Title: Amanda Jones and the Quest to Save Zee
Age Category: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 53,000
Pitch: Amanda had one job: protect her little sister Zee, an eight-year old with Down Syndrome. But she failed. Now Amanda must brave a world of warring Goblins and Fae, or Zee will be lost forever.
First 250 Word of Manuscript:
In a land both far away and very close, the Goblin King paced before his throne. His attendants cowered behind aged stone columns, crowding each other in an attempt to see without being seen. Unlike the king, they boasted claws and beaks, horns and talons, fur and muck. They filled the room with the scent of wild things.
“Where is he?” the king demanded.
A bat-winged goblin bobbed in the air at his side. “H-he’s coming, your highness,” she hissed. “We’ve reports he’s entered the city.”
The crowd murmured. They were dressed in their best. Swords polished and scabbards rubbed to an oily sheen. Crones wore their better robe, and desert goblins scrubbed the grime from their teeth.
All for a ceremony that couldn’t take place without the prince. And his sacrifice.
The throne room doors burst open, booming as they hit stone walls.
“At last,” the bat-wing goblin hissed. “He’s here. Your highness, he’s—“
The prince stepped into the throne room, and the goblins gasped. They glanced from the prince to the king, and saw the black of the king’s eyes deepen. Shadows crowded the walls behind him, moving like dark whispers across the cold stones.
The king stalked to the boy in measured steps, power following him like the black silk of his cape.
The goblins waited. A few chanced to whisper; their hisses swarmed the room, bouncing from the naked stone walls and flying on the cold winds that cut through the ancient castle.