PW #209: Middle Grade Adventure Thriller (STEM, Contemporary Speculative): EVIE ZIMMER, ROBOT KILLER

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor Name: Jen Vincent

Mentee Name: Tera Pruitt

Title: EVIE ZIMMER, ROBOT KILLER

Category: Middle Grade

Genre: Adventure Thriller (STEM, Contemporary Speculative)

Word Count: 56,000 words

Pitch:

After Evie’s dad loses his job to robots in Walt Disney’s masterpiece town, Progress City, she resorts to high-tech sabotage to get it back. When robots turn violent, she discovers she’s not the only hacker in town—Evie must race to outsmart him before the city she loves is destroyed.

Excerpt:

My elbows are bruised and bloody from scraping against concrete. I heave myself forward with my forearms, shuffling on my belly an inch at a time. All I can think about is my sister in a hospital bed, my dad’s hair sticking up from lack of sleep, my mother in her elegant coat, slamming the door as she leaves me behind. I can’t believe it’s come to this. Dirt streaks my beautiful black silk shirt as I pull myself forward again. The floor stinks like rot and sewage. I don’t want to know what’s on me right now.

It’s ridiculous, slithering across the warehouse floor when I have two perfectly good legs. But, hey, there are six hacked MaintenanceBots on the other side of the room, armed to the nines with drills, screwdrivers, and other sharp pointy objects. If one sees me, it’ll punch a hole in my brain faster than I can say “nail gun.”

Keep going, Evie.

My hand wraps tighter around the puck in my hand, my palm sweaty and slimy with mud. I imagine the device slipping from my grip and bouncing off, the thud thud thuds giving me away. That’d be just my luck.

But the shuffling is working. I’m almost to the door the robots are guarding, the one I’ve been looking for all these weeks. The one that can save my family. All that stands between me and that door are robots who want to kill me with drill bits. No probs, right?