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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
EYES OF THE SEER ... giveaway
I'm excited to give away an eBook copy of EYES OF THE SEER. All you have to do is leave a post comment below. Tell us, what would you do with the gift of "sight" and could sense things before they happened?
Eyes of the Seer by Peter Dawes
Description: It all started with a murder. Two victims lay dead at the hands of Peter Dawes, but what laid in wait for him was not the sound of sirens or the banging of a gavel. It would turn a doctor into a killer and a man into a monster.Follow Peter as he exchanges his blood-stained clothing for tailored suits, his scalpel for fine-crafted daggers, and is reinvented as the newest vampire-child in a coven of decadent sophisticates. He even takes on the name ‘Flynn’ – a child of red – in honor of his new-found devilish side and to further distance himself from his human past.
For four years, Flynn embodies every bit the bloody immortal he was sired to become. Under the reign of his maker, Sabrina, he establishes a reputation as the most feared assassin to ever terrorize the covens of Philadelphia. But the surefooted-steps and quick hands that make him a virtuoso when it comes to killing humans and vampires alike are attributes of the mortal destiny which haunts him even beyond death. And despite all efforts, Peter’s humanity is not as dead as some would prefer.
On the verge of completing their vie for power, Sabrina’s ‘dark-killer’ will suddenly find himself wrestling his devotion to his mistress when an impish sorceress named Monica awakens the hidden powers he was destined to possess. In this world of macabre and shrewdly practical immortal beings, will Flynn’s supernatural gifts be used to orchestrate the wicked deeds of his maker? Or can the cold-blooded nature of a vampire be warmed by the compassion of a Seer?
Buy it here...
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Make sure to check out the second book in the series, REBIRTH OF THE SEER, which comes out July 25, 2012...
Come back soon to learn about some exciting events brewing in the blog pot. It's going to be great!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Writer's Voice Twitter Pitch Party Rules
(Twitter hashtag: #WVTP)
Thursday, May 24 12PM - 6PM EDT
Thursday, May 24 12PM - 6PM EDT
Here's the rules...
Pitch your finished manuscript on the hashtag. You may pitch any time you see an agent online - just don't go crazy and pitch more than once during an agent visit. We will monitor the hashtag and gently inform you if you're being obnoxious. Make sure your pitch includes the hashtag #WVTP. The agents will be hopping in and out of the feed during the party hours. They'll tweet their requests for the manuscripts that pique their interests. Simple. Right? Not if more than one make a request on the same pitch, it isn't.
Keeping in the spirit of The Writer's Voice, if two or more request the same pitch, you must choose one of them and announce it in the feed. (They promised not to hold any rejections against you.)
ETA: You can adjust your pitch for the same ms and you can pitch more than one ms. This is a free for all, the only rules are to be nice, pitch a finished ms and use 140 characters to do it in--and email us to get submission guidelines.
If you get a request...
After you get a request, you must email (make sure to include your twitter handle) us at thewritersvoicecontest@gmail.com, tell us which agent requested, we'll verify the request, and send you the agent's/agents' submission guidelines.
So get your Twitter pitches ready, and make sure to include the hashtag.
And follow the agents on Twitter...
Vickie Motter
Literary Agent with Andrea Hurst Lit www.andreahurst.com. Agent slash book blogger. Compulsive reader of Adult ParaRom&UF and YA. Terrified of robots.
John M. Cusick
Author of the young adult novel GIRL PARTS. Literary agent with Scott Treimel NY. Managing fiction editor at Armchair/Shotgun. Mostly harmless.
Natalie M. Lakosil
Literary Agent at the Bradford Literary Agency, making my way through adventures in agent land.
Pam van Hylckama
Associate Agent at Larsen-Pomada Literary. Queen of Slush, mother, dog owner, wife of a Dutchman. http://bookalicious.org · http://bookalicio.us
Hannah Bowman
Literary agent at Liza Dawson Associates. Cornell alumna. Reader. Writer. Organist. http://hannahbowman.tumblr.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Writer's Voice Wrap Up!
#1: SUBHUMAN Andrea Somberg and Roseanne Wells
#2: MAD AS A HATTER Lauren MacLeod, Louise Fury, Roseanne Wells
#5: WINNING BACK THE LOSER Louise Fury, Lauren MacLeod, Tricia Lawrence, Susan Hawk, and Kevan Lyon
#6: PECULIAR DARK Louise Fury and Andrea Somberg
#9: TIME BOUND Andrea Somberg, Susan Hawk, Louise Fury
#11: PLUGGED IN Andrea Somberg
Congratulations to those who received requests!
Also, I want to say thank you to the other coaches, Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.) and Mónica B.W. of Love YA. It's been a fun ride with you guys and you all are wonderful. Thank you to Krista for putting this all together!
And thank you to all the aMAZing agents!
And don't forget to polish up your twitter pitches for the Twitter Pitch Party this Thursday. It should be a crazy ride!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Writer’s Voice Contest Entries!
The Writer’s Voice Contest is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.) and Mónica B.W. of Love YA.
We’ve based the contest on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice. So the four of us selected projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages, and later, we coached these talented writers as they polished their entries.
And TODAY we have posted our team’s entries on our four blogs!
Eight AMAZING agents are going to read the queries and first pages and then, on May 21st, they are going to vote for their favorites. Each vote will count as a partial or full request depending on how many votes the entry receives. If an entry receives 1 or 2 votes, those votes will count as partial requests. If an entry receives 3 or more votes, those votes will count as full requests.
The fantabulous agents are:
Roseanne Wells of Marianne Strong Literary Agency
BUT that’s not all!
After the agents vote, the amazing Tara Dairman, author of THE DELICIOUS DOUBLE LIFE OF GLADYS GATSBY (coming from Penguin/Putnam in 2014), will comment on all the entries and give her awesome feedback.
To read all the entries, please follow the links below:
Click here to read Krista Krista Van Dolzer’s team entries!
BUT that’s not all!
After the agents vote, the amazing Tara Dairman, author of THE DELICIOUS DOUBLE LIFE OF GLADYS GATSBY (coming from Penguin/Putnam in 2014), will comment on all the entries and give her awesome feedback.
To read all the entries, please follow the links below:
Click here to read Krista Krista Van Dolzer’s team entries!
Click here to read Brenda Drake’s team entries!
Click here to read Cupid LC’s team entries!
Click here to read Mónica B.W.’s team entries!
About commenting on the entries:
Cheerleaders are allowed. But only until Sunday! We want to leave the comment section free for the agents to vote on Monday.
And we will only accept, well, cheerleading. No criticisms before the agents vote. And please don’t leave messages to the agents, either. As in, “Trust me, you want this one!” (Though we know how tempting that sounds! =D)
Happy reading!
The Coaches
About commenting on the entries:
Cheerleaders are allowed. But only until Sunday! We want to leave the comment section free for the agents to vote on Monday.
And we will only accept, well, cheerleading. No criticisms before the agents vote. And please don’t leave messages to the agents, either. As in, “Trust me, you want this one!” (Though we know how tempting that sounds! =D)
Happy reading!
The Coaches
Team Brenda #1 - SUBHUMAN
Title: SUBHUMAN
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Word Count: 96,000
Query:
17-year-old Kensington Randall has always felt invisible – until she becomes a moving target, and the prize in a devastating global war between mankind and their alien progenitors. When arctic drilling unearths an alien ship, the discovery sets off a chain of events that leaves the Earth scorched and twisted, and steals six years of Ken’s life in an instant. Six years in which her family, her friends, and her world move on without her.
Six years that leave her broken, wounded…and transformed into something that isn’t quite human.
As the military hunts her, her family rejects her, and her friends betray her, Ken has nowhere left to go save into the arms of Roman McKinley, another altered human and a confusing enigma who may damage Ken more than the aliens ever could. Together they discover the darker purpose behind their transformation – a purpose that makes them enemies to their own species, and living weapons who will, one way or another, bring the war to a shattering end.
Excerpt:
Kensington Randall would always remember the first time she saw Earth from space—and the last time she saw Brian smile.
He leaned against the railing on the outer observation deck of Hancomb International Lunar Station, smiling that strange, inward-turning smile that always made him seem so far away. Far from the world around them. Far from her. Unreachable, even when he stood so close their hands touched.
“I don’t want to go back,” he said. “I can’t.”
“Then stay. Don’t leave me here alone.”
He looked at her sidelong, pale gray eyes glinting behind his glasses—the legacy of failed gene therapy. “I don’t just mean for one more day.”
“I know.”
He smiled again, but she looked away. She'd never let him see how much that smile hurt, how much she wished she could understand what lay behind it.
She'd never let him know how helpless it made her feel, that she couldn't answer the silent question in that smile.
Instead, she looked out the protective glass. Below, the Earth was a disk of color and shadow rising past the ashen gray horizon of lunar craters. Darkness cupped the outer curve of the planet. Sunlight gilt the illuminated edge, until she could have plucked the red-gold ring from space and slid it onto her finger. A dense storm system unfurled its arms to grip the northern hemisphere, and she caught her breath as lightness filled her.
Brian took her hand, and his fingers curled cool and pale against her dusky skin.
Team Brenda #2 - MAD AS A HATTER
Title: MAD AS A HATTER
Genre: YA Thriller
Word Count: 60,000
Query:
London, 1882.
Seven years ago, Emil Aleric and his sister were kidnapped and taken to ‘Wonderland’ by a man claiming to come from the future. He called himself the Hatter. Emil survived the torture. His sister didn't.
Seven years ago, Emil Aleric and his sister were kidnapped and taken to ‘Wonderland’ by a man claiming to come from the future. He called himself the Hatter. Emil survived the torture. His sister didn't.
When Emil hears of a serial killer ravaging London and leaving notes quoting Alice in Wonderland, Emil knows his former abductor has returned. And when his guardian, Inspector Corwin James, is put in charge of the case, he thinks it must be fate.
At first, Corwin's adamant that Emil have nothing to do with the case; after all, he’s only fourteen. However, as the two come closer to learning the truth of the murders, they find the most pivotal clues lie in Emil’s memories—suppressed for seven years, but now threatening to consume him. Now Emil must fight the Hatter again, but this time, if he fails, time itself could end.
Excerpt:
From the warmth of his sitting room, Emil Aleric glared out the window. It was late afternoon, and the crisp wind had left the streets of Belgravia empty, save for a couple climbing out of a carriage, followed by a butler carrying a dozen gifts. Probably some last minute Christmas shopping.
Emil scowled. He hated happy families.
The fourteen-year-old future Viscount looked away from the window, took a gulp of Earl Grey, and winced. He’d always thought the tea was some disguised form of dishwater, but every adult he knew drank it, and his mother said it was an acquired taste. He forced himself to take another sip, and looked down at the table in front of him.
One, two, three newspapers lay strewn across the mahogany table. The first newspaper was flipped to the obituaries, where a small paragraph about a girl named Daphne Bell could be found. It was only a few lines, something about her family and “may He bless her immortal soul”, or some such rubbish.
She had been the first to die.
Three days after going missing, she’d apparently fallen from the top floor of the twentieth building on a wealthy street around Kensington Gardens. Her body was spread across the ground, bashed up and bloody, with glass protruding from her body at the oddest angles.
The funny thing was, all the windows on that street were perfectly intact.
Team Brenda #3 - KIDS, INC.
Title: KIDS, INC.
Genre: Middle Grade
Word Count: 35,000
Query:
Twelve-year-old Anna Fraser’s father always told her that necessity was the mother of invention, but for her, it was all accidental.
After Anna and her genius “I skipped a grade” younger brother Chris's class project goes missing, a little mischief in their father's workshop results in a tasty invention— a spray that makes the grossest foods taste like cupcakes. Soon, Yuck Away Cupcake Spray becomes the hottest-selling product in America and Anna and Chris are running a company.
As CEO, Anna quickly discovers that business is not all about having her teammates work for her, or bossing around her brother, or even doing interviews with press. Nope. It’s working long hours in the office, doing homework past midnight, and maybe even disappointing her cheerleading team by missing the biggest competition of the year.
Toss in a bet with some bullies, a scheming Chief Operating Officer, and a threat to their family’s financial future, and you have KIDS, INC.
Excerpt:
Anna Fraser tapped her foot against the metal leg of her desk to the song in her head:
Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Four more classes, then I'm jolly
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Christmas break is almost here
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
No more homework for the rest of the year
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
She drummed her pencil on the thick social studies book that sat open to page 241: Economics.
She drummed her pencil on the thick social studies book that sat open to page 241: Economics.
Twenty more minutes.
She glanced up at her social studies teacher, Mr. Bower, aka. Mr Shower, and beat a little louder on the book to the rhythm of his lecture.
“Economics,” he was saying, or rather spraying.
Tap tap-tap tap
“Is the study of buying and selling goods and services."
Tap tap tap-tap tap tap-tap tap tap-tap tap-tap-tap
Anna couldn’t believe he was actually trying to make them learn on the last day of school before Christmas break. Her other teachers let them watch movies, read books, and even have a holiday party. She’d scored four candy canes already. And there, Mr. Shower stood at the front of the class reading from his notes, his beady eyes not lifting from the yellow memo pad clenched between his chunks of fingers. He continued earnestly, wiping the corner of his mouth every now and then.
Team Brenda #4 - THE ALTERAE
Title: THE ALTERAE
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 64,000
Query:
Sixteen-year-old Emma Hawthorne agonizingly hides her ability to pick up people's emotions and memories like a radio signal. But when she discovers her best friend's lifeless body floating in the river, her own grief makes resisting the constant bombardment even harder.
With her ability spiraling out of control and an unshakable conviction that the drowning wasn’t an accident, she launches a search for the truth. When her investigation attracts attention from an enigmatic guy, Patrick, she might have the lead she needs. But getting answers from him won’t be easy—he's the only person she's ever met whose emotions she can't read and he’s just as terrifying as he’s intriguing.
In the midst of this uncertainty, her childhood friend, Alex, comes back into her life. Despite spending years apart, their connection is stronger than ever and their friendship kindles into something more. However, Alex is holding back and his rejection pushes Emma toward Patrick.
When Emma unearths Patrick’s disturbing link to her friend's drowning, he proves even more dangerous than she imagined. Patrick, part of an underground society of supernaturally altered humans known as the Alterae, feeds on the souls of others—and Emma's empathic soul is an irresistible morsel. If she wants to escape Patrick’s deepening hold, she’ll have to join forces with Alex and figure out how to use her ability as a weapon to fight back before she loses her sanity – or her life.
Excerpt:
Lights flashed through the night, painting the woods in red and blue long after the sirens fell silent. Water dripped from Emma’s hair, trailing down the blanket wrapped around her and collecting in a puddle at her feet. She clutched her knees to her chest, captivated by each drip.
Her wet jeans clung to her legs and her thin tank top left her too exposed. She shivered, as much from shock as cold, and the rough wool of the blanket scratched at her raw skin.
She pulled the blanket tighter, as if it could ward off the sting of the emotions pressing against her. Her freakish sensitivity picked up the disappointment of the EMTs for arriving too late, the drive of the police officers to find answers, the shock of the few bystanders clustered behind the crime scene tape, mostly neighbors still dressed in pajamas but unable to ignore the spectacle.
Even if she hadn’t found the body, the overwhelming rush of emotions would’ve been too much. Even if it hadn’t been her best friend.
“Miss?”
Emma snapped her head up and stared at the police officer. “What?” Her eyes burned, but she refused to cry. She couldn’t give in to her own emotions or she’d lose it completely. Better to feel nothing, to absorb nothing, than to let the emotions surrounding her take over.
“Why were you in the woods this late at night?” he repeated. Even crouching, he towered over her, the dark blue of his uniform blending with the night.
Team Brenda #6 - PECULIAR DARK
Title: PECULIAR DARK
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 89,000
Query:
There are a few things Angela James never thought she’d do, like:
1. Throw a birthday party for a supernatural creature.
2. Break into a police officer's apartment.
3. Wield an axe.
4. Burn a house down.
5. Kill a monster. Scratch that – kill anything, period.
Let’s just say, Angela’s sophomore year isn’t exactly panning out as she'd hoped. Just after moving to the town of Peculiar, a violent fever racks her body, and even after she recovers, she doesn’t feel right, suffering headaches, body aches and weird visions. And she’s not alone. Her classmate Zee and his sister have the exact same symptoms. Angela thinks they must still be sick, but the real answer is far less comforting. They have become vessels for magic – magic that their human bodies can barely contain – and there are creatures hunting them who would rip them to shreds to get at it.
Enter Wy, a beautiful blue-skinned, winged boy who literally drops from the sky with a sword and a bad attitude. He claims to be their protector, but he’s got his own agenda that doesn’t always seem to include their best interests. Wy the Blue Wonder – and the magic secrets that come with him – throws Angela's whole life out of whack. She worries about her family, freaks out her cute new crush, breaks the law – and those aren’t even the worst parts. Because the creatures chasing them are shapeshifters, and they can look like anyone at any time, so you may not even know you’re in danger until it’s too late.
Excerpt:
The wind woke Angela before the fever did.
It bowled over the plains like a brute and wrapped around the house, rooting out cracks and corners, howling and whistling.
Angela lay beneath her comforter, listening to the roof and walls shudder under gusty slaps. All of her skin ached, and the insides of her body felt molten with heat. Pain throbbed from her temples up to the crown of her skull and back down into her jaw. Her limbs were weak and heavy, and the backs of her eyes were boiling. She writhed around, getting her legs twisted up in the sheets. Flailing aggressively, she kicked herself free.
Without the blankets, she shook with violent tremors, curled on the bare mattress. Every time she blinked, she felt like the heat of her eyelids would scorch her irises off.
She had to get up.
Rolling off the edge of the bed, she steadied herself on weak legs, muscles threatening to collapse under her. One hand still on the mattress, Angela took a shaky step and then another.
Her bedroom dissolved into jumbled blocks, the floor and the walls whirling in a blur of shadows, ground melting to mush under her feet. Everything tilted around her.
She fell, and the spinning world went black.
#
Angela's senses came back in beats.
Her mother’s face hovering over her. Voices whispering nearby. Fluorescent lighting and plastic chairs. The comforter brushing against her chin. The ceiling of her bedroom. The heat of her own scalding body cooking her insides.
Team Brenda #5 - WINNING BACK THE LOSER
Title: WINNING BACK THE LOSER
Genre: YA Contemporary
Word Count: 65,000
Query:
Sixteen-year-old ward of the state, Lulu Meriwether, has always believed she's a victim of chance. And ending up at O’Dell High, a former all boys’ Catholic school that has just opened its doors to girls is no exception.
Lulu feels lost in a sea of testosterone until she finds her niche in life: expert heart-breaker. After a string of boyfriends, she finds herself falling for Micah, a Jewish boy and odd-kid-out, like her. Unable to admit just how deeply she feels for him, Lulu dumps him, too. The only problem is she's the one feeling heartbroken.
Realizing her life is more about choice than chance, Lulu tracks down all the boys she’s dumped to ask for forgiveness. And as she confronts her past, she finds she doesn't know squat about her exes, like how the captain of the chess team is also a black belt in karate or how the all-star basketball player has a passion for baking. With the help of her former flames, and their unique talents, Lulu puts on the biggest spectacle O’Dell High has ever seen in order to win Micah back—but she wonders if her personal changes are enough to give him a change of heart.
Excerpt:
Only advanced journalism team members, a.k.a. the seniors, get to work on O’Dell High’s morning news crew. So, being a junior, it should feel kind of exciting to be in here, like I have a VIP backstage pass. But I’m not running around fixing the lighting or fidgeting with the massive cameras like the other students around me.
In fact, I’m too keyed up to do much more than stare down at the U-shaped table I sit behind. It looks almost exactly like the one on Channel Ten News, the station anchor Carter Phillips reports on. Since my foster father went to college with him, I think he feels obligated to tune in. Obligated is precisely how I feel today, thanks to my big mouth. I place my hand on the table’s fake wood print and run my fingers over the smooth edges.
I’m about to be on the school news, though not as a younger reincarnation of the great Carter Phillips, destined to lead the future of broadcasting, or anything. No, that would be the person I feel obligated to, my ex-boyfriend, Ted. He sits beside me in the black suit with his blond hair parted neatly to one side.
He looks dressed for a funeral, and sort of is, because after this interview I’ll be mourning the death of what little social life I had to begin with. If that’s what it takes to get Micah back, though, it’s more than worth it.
Team Brenda #7 - SPARK
Title: SPARK
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 61,000
Query:
It’s just like seventeen-year-old, Taisie Monahan, to fall flat on her face the first day at her new school in her deceased mother’s hometown. When the popular clique in school accepts her into their group, she goes from zero to hottie in a flash, but their friendship comes at price.
When nightmares of a ghostly girl stalking Taisie her entire life invade the real world, she finds solace in the arms of a mysterious biker boy. Soon Taisie learns she’s the missing piece to a centuries old prophecy and her new found friends will stop at nothing to make sure she fulfills her destiny.
In a twisted séance game, the clique tries to transfer the dead girl's spirit into Taisie to stop an evil spectral from coming back to life. During the ritual, Taisie discovers that her mother’s soul is imprisoned by the spectral and he will use it to get his hands on Taisie’s unharnessed powers.
Forced to choose between her mother’s soul and her own freedom, Taisie must embrace her true identity and trust her new friends to save the ones she loves or lose her soul forever.
Excerpt:
Pressing myself against a brick wall, I tried to catch a break from the sea of students flowing through the floodgates of Saint Isabel High. I'd never seen so many name-brand clothes in one place before. I took a step forward and then quickly returned to the safety of the wall.
Get a grip. People are staring.
I tried to will myself to listen, to move away from the wall, but my fear kept me locked into place like a statue held by chains. Acting like a mess wasn't going to make my old rep of being a freak-girl go away in this school any easier.
“Hey! Come here!” My breath caught when the hot jock yelled and waved at me. Or what I wanted to be me. After all, didn't I try to make myself look like his type when I got up that morning?
My finger lightly swiped across my sorry excuse for lipstick, kicking up a slight hint of cherry from my lip balm, making me feel like a little girl in big girl clothing. My legs wanted to run away, but my brain ordered me to act like this was nothing new and walk over to him as if I'd done it a million times. No one knew the old me. The one I'd left behind. I could be different here. I just had to act the part.
I managed to plaster a huge fake smile across my face as I strolled over to him.
Team Brenda #8 - COVETED
Title: COVETED
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 81,000
Query:
Seventeen-year-old Caleb Dunnelly would rather spend the weekend at home, searching the net for clues about his parents’ disappearance. Which is why his best friend has to trick him into going out every Friday night.
The two end up at Confessions, local hotspot, and—apparently—the perfect place to be ambushed. When a couple freaks in robes set the club on fire, Caleb pulls his friend to safety, and smack into the middle of an ancient war being waged on modern streets. A group of religious radicals believes he possesses powers capable of enslaving mankind, and wants him dead. Caleb doesn’t want to ‘enslave’ anyone, but try telling that to the lunatics with the glowing swords.
While running for his life, he crosses paths with the literally explosive Scarlet, who’s fiery hot, but also eight kinds of crazy. She says he can raise the dead, which makes him a target for any number of supernatural forces, including the Seven Deadly Sins. The Sins haven’t been topside in a millennium, but they’ve crawled their way out of the pit just to pay him a visit. Between Hell’s generals, and a murderous secret society, Caleb just wants to make it to Monday with his soul in tact—and possibly ask Scarlet out—but the Sins have information Caleb is willing to pay any price for: they know what happened to his family.
Excerpt:
Caleb learned long ago being friends with Martin MacMurtry required two things, inhuman patience, and a tolerance for impromptu fashion shows. The first remained a struggle, but the second he'd mastered by the fifth grade. Reloading a failed level of Angry Birds, he snickered as Martin left to change clothes for the fifth time.
“Worse than my sister. I mean, come on, we passed borderline ridiculous twenty minutes ago.”
“Hey!” Martin’s voice carried into the living room, along with the rustle of cloth and the clatter of hangers. “There is absotively nothing wrong with taking pride in one’s appearance.”
He hiked an eyebrow, glancing up from his battle against the international pig threat. Did he just say, “Absotively?”
“Posolutely.”
Caleb shook his head, turning his focus to his phone as he stretched out over an expensive-ass leather couch. Martin called it Ashley, which worried Caleb before he found out it was a brand, and not his friend naming the furniture. “What I said still stands. What, were you a runway model in another life?”
“First I’m not just changing clothes. These are strategic choices.” Martin’s words preceded his reentry, his fingers fumbling with the leather belt around a pair of three-hundred-dollar tattered jeans. “Second, your sister wishes she dressed this good.” He held out his arms and struck a pose, the kind you find in magazines where it’s clear the guy takes himself and whatever he’s modeling way too seriously.
Team Brenda #9 - TIME BOUND
Title: TIME BOUND
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Word Count: 64,000
Query:
Sixteen-year-old Holly Kimura expects her annual visit to her grandmother in Japan to be just another summer of boredom and sushi, until she meets a mysterious local boy, Tamashi. When he saves her from a gang of thugs at the market, Holly jumps at the chance to get closer to him, hoping to unearth his secrets, and maybe steal a kiss or two. Instead, she discovers his threadbare clothes and strange accent hide a secret that spans centuries. A secret that causes her world to collide with that of Izuko Fujita’s, a girl born over two hundred years ago with her own ties to Tamashi.
Tamashi is a Time Dragon—the last of an ancient breed created to watch over Japan—trapped in the body of a seventeen-year-old boy by an evil wizard. Only the blood of a human girl and an ancient ritual can set him free, but as the wizard grows closer to unlocking Tamashi’s power to rewrite Time, Tamashi finds himself growing more desperate for help.
Now, two girls, two centuries apart, must aid Tamashi to stop the wizard from completing his terrible vision for the past – because if they fail, there will be no future for any of them.
Excerpt:
There was nothing quite like the smell of tuna to set the mood for a first date.
Holly stood at the edge of the farmer’s market and wrinkled her nose. Usually the scent of yuzu and fresh chestnuts spiced the air, but today was Wednesday. Fish day.
Not exactly the day she would’ve chosen to meet up with her crush, but evidently guys either didn’t mind the smell or didn’t pay attention to that sort of thing. She hitched up her ponytail and wrinkled her nose at the tables covered with ice and slimy octopus. Fish mouths gaped at her, full of razor sharp teeth, but it was nothing compared to the looks some of the stooped old vendors shot her. They gawked as she passed - their quick judgment of her easy to read in their drawn brows and cold eyes.
She was only half-Japanese. An outsider. Though they were too polite to say anything, she knew what they were thinking. Hafu. Hapa. Half-breed. And now that she was back in Japan for another summer, she had to get used to the place all over again. It always felt like trying to remember which buttons to mash on a video game she hadn't played in years. Except there was no reload button in real life if she screwed up.
“Buy a kimono!” one of the vendors shouted at her. Holly shook her head and kept moving, skirting around tables full of weird anime figurines, cheap lacquer boxes for the tourists and oddly shaped vegetables.
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