34. WHERE YOU FOUND ME – Young Adult Contemporary

Mentor Name: Lori Goldstein

Mentee Name: Justine Winans

Title: WHERE YOU FOUND ME

Category: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary

Word Count: 61.000

Pitch:

Six weeks ago, Estelle Graham fell in love. Four weeks ago, the first body was found. Two weeks ago, Estelle’s entire world shattered. Now, locked away in a psychiatric hospital, whenever Estelle sees sunflowers, she thinks of murder. Today, it’s time to confront why.

Excerpt:

Estelle Graham hated routine. The idea of doing the exact same thing every day without any changes or surprises would’ve made Estelle want to gouge her eyes out with the nearest fork.

Lucky for me, I’m not Estelle Graham anymore.

Because at Green Garden Psychiatric Hospital, routine is everything.

And we aren’t allowed to use forks.

The breathy sigh escapes my lips before I can stop it. I press my cheek against my forearm. My head is too heavy. I just want to let it fall until the pressure disappears into the splintered wood of the windowsill.

My nose burns as it kisses the glass heated by the sun, but I don’t bother adjusting myself to a more comfortable position. I just watch the garden outside the window, another constant in the routine of my life. The flowers always wait for me outside. That never changes.

The deep, seductive red of the prickly roses contrasting against the happy hydrangeas painted the color of the sky by nature. The bleeding heart blooms dangling from their stems like a chandelier, the fluffed petals of the round globe amaranths, all the flowers so artfully arranged. I take them all in.

Except for the sunflowers. Because the sunflowers remind me of him.