love with his wife and excited about the new family they are becoming, so when he has to endure the journey to death alone in order to protect them, he does what he must do. Yet, when after months in the sanatorium, the doctor announces he may survive, the guilt, loss and consequences of his actions may prove too much to overcome.

First 250:

Anna McIntosh peered anxiously through the lace curtains scanning for Charles’ approach, but when the brass knocker finally banged against the front door of 10 Levant Street, her heart dropped. In moments, her parents would discover what she hadn’t told them about the young man she fancied. Perhaps she’d erred by omitting the obvious, but she’d wanted them to learn favorable things first. She had accurately described him as handsome and chivalrous, qualities her mother would desire, as well as intelligent and hardworking, traits her father considered essential. She’d hoped highlighting his positive attributes would garner her parents’ favor, yet now that he waited outside, Anna wanted to catapult from her seat in the parlor and send him away. But it was too late. Her mother had already answered the door.

“The ink hasn’t dried on the treaty and already the Balkans are fighting again,” Mr. McIntosh remarked setting down his newspaper and looking expectantly toward the foyer.

In the entryway, Charles stood as tall as a man five-foot six-inches could stand. When he removed his hat in greeting, droplets of water dripped from its brim. He held in his hand a modest bouquet of rain-whipped flowers, which Anna’s mother graciously accepted while inviting him in. They exchanged polite smiles. Charles stepped over the threshold while Anna’s father strode toward the door. Anna remained on the settee as was proper, her younger sister Jessie propped beside her appearing as if she were watching a play.