PW #128: Adult Dark Fantasy: BAD PARTS

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor Name: Natasha Raulerson

Mentee Name: Brandon McNulty

Title: BAD PARTS

Category: Adult

Genre: Dark Fantasy

Word Count: 99,000 words

Pitch:

Desperate to fix her busted hand before a career-defining gig, guitarist Ash Hudson returns home to seek out an organ-swapping shapeshifter. But instead of trading with her, the creature steals her hand and blackmails her into completing its “collection” of ruined body parts.

Excerpt:

Ash hurried inside with her guitar and some bad news. She needed to find her bandmates. Fast.

The Dark Diamond Pub throbbed with noise tonight, its annual Battle of the Bands already underway. The backroom was crammed with rockers — hacks and has-beens, all of them shouting and laughing, boozing and snorting. She shoved through the crowd, growing dizzy from the body heat. Not seeing anybody, she climbed a beer-stained couch and squinted through dim lighting and clouds of cig smoke.

No trace of her bandmates.

Shit. She had to find them. Warn them.

She unzipped her faux-leather jacket and reentered the muggy crowd. Her mouth went dry, her skin sticky. She started yelling her lead singer’s name.

“Cheeto — anybody seen him?” she yelled. “The singer from Bad Parts? Anyone?”

Most people ignored her and kept on drinking. A roadie with blue nose rings smirked as he leaned back to eye her thirty-year-old ass.

How flattering.

“Cheeto? Anybody?” She grabbed jackets and vests to get people’s attention. “You seen him? Scrawny guy? Frizzy orange hair? Almost as many tattoos as me?”

“Ashes!” Cheeto howled from behind her.

Before she could brace herself, two tattooed arms swung around her and squeezed till her bones rumbled.

Cheeto. He was okay. Thank God.

“Almost show-time!” he said. “Ready to rip the roof off this place?”

“Hang on,” she said. “You’re never gonna believe this.”