Query Kombat Round 2 Matchups

The Agent Round of Query Kombat 2018 has come to a close with a grand total of 99 requests spread across 38 entries!

via GIPHY

I'd like to give a HUGE thanks to all the agents who came out to help make the Agent Round a success. And thanks to the Judges who whipped our Kombatants into shape!

Below you will find Round 2 match-ups. The round starts on June 13 at 8:00 a.m. and continues until June 16 at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Round two will be hosted on my blog and Michelle's. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please leave a comment or tweet us: @ravenousrushing @michelle4laughs @Kara_Reynolds7.

Remember, only sixteen of you will advance. Good luck Kombatants, and good luck Judges. Both groups have a tough road ahead.

Agent Round Stats:

Highest number of requests for an entry: 10

Number of Wild Cards played: 14

Most requested host: Michelle

Round 2 Match-ups

Kara's Blog

Punk Rock Waitress Rules vs Unnaturally Dyed Boutonniere

Tequila Mockingbird vs Don't Mess with an Assassin Mom

I'll Stand Bayou vs Sister Witches Who Kick Butt

Cowboys vs Zombie Pirates vs Hungry Ocean Gods 

GG: Found Family vs #SexEd

Carrion My Wayward Son vs I Found a Magic Stone in Paris

Got Me a Daddy Map vs A Boy Named Pez

Raspberry Moon vs You Octopi My Heart

Michelle's Blog 

Why Are You So Obsessed with Me? vs Lady CEOs Are Sexy Too

Capes and Clorox vs My Babysitter is a Skeleton

God's Dead, Now What? vs No Heroes Here

I Wish I Was White vs Peace Pays What War Wins

Canary Girl vs Swimming With the Amoebas

This Wasn't in the Job Contract vs Love in the Time of Prosciutto

#HackTheVoid vs Planet Panic

Fake Invisibility T-Shirt vs Shiver Me Timbers

Good Luck Kombatants!

Query Kombat Agent Round 2018

Here we go! The agent round! Before you dive in, please - agents and entrants - read this post!

Agents, please be advised that due to an unforeseen medical emergency, all the entries in this special showcase are on Mike and Kara's blogs ONLY. The other half of the entries can be found on Mike's blog by clicking here.

Entries are in this order: Adult, YA, Middle Grade, for your convenience in reading the categories that you represent.

Adult Entries:

Punk Rock Waitress Rules, Women's Fiction

Why Are You So Obsessed With Me?, Adult Romance

Unnaturally Dyed Boutonniere, Adult Historical

No Heroes Here, Adult Fantasy

Found Wanting, Adult Thriller

Don't Mess With an Assassin Mom, Adult Thriller

Tequila Mockingbird, Adult Mystery

YA Entries:

#SexEd, YA Contemporary

GG: Found Family, YA Contemporary

Peace Pays What War Wins, YA Historical

I Kidnapped the Prom Queen, YA Thriller

Swimming With the Amoebas, YA Horror

#HackTheVoid, YA Sci-Fi

This Wasn't in the Job Contract, YA Sci-Fi
I Found a Magic Stone in Paris, YA Urban Fantasy

My Babysitter is a Skeleton, YA Fantasy

Short Girls Pack More Sass, YA Fantasy 

MG Entries:

I Can Keep a Secret, MG Mystery 

Got Me A Daddy Map, MG Contemporary

Shiver Me Timbers, MG Fantasy

Agents will request by saying, “I want to see more of this!” and leaving their submission instructions.  As you remember, agent requests will stay hidden until an entry is knocked out of the tournament.

Kombatants, don’t forget to put QUERY KOMBAT Request in your subject line when sending material!

The number of pages you’ll send depends on how far you go in Query Kombat! It's because we're super evil. Here's how the system works:

Host Saves or Round 2 knockout = 30 page request
Round 3 knockout = 50 page request
Round 4 knockout = 100 page request
Round 5 knockout = 150 page request
Round 6 knockout = 200 page request
GRAND CHAMPION = Full request


For instance, getting knocked out in the third round means an entrant will send 50 pages to any agent who requested their work. The grand champion winner from the final round will see their requests bumped up to a full. Host Saves will be allowed to see their requests immediately as they are not continuing to the 2nd round.

If an agent sees an entry where the minimum of 30 pages isn’t enough, they can play a wild card and name their amount of pages and get their request immediately! If they fall in love and absolutely want a full, the wild card will let them do that. Each agent gets two wild cards.

However, only two wild cards can stand per entry. That means only the first two wild cards count. After that, agents will have to wait until the entry is knocked out.

So that’s it! Commenting on entries is only allowed for agents. Kombatants can mix and mingle on Twitter but can’t comment, with the exception of this post where they can leave questions.

Best of luck and May the Requests Be With You! BATTLE ON!

QK Agent Round 19: Punk Rock Waitress Rules, Women's Fiction

Title: Someone Somewhere Summertime

Entry Nickname: Punk Rock Waitress Rules

Word count: 88K

Genre: Adult – Women’s Fiction



Query



In 1984, punk is rampant, Warhol rules, and 23-year-old Pittsburgh art student Jessica is sick of missing the excitement. In SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SUMMERTIME, Jessica sets her heart on a grad program in England she can’t afford, to bask in new wave sub-culture and hopefully emerge as a multi-media artist. Yet hometown boyfriend Drew decides they need to see other people if he’s not enough to keep her stateside. She’s single for the first time since age 17.

Hellbent on raising London tuition, Jessica and her avant-garde roommates set out to waitress in New Hope, PA, a tourist town full of river-view eateries, galleries, and alternative clubs. The girls rent a leaky basement apartment, braving waitressing chaos, slam dancers, drag shows, and co-workers of all sexual persuasions in search of the unbridled life she’s been pining for. Then Jess meets Whit, a volatile new wave guitarist who crawls through her window and makes her head spin like a record.

Lingering ex Drew shocks Jess by announcing plans to move to California, and Whit accidentally sends Jess careening off the road in his Camaro during a jealous tiff, draining her tuition savings with an ER bill. Jess is left to decide whether her attachment to both guys is a reckless personification of her cracked-glass mosaic art projects, and whether either will hinder her dream to launch an art career by studying overseas.

SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SUMMERTIME is irreverent post-punk, coming-of-age women’s fiction with romantic, humorous, and LGBTQ elements, 88,000 words. SWEETBITTER meets a John Hughes movie.

My work has appeared in The Huffington Post, Newsday, Guideposts, Seventeen, “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” and Child. I’m a former winner of Seventeen Magazine’s Art and Fiction Contest. Two of my short stories have been published in independent press anthologies in the past six months.



First Page



I’m not a good enough liar to get a job on the river side of New Hope, where the real waitresses work.

A restaurateur in a lavender silk shirt interrogates me, tapping a finger against his lips.

“Jessica Addentro,” he reads off my application. This is the seventh place I’ve visited today, and I have an hour before I have to meet the girls for a ride back to Trina’s house. My feet throb like a drum kick. But I have a security deposit to pay for, so I need a job.

I sit at Capresi’s Continental Restaurant, sheltered between the canal and a creek that zig-zags as if it’s lost its way. Trina calls this town Pennsylvania’s answer to San Francisco, where the lifestyle choices are as assorted as the menu selections. It’s an artsy tourist trap sprung between multiple bodies of water, including the Delaware River.

The restaurateur pronounces my name with an Italian flourish. “Ad-den-tro. Do you know what it means?”

“Inside.”

“More like, versed in.” He winds his free hand in a circle. “As in, full of insights. Sound like you?”

“Depends on the subject matter,” I say. “But okay.” Sun-catchers glint behind the restaurateur amid a series of ceiling lanterns, revolving like some disjointed Calder mobile. Bookshelves and plants scream for a feather duster.

The man’s eyes flick down the page. “You live here in town?”

“Me and my roommates are moving into a place on Main Street this week.” Then life will begin.

QK Agent Round 18: Why Are You So Obsessed With Me?, Adult Romance

Title: Guarded

Entry Nickname: Why Are You So Obsessed With Me?

Word Count: 76K

Genre: Contemporary Romance #ownvoices (physical disability)

Query


Being the center of attention and the subject of tabloid gossip isn’t anything new for actress Ava Madison. After all, it’s not every day someone who uses a wheelchair becomes a Golden Globe winner. So when she tries to help her friend, heartthrob Brett Sinclair, by telling the world she broke up with him after a whirlwind romance, she expects the added scrutiny. But she never expects Brett’s fans to threaten her life because they think she broke their idol’s heart.

After someone vandalizes her car, Ava’s manager hires a security team for her. Always striving for her independence and refusing to be tied down in any way, Ava hates the thought of having twenty-four hour protection. And just when she thinks things couldn’t get worse, she discovers the person assigned as her live-in bodyguard is Leo Matthews—the annoying, condescending man she encountered at a coffee shop just the day before. They immediately clash over everything, and Ava can’t wait to get Leo out of her house for good. But as she’s forced to spend nearly every waking moment with him, she can’t deny her attraction to the tall, dark, blue-eyed former Navy SEAL who seems to anticipate her every desire. Their relationship soon heats up, but the threats from Brett’s fans turn into physical violence, affecting not just Ava but hurting those around her. While she’s scared something will happen to Leo or one of her friends, independent Ava is also scared of doing the one thing she never thought she’d do—fall in love.

Like Ava, I use a wheelchair due to a disability. I was a winner of the Pitch to Publication competition in 2016 and a finalist for the Kayak Author Award in 2017.



First Page

Ava Madison and Brett Sinclair Getting Married!

Wedding bells are on the horizon for recent Golden Globe winner, and our favorite cougar, Ava Madison! Sources tell us that her boyband heartthrob boyfriend, Brett Sinclair, popped the question to her last weekend! They plan on tying the knot as soon as possible, creating growing speculation that she is indeed pregnant with twins, as we reported last week. One thing’s for sure—those babies are going to be gorgeous!

At twenty-eight years old, I was a cougar.

Never mind that men like Jack Nicholson and John Stamos had women one-third their age on their arm every time they made an appearance and no one batted an eye. But as soon as I was ‘caught canoodling’ with Brett, five years my junior, you’d think I was a decrepit old woman robbing the cradle.

At least I didn’t look like one.

I rolled my eyes and clicked off the site before taking a sip of my tepid coffee, flashing a smile to the barista as he glanced my way. The speculation about Brett and me was crazy. It started when he took me as his plus one to the AMA’s. We never commented about our relationship, so according to celeb gossip sites we were either hooking up, engaged, already secretly married, or preparing for the upcoming birth of our twins. No one ever considered the truth—that we’re just friends.

QK Agent Round 17: Unnaturally Dyed Boutonniere, Adult Historical

Title: GREEN CARNATIONS

Entry Nickname: Unnaturally Dyed Boutonniere

Word count: 93K

Genre: Adult Historical LGBTQ


Query


Under its glittery surface, Belle Epoch Paris is a brutal place where an illustrious name or prodigious bank account are almost the only means of advancement. British expat Fin Tighe has neither due to his illegitimate birth. His evenings spent in the clandestine gay community are legal through a loophole in the Napoleonic Code, but they leave him vulnerable. So the engineer proposes to find investors for his employer Gustave Eiffel's pet project: a 300-meter tower that will dominate the city's skyline. If Fin raises enough money, the commission will earn him a fortune, and hopefully, some protection.

Capricious stranger Gilbert Duhais appears to be a boon from the gods. Gilbert is wealthy, connected, and--somehow privy to the tragedy Fin instigated in his native Yorkshire. Gilbert introduces Fin to every nouveau riche speculator in the city and soothes Fin’s suspicions with heart-thumping charm. Each provocative interaction heightens Fin's risk of exposure. But also brings Fin closer to his dream of financial security.

When Fin's dear friend is murdered, piecemeal clues indicate that Gilbert may have hijacked Fin's life for revenge over a man from Gilbert’s past, a scoundrel that Fin had good reason to want dead. Fin must untangle the disparate threads of his past--and his current romantic gamble--before they become his noose.

GREEN CARNATIONS is a 92,000-word LGBTQ adult historical fiction that will appeal to fans of Mackenzi Lee's Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and Cat Sebastian's M/M historical romances.

I teach history’s scandals to teenagers. I’ve lived in Sweden and Scotland and traveled to 30 countries. This MS has finaled in 5/5 RWA contests and so far, won its category for the Catherine. I run writing workshops #ontheporch, and was a finalist in both #Revpit and #NightmareOnQueryStreet.

First Page


Paris, 1886

I lifted my glass to hide my unshakable smirk in another drop of wine. The terrace wasn’t empty, but I had my choice of seats facing the direction of the river, towards the Champs du Mars. Not that I saw it over the mansard roofs of my neighborhood’s apartments, but I knew where it was. I wasn’t the most creative man, my talents were concrete; numbers and measurements. Dependable things, unable to be changed on a whim. But when I lifted my gaze toward the gibbous moon, I could almost make out the iron lacework tower that would change my life.

If it were built.

And it had to be because Monsieur Eiffel would make it worth my effort.

The expanse of butcher paper serving as a tablecloth begged for some scribbles and I pulled a pencil from the pocket under my green-tinted boutonniere. With a flourish, I wrote out the sum I could've done in my head when I was six, let alone one-and-thirty, but I needed to see the answer in writing. Twenty percent.

Good Christ. I giggled, and I never giggled. Giggling was for small children and overenthusiastic young girls. Yet, there I sat, in a crowded restaurant, and something I vaguely recognized as joy burbled out.

"Fin?"

My head whipped up at the unfamiliar male voice. I could count on one hand the people who called me Fin rather than Finley or Tighe, and none of them would hover around a perfectly bourgeois establishment like this tonight—or any night.

QK Agent Round 16: No Heroes Here, Adult Fantasy

Title: Following Shadows

Entry Nickname: No Heroes Here

Word Count: 93K

Genre: Adult Fantasy, OwnVoices

Query


Kieron Lawson is a dashing hero on a quest to save the damsel in distress...in his dreams. In reality, he’s a socially awkward lord with a penchant for heroic fables and an aversion to touch. Determined to have an adventure, he makes a deal with his controlling father: in exchange for permission to travel across the Kingdom of Alros and compete in a royal tournament, which hasn’t been held in over a century, he’ll finally choose a bride.

Adventure begins before the tourney does. Chasing down a thief earns Kieron a private meeting with Princess Adelina, and when she slips into a deep sleep after being poisoned, he’s promised her hand in marriage if he can retrieve a cure from a forbidden wasteland.

But the fairytale falls apart when Kieron’s company abandons him, and the only person willing to guide him on his quest is the aforementioned thief, Eidolon—a man of masks and shadows, who inspires feelings Kieron doesn’t understand and can’t control. When Kieron’s temper and a cave-in derail the mission, he finds himself faced with a choice to be the hero and save the princess, or follow his feelings and save the thief.

FOLLOWING SHADOWS (93,000 words) is an #ownvoices adult fantasy novel with romantic overtones and strong series potential. Imagine a classic medieval fairytale, in the vein of Sleeping Beauty, except the charming prince is an asexual man on the Autism spectrum who falls for a male companion, instead of the princess he sets out to save.



First Page


Hollowness spread through Kieron Lawson’s chest as he stared out the lancet window. Lunch had not gone well, but he couldn’t imagine why. He’d done everything by the book.

“Must you keep doing this?” asked his father, Viscount Lawson, tapping his fingers against the table.

“Why do you assume I did anything?” Kieron kept his eyes on the horizon. Cumaro’s farmlands seemed to stretch on forever. By now, he’d all but memorized every golden wheat stalk and hay bale.

“Lady Voss left in tears.”

The viscount’s methodical drumming sounded like a ticking clock.

“I don’t know why.” Kieron shrugged, thumbing his cold metal tankard. As his etiquette text dictated, he’d nodded politely as the lady spoke. He’d even made eye contact once. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Yes, that’s exactly the trouble. She says you sat silently for the majority of the meeting, staring at the wall behind her. Then when you did say something, you called her by the wrong name.”

Kieron turned away from the window. “You mean her name isn’t Liza?”

The rhythmic tapping skipped a beat. “No. Her name is not Liza. We’ve known the Voss family for years. How do you not remember the girl’s name?” The drumming intensified. “And did you have to tell her you didn’t like her dress?”

Kieron cocked his head at his father’s squat frame and frowned. “She asked if I liked it, and I said no.”

He’d answered a question when asked. What else should he have done?

QK Agent Round 15: Found Wanting, Adult Thriller

Title: Wake Up Call

Entry Nickname: Found Wanting

Word count: 83K

Genre: Suspense


Query


Gehrig Newman devises the perfect murder. Again. A desolate highway exit this time, twenty miles west of the city. He almost kills his client…

Which is exactly what he was hired to do.

Operating on the fringes of legality, Gehrig’s business delivers near-death experiences to help unsuspecting people value their lives more. Friends or family members hire Gehrig’s team to administer a wake-up call for clients who aren’t even aware they’re part of the plan—because a person who survives a brush with death will place a higher value on life.

The near-death assignment is more than a job for Gehrig. He has pledged to “save” fifteen people to atone for his father’s atrocities. But when his ex-fiancée, Patricia, arrives with a sinister plan of her own, Gehrig becomes the one who needs saving.

Patricia applies for her husband to become a client, but not for the reasons Gehrig thinks. She wants a new life, and she wants to finance it with her husband’s life insurance money. Patricia and her lover escalate Gehrig’s near-death staging to a murder. Now there’s a homicide investigation. Gehrig can’t go to the cops because his fingerprints are all over the crime. To avoid a life behind bars—and complete his path to redemption—he’ll need to save himself and punish Patricia. He’ll also need to risk his life in the process.

I’ve published stories in Flash Bang Mysteries, The Drabble, and other venues. I’m an active member of Sisters in Crime and St. Louis Writer’s Guild.



First Page


Gehrig Newman locked his office building’s deadbolt. His best friend, Gus, a three-year-old Labrador retriever, stood watch. The bolt struck metal, and two foraging animals scurried into darkness. Gus raised his head, stiffened, and emitted a soft growl.

“Relax, Gus. Couple raccoons. Fur would stick between your teeth.”

A chill knifed through Gehrig as he tapped numbers on a pad next to the door to set the alarm.

Gus elevated his warning to a guttural rumble. Ears up and alert.

“Easy, boy.” Gehrig patted his dog’s head to calm him, smoothed stiff fur on his back, then turned toward his truck. He pulled a key fob from his pocket and pressed a button to unlock the Ford pickup, the lone vehicle in the quiet parking lot. A breeze swept through the downtown St. Louis streets bringing a scent of oncoming rain and something more foreboding that Gehrig couldn’t place. Perfect night for pizza and a glass of wine with a good book on the side. A click-click broke the silence behind him.

Gehrig froze.

Sucked in his breath when the gun barrel jabbed into his lower back.

Dropped his jaw when he recognized the voice.

“Don’t do anything stupid, this’ll all go smooth.”

His father’s gravelly voice, product of a pack of Marlboros a day for forty years, was as unmistakable as the firearm shoved into his back. The nine-millimeter Beretta was “Uncle Charley,” Dad’s service-issue weapon. Gus barked twice before sidestepping a boot from Gehrig’s father.

QK Agent Round 14: Don't Mess With an Assassin Mom, Adult Thriller

Title: BABYFACE

Entry Nickname: Don't Mess with an Assassin Mom

Word Count: 89K

Genre: Adult Thriller


Query


To her family and friends, Marybeth Delay is the embodiment of the word "wholesome": she's a teacher, wife, and loving mother of two young children living in a small Minnesota town. But they don’t know that she was once, in a different lifetime, Valentina “Babyface” Nacosto, the New Jersey mob’s most prolific and mysterious killer. They don’t know that she had a child seventeen years ago, who died in a hit meant for her. They don’t know that the serenity of her new life is repressed denial of her old one.

Marybeth thinks the past is forever behind her until the morning she turns on the news — and discovers that her son is alive. Alive, and the focus of a furious FBI manhunt, along with Valentina’s ex-husband, fugitive mob boss Vincent "Nine Lives" Nacosto.

Valentina couldn't save her child from violence seventeen years ago. But she can now. And she will. She’ll get to him before the FBI does. She’ll be his way out—and she will risk her new family, her new life, her new peace to do it.

BABYFACE is told in both past and present timelines as Marybeth/Valentina comes to terms with who she was, who she is, and who she needs to be for both her families. Complete at 89,000 words, BABYFACE evokes a female John Wick crossed with the emotional conflict of A History of Violence. It will appeal to fans of Alafair Burke’s The Wife, Riley Sager’s Final Girls, and Jessica Knoll’s Luckiest Girl Alive.

I have a professional background in finance, with a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.



First Page


I have the Minnesota winter to blame for what I did today, and for everything I know I will do tomorrow.

The kids and I got back home at 3:30 from pickup. My fingers were numb. The heater in the minivan doesn’t work well, not in this kind of cold, and I forgot my gloves. It’s month two of my maternity leave and I really don’t have it together yet. Caroline was nagging me for Doc McStuffin the entire ride home and Jacob was screaming his little head off. I knew he was hungry. I knew because my breasts felt like two water balloons filled a hair short of bursting. But Jacob doesn’t latch; I have to pump. My stomach sank when I realized he was twenty minutes away from his meal.

Five tortured miles later, we made it home. I dragged the car seat into the living room. “Give mommy a second," I begged as he screamed louder. I felt like a PSA for birth control.

My eyes fell on the TV. Maybe the cartoon would distract him. I jabbed at the remote, my fingers blue and slow from cold. The TV jumped to life and I pressed the numbers. 3-1-3. Disney Junior. Jacob was still screaming when I headed to the foyer to retrieve the pacifier and the pump, wincing as my fingers came back to life in a series of potent little stabs. If he hadn’t been screaming, if I hadn’t been in pain, I would have noticed. I would have seen. I would have understood that I had the wrong channel.

I would have changed it.

QK Agent Round 13: Tequila Mockingbird, Adult Mystery

Title: Day of the Dead

Entry Nickname: Tequila Mockingbird

Word count: 89K

Genre: Adult Comedic Mystery



Query


Claire Giannini is about to take the most terrifying step of her life – marriage. But she’ll have to find her missing fiancé first. When Andre vanishes in colonial San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, during their annual Day of the Dead festival, Claire overcomes her fears of enclosed spaces, mummified bodies, stampeding bulls and short bald men named Cyril, in order to search for him.

Still reeling from her father’s death, Claire can’t bear to lose another person she loves. Not without a fight, anyway. Relying on her journalism skills and Italian-Irish tenacity, she finally tracks down the man who can give her answers. But he inconveniently drops dead, leaving Claire as the prime suspect and in danger of becoming the next victim.

DAY OF THE DEAD is a story of lost love and what happens when you discover more about your partner – and yourself – than you bargained for. It is a humorous mystery in the vein of Carl Hiaasen and Janet Evanovich.

As a freelance writer, I’ve contributed to, among others, Seventeen Magazine, Chatelaine, The Globe and Mail and Cottage Life. My blog, GoodDeedADay, was also featured on Global Television.



First Page



The pregnant one frightened Claire most of all. Face twisted in agony as if the woman died mid-labour pain. Mouth frozen in a permanent scream. Midsection caved in like a collapsed soufflé.

“No epidural for you, I guess,” Claire whispered to herself. She looked around at the glass cases that lined the walls of the Museo de las momias and shuddered. When Danny said Andre was last seen in a museum, Claire pictured displays of old coins and broken pottery, not skeletal corpses with parchment skin and bared teeth. The mummified cadaver stretched out before her was naked to the ankles – resting for all eternity wearing nothing but a pair of filthy socks.

As horrified as she was, Claire couldn’t look away. Like the time her mother sang “I’m Every Woman” at karaoke.

She spun around to shake off the memory and spotted three teen girls snapping photos of themselves with the exhibits.

Mummy selfies. Peachy.

Between the jet lag and the sleepless nights since she got Danny’s call telling her that his nephew, Andre, was missing, Claire felt her head spin. What day was it again? Tuesday?

She’d intended to come down to Mexico to reconcile with Andre, not search for him. And to end up here? The thought that her plane had crashed and she was in hell crossed her mind.

What on earth had Andre been doing in this ghoulish place? He winced at the sight of a dead bird.

QK Agent Round 12: #SexEd, YA Contemporary

Title: Deafinitely

Entry Nickname: #SexEd

Word count: 79K

Genre: YA Contemporary (#own #dis #rehabilitated #WOC)


Query


Lia Rossi plans on making the most of her junior year. Like, hello? She’s the new Social Coordinator, and her first order of business is advocating a Sex Ed program—for the Special Ed class.

This sounds sketchy coming from the town it-girl (read: party girl), but she really thinks anyone who wants safe, satisfying sex should be able to learn about it. Just as people start taking her seriously, the new girl in town, Fallyn, flat-out ignores Lia’s warm welcome into the student body. So Lia publicly humiliates her, like any sensible person at the top of the social ladder would. The only problem is, Fallyn’s Deaf, not rude.

Now, half the school, including the deaf and disabled students, are questioning whether Lia’s too shallow and ignorant to be anyone’s advocate. If she truly wants to be taken seriously—and if she truly wants to help fight a battle that’s not her own—Lia must do more than cross social divides. She must let the Special Ed students lead the way towards a sex and self revelation. No, scratch that. A revolution.

But if they fail, they will all reinforce the negative stereotypes society has placed on them.

DEAFINITELY has the air of Emma (Jane Austen), the activism of Moxie (Jennifer Mathieu), and the awareness of A Silent Voice (Naoko Yamada and Reiko Yoshida). This story is based on my #Own experiences when I lost my hearing and ability to walk for years. Though I’ve recovered most of my abilities, the memories of being overlooked, undervalued, and stuck in health classes that didn’t include people like me in the curriculum have stayed. Too many teens with various disabilities are still experiencing this.



First Page



I’m in the center of the Student Council office. Like, literally standing before President Brooke and Secretary Emilio. They look me over as if picking me apart, searching for any flaw they can and will find. Especially Brooke.

“Let’s cut the crap, shall we?” she says. “You want to get on the Council and you’re using the Special Ed class to get there. That’s new, I’ll give you that, but—” She narrows her eyes. “You’re a silver-spoon slacker. Good ideas, but no real execution.”

I gasp, blinking hard. I mean, damn. That’s no way to talk to her future Social Coordinator. An angry blush prickles my cheeks, and unlike Emilio, my skin’s not warm enough to cover it.

But I can’t snap on them.

Under no circumstances can I blow this interview. Not only do I need the Council’s resources for my Sex Ed campaign (#prioritiesONpoint), but I can’t go home with bad news. I haven’t mastered the art of crying beautifully yet, so no way is that an option.

I raise a perfectly arched eyebrow. “I don’t know about you, but sex will never get boring for me. This isn’t some little high school project. This is life, and love, and sex.”

“For people with disabilities,” Emilio says, feeling the need to point out the obvious. He’s reviewing my proposal sheet and running his knuckle against his bottom lip, back and forth, back and forth, back. And. Forth. “Your proposal looks good, but I’m curious. Why do you care?”

QK Agent Round 11: GG: Found Family, YA Contemporary

Title: EXP

Entry Nickname: GG: Found Family

Word count: 52K

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary (#OwnVoices)


Query

Fourteen-year-old Sai is one of the highest-ranked gamers on the Shadows of Shinobi circuit…but he can't go out in public without having a meltdown.

As a teenager with Autism, Sai battles crippling anxiety and underdeveloped social skills. But when Team Komodo asks him to become the reserve player on their semi-professional eSports team, those social skills are put to the test as he turns online acquaintances into real-life friends.

Thankfully, each member of Team Komodo is just as much of a fringe-dweller as Sai. They include a transgender jack-of-all-trades, a dating sim addict, a hyperactive community college dropout, a fake psychic and a thorny military reject. To earn his keep, Sai begins analyzing the team’s competition to increase their chances of winning. But as the team climbs to higher divisions, they’ll have to face stronger opponents.

Every member of the team knows that they can't afford to let their internal struggles get in the way of victory as they brave a grueling series of tournaments. If they win, Sai and his teammates inch closer to breaking into the pro scene. If they lose, it’s back to social isolation and working dead end jobs. The team will have to beat both their opponents and neuroses in order to keep the family together and make their dreams a reality.

EXP is a Contemporary YA novel complete at 52,000 words. This “found family story in an eSports setting” features neurodiverse characters, LGBTQ+ characters, as well as characters of color and is #OwnVoices for all three categories.

I am an Autistic transgender person of color wishing to cultivate accurate representation of my neurotype in fiction. I have experience as a high school English teacher and I have worked closely with my target audience. I am also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.


First Page


A dim, somber candle wavered in the summer heat, illuminating all Psy needed to know about his new employer. The low-level crime lord in his dirty brown robe gave an almost toothless yellow grin that looked orange by the light of the candle. The wood on the sliding doors rotted with mildew. Psy could smell the high definition of the effect. In this new expansion, Meiji truly outdid itself with adding in more sensory details to gameplay. It was hard to believe that this alternate version of Tokugawa Japan was constructed from ones and zeroes.

Psy fingered the sickle and chain holstered at his hip that his real self had tied to hot keys. In the world of SoS, he was a competent ninja and master poison maker. For a few hours, he could forget about the cold oatmeal and empty friends list he had waiting for him in the real world.

The candlelight reflected on the faces of Psy’s randomized teammates, the ones who would be completing this NPC slimeball’s mission for him. In addition to a Sumo and Assassin, there was a master and apprentice Monk duo. Psy narrowed his eyes as he thought of all of the times the master could legally switch out with the apprentice in order to train him. Did they have to keep summoning and sealing the same spirit over and over? He turned up his nose as the greenest envy washed over him when he imagined the apprentice learning everything his master knew while he was all alone.