PW #228: YA Paranormal Comedy: ALEXIS VS THE AFTERLIFE

Manuscript Status: 2 weeks delivery

Mentor Name: Tamara Mataya and JC Nelson
Mentee Name: Marcus Alexander Hart
Title: ALEXIS VS THE AFTERLIFE
Category: YA
Genre: Paranormal Comedy
Wordcount: 92,000

Pitch:

When seventeen-year-old former child star Alexis drops dead, she finds the afterlife disturbingly similar to her old sitcom. Monsters are real, and so is the nonsense TV magic she used to destroy them. But Alexis wants no part of fighting off a paranormal apocalypse until she falls for a ghostly Chinese cowgirl who gives her something worth fighting for.

Excerpt:

I slouched on a stool at the end of a Hollywood dive bar, feeding a sticky tumbler of peach schnapps to tomorrow’s hangover. I was lucky nobody ever checked my ID south of the Miracle Mile. Or maybe I just looked more burned out than any seventeen-year-old had a right to be.

A girl-and-boy twee pop duo were ukulele-and-tambourining their way through their set on a stage behind me. The drunks tried their best to tune them out, but the girl’s piercing warble refused to be ignored. Six acts were performing here tonight, each of us getting twenty-five bucks to show off our talents. Most were being grossly overpaid.

I shot the rest of my drink and signaled the bartender—a curvy brunette wearing a shirt cut so low it could have doubled as a tip jar. She looked playfully disappointed in me as she refilled my glass. “You might wanna cut back a little, girlfriend. Your bar tab is about to eclipse your gig payment.”

I shrugged. “Eh. No money, no problems.”

She raised a pierced eyebrow. “Tell you what, how ’bout I hold onto a few bucks and pick up a little something special for you?”

My heart raced at her wry smile. Was she… flirting? Holy crap, she was flirting! I sat up a little straighter and smiled. “Sure. What do you have in mind?”

“Some deodorant. You reek.”

Not flirting. Definitely not flirting.