PW #101: Adult Literary/Magical Realism (#ownvoices): THESE ARE THE DAYS WITHOUT HER

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor Name: Jenny Ferguson
Mentee Name: Marcos Gonzalez
Title: THESE ARE THE DAYS WITHOUT HER
Category: Adult
Genre: Literary Fiction / Magical Realism (#ownvoices)
Word Count: 95,000

Pitch:

When immigration takes Yolandi’s breadwinning aunt under suspicion she’s a coyote, Yolandi and her sisters are abandoned—again. Adults this time, they’re old enough to know: pay the rent or end up on the streets. Hoping to rescue her tia and keep the family in ice-cream sandwiches and toilet paper, Yolandi pens an over-the-top zine. But the Cervantes women aren’t ready for the family secrets they’ll uncover.

Excerpt:

Issue 0 ¾

If this flimsy piece of paper is currently in your hands, and you’re glossing over these scribbles in funky 13 point font debating whether it’s worth an extra twenty seconds of your life to read on—you are right where you are supposed to be.

Hey, hey, now don’t go putting it down. No one is judging you, no one is sneering at you, no one is scoffing hostility your way because you *gasp* dared to pick up this shiteously constructed zine made from brown paper lunch bags.

So, ahem, there I was. Little ol’ Yolandi Cervantes de La Far Upper Upper East Side (as the cool kids are calling East Harlem nowadays), in one of those super-fetch, high-end bookstores downtown, passing by the history section on my way to science fiction in the poorly lit corner near the bathroom. Suddenly, in the middle of my journey, I find my movement stunted by the presence of a foiine southofthebordertype boy reading, oh so intensely, oh so seriously, Nietzsche in Spanish. Not paying much attention to what was in front of me since there was so much good to see to my left, clutzo me accidentally stumbled into one of those revolving bookcases. Embarrassing, tell me about it. Fortunately, having recently had several weeks of (free) Zumba classes at my college, I managed to catch the darn thing before it toppled.