QK Round 1: I Kissed My Step-Nephew vs Cheshire 💜s Alice

Title: Relatively Okay
Entry Nickname: I Kissed My Step-Nephew
Word count: 80K
Genre: Jewish Ownvoices YA Contemporary

Query:

Sixteen-year-old Mia’s sphere consists of two key things: her ongoing research into her French-Jewish family’s history, and her close relationship with her thirty-one-year-old brother, James. In a home where their entertainment executive parents can hardly spare a minute to say hello, James has always been Mia’s caregiver and confidant. And the feeling is mutual—Mia has supported James throughout his slow recovery from a suicide attempt that landed him back home. But when James gets engaged to an old high school ex, Claire, Mia’s life is thrown into chaos. Because along with Claire comes Claire’s teenage son, Landon—the same Landon that Mia was a few dates away from introducing to her family as new boyfriend. The Landon who is now her future step-nephew.

When financially unstable James chooses his family’s offer to pay for his wedding over his previous promise to accompany Mia on a research trip to France, Mia is crushed—and decides something must be done about Claire and James. She convinces Landon, who is equally as unhappy with the new arrangements, to help her push their respective family members to break up. As James and Claire are driven apart, Mia realizes her plan may not be flawless: James is distancing himself from her, and alarming signs of his depression are returning with a vengeance. With James unwell, Mia faces a difficult choice: if she drives Claire away for good, she’ll knock her fragile brother’s support system down by one, but if she doesn’t, she’ll lose the one member of her family she cares about most.

First 250:

Miscommunication has always been a problem in my family. Like the time my brother didn’t tell my parents he was going on a spring break trip to Copenhagen and my parents found out when he posted a photo online. Or the time my other brother didn’t tell anyone that he rescued a pregnant wiener dog and I came home to find the dog giving birth on my bed.

Or, you know, this afternoon, when I found out my parents had lent my car to my stupid holier-than-thou older brother Arthur who was home from college for the weekend. One second everything was perfectly timed for me to get to the local In-N-Out for the most important ambiguous study date/hang out with Landon Foster of my life, the next I found my side of the garage was empty.

It was futile, but I still found myself screaming, “MOM!” like I was seven years old again.

No response. I glanced over at my parents’ spots in the garage, and sure enough, they were empty too. It was 3:20, our date was for 3:30, and the restaurant was ten minutes away. There was no way I’d walk several miles to a date.

Who was still at my house? James, my oldest brother, should already be at work at this hour. Riding a bike would be an option if my mother hadn’t forbidden me from doing so ever since I ran into our neighbor’s holiday manger display. My phone dinged.

Arthur: I took your car if you’re wondering.

V.

Title: FEMSLASH
Entry Nickname: Cheshire 💜's Alice!
Word count: 70K
Genre: YA Contemporary (ownvoices)

Query:

Rhodes Ingram never thought she'd peak at seventeen. She's dedicated six years of her life to her artistic education at Alabama Fine Arts Academy, but depression threatens to undermine all her work. With an empty portfolio and plummeting grades, Rhodes has one last shot at success: The Birmingham Arts Collective's New Horizon Scholarship.

Iliana Vrionides has spent the last two school years struggling to prove her worth as an AFAA student. What she lacks in technical ability, she makes up with a ferocious commitment to creative expression. But when her parents lose her college savings in bankruptcy court, a last-minute scholarship may be the only chance she has left.

By day, Iliana and Rhodes tear each other down to the studs as they compete for the same scholarship. By night they unknowingly piece each other together again through Slashspot, their school’s anonymous fan fiction community. Worlds collide when Iliana’s laptop is stolen and an online bully threatens to make their identities — and their steamy relationship — public knowledge. The senior show looms on the horizon, the scholarship hangs in the balance, and the girls must reconcile their love for each other online with their combative relationship in real life.

First 250:

My name is Rhodes Ingram.

I’m blowing my senior year, and I am screwed.

I wish I could say I’ve blown it fabulously, that I’ve been riotously drunk and skinny dipping in Peavine Falls. Or ignoring homework to chase after the dance track girls in their pretty buns and soft looking legwarmers. Or blowing off class to pursue my One True Craft, out tagging buildings Banksy-style and creating the kind of organic art that pays no heed to formal artistic education.

Unfortunately, none of this is the case.

Truthfully my senior year is going out with a sigh, rather than a bang: Most days bleed together, bored and flat and entirely lacking in inspiration. Nothing clicks; nothing flows. Nothing is sticking — facts, figures, formulas. I either sleep too much or not at all, stare out windows, daydream about everything and nothing.

My sketchbooks are empty. My grades have hit crisis mode. The visual arts track faculty advisor is officially Alarmed, and by the end of third period I’ll know whether my SAT scores will cover my ass where my GPA won’t give me a candle’s chance in hell.

But first, I need to survive the next twenty minutes.

Studio B’s windows are wide as they are tall, bathing the room in glorious, priceless natural light. The room is cold with air conditioning that rattles in the exposed pipes overhead, and Iliana Vrionides' breath curls hot in the shell of my ear.