Title: Romancing Death
Entry Nickname: She's better than 4/20
Word count: 79K
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Query:
Drunk and stoned, Asher Jacobs unknowingly meets an Angel of Death—Kali. He drives her to The Cliffs expecting to get lucky. Instead, she supernaturally dangles him over the edge, and delivers a message—if he doesn’t change his ways, he’ll die. Unnerved, yet still in denial, he resumes his usual routine. Sex, drugs, and alcohol aren’t his problems, they fix his problems. The fates, his divorced parents, or maybe God, are to blame for his crappy life, not himself. He clings to his habits, falling deeper into his addictions.
The thing Asher wants most—the thing he thinks he can’t have—is Grace King. Their childhood adventures led to romance, but his vices pushed her away. He longs to be with her again. Grace, a straight-laced preacher’s daughter, still loves Asher, but refuses to compromise her morals. Trapped in the cycle of his addictions, unable to see a way out, Asher spirals toward rock bottom. After a binge, and teetering on the edge of suicide, he heeds Kali’s warning, vowing to change and earn Grace back. He reaches out to Grace, and she’s willing to help him only if he’s honest about changing. She hopes beyond hope Asher succeeds, but knows the decision must be his.
The stakes are raised when the fates target Grace. She falls ill, pushing Asher away to spare him from watching her suffer. He loses hope, plunging head first off the wagon. Kali promises Asher, he can still help Grace if finds the strength to help himself. He has a new choice to make—give up and watch Grace die, or finally beat his addictions to save himself and the girl he loves.
First 250:
I had a date with Death once.
I took her out for pizza and a movie. Who knew Death liked comedies. I guess I should have known though. Up to that point, my life had been pretty freaking hilarious, in a
Mid-Summer Night’s Dream sort of way, where the fates jerk you around just to laugh at you, which is probably what drew her to me.
My parents divorced me long before they divorced each other. Long nights at work, office parties, and too many happy hour “business meetings” let me know where I stood in their lives—in the way.
It’s no surprise Death wanted to meet me. Contrary to what most people thought, Death is female, at least mine was. Old movies, books, greeting cards at Halloween—though, some minds thought outside the box and gave Death a more feminine persona, most portrayed death as a cloaked-masculine figure with a big scythe and a quiet disposition.
When I met Death, she sat on the hood of my car outside my best friend Connor’s house, wearing jeans and a pink tank top, snapping her gum behind a Hollywood smile.
“Hey, Asher. How’s it goin’?”
Now, I never had trouble talking to girls. I wasn’t ashamed to admit I was okay looking, in a Patrick Dempsey, somewhere between Ronald Miller and Dr. McDreamy, kind of way. Most girls liked my dark hair-blue-eyed combo, six-foot frame, and broad shoulders. But, seeing her, I admit—I felt more like dorky Ronnie than hottie Derek.
V.
Title: IN HER OWN SKIN
Entry Nickname: This Selkie Can't Swim
Word count: 70K
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy
Query:
Everyone says her mother died in a car crash, but that doesn’t explain Emily’s childhood memory: watching her mother walk into the sea, never to return.
At sixteen, Emily is an extraordinarily fast varsity swimmer, until one day the chlorine burns like fire and she nearly drowns. Unable to swim again and hearing voices calling her into the ocean, Emily is reminded of her last memory of her mother. She uncovers a bundle of her mother’s old letters, from friends and family she never knew existed, all with the same return address: an island in Nova Scotia. When her father refuses to say anything about her mother, Emily resolves to go to Canada—alone.
But when Emily arrives she finds no welcome among her supposed family; they won't talk to her and want her to leave. Her only help comes from Fiona, a local whose friendship forms the intimacy Emily has always wanted. Fiona reveals the island's secret: they’re daughters of selkies, a species hiding from the human world. To protect themselves, selkies always leave their half-human children, expecting never to see them again. Emily must fight for her right to her selkie heritage, and to know the truth about whether her mother is really dead, or if she willingly abandoned her. When Emily's pursuit of the truth puts her new family in danger, she must choose between an ordinary human life cut off from Fiona, or a solution that will save the selkies and trap her as a seal forever.
First 250:
If Coach Gina says one more good word about me, I may scream. But it's inevitable. Coach thinks reading our top scores every week is motivating. I just want to crawl into a hole.
Every time she says my name, I expect this to be the time the team glares at me with jealousy.
"Emily Mulligan, first place, ahead by a full second."
Instead, the girls whoop and clap for me, because my points are their points, and we are winners. Cheers bounce around the pool and I catch David grinning at me from the other side, not paying attention as the boys' coach also reads. When his name is called the guys thump him on the back and chant, "Ecklestein! Ecklestein!"
We're a pair of winners, a matched set, the perfect couple.
So why don't I enjoy any of it?
I make myself smile for the other girls.
I jump in for warm-ups, the water swallowing me. I rush downward, the bottom twelve feet below me. When I slow, I open my eyes and gaze up through the jelly-like water to the lights above.
It starts as a prickle on my arms. Then I want to rub my eyes. They're gritty, like I haven't slept. Just as I'm thinking how weird that is, the pain kicks in. I gasp water.
The prickling sensation along my skin is getting worse, it's getting spiky, it's driving needles into me, setting my nerves alight.
I don't understand. I'm the best swimmer in the state and I'm drowning.
