PW #317: Young Adult LGBTQ Contemporary #ownvoices: TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T ALREADY KNOW

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor Name: Natalka Burian

Mentee Name: Isaac Fitzsimons

Title: TELL ME SOMETHING I DON’T ALREADY KNOW

Category: Young Adult

Genre: LGBTQ Contemporary #ownvoices

Word Count: 88,000 words

Pitch:

Spencer’s a soccer star in training. He’s also transgender, but that doesn’t define him. When he’s benched because of the “F” on his birth certificate, he must choose between the safety of staying stealth and his right to play the beautiful game.

Excerpt:

Spencer was wasting the last Friday of summer vacation talking to his new guidance counselor about bathrooms.

“It’s more than bathrooms,” said his mom. She tugged on the brass handle, but the door to The Oakley School wouldn’t budge. “Here, hold this while I find my phone.” She handed Spencer a stack of papers before rummaging through the black hole she called her purse. Spencer had no idea how she found anything in there. She constantly looked for new ways to stay organized. Her latest obsession was bullet journaling, or BuJo for short.

As Spencer scanned the parking lot, empty except for their Subaru with a #BuJo Life bumper sticker, a ripple of hope washed over him. If they had gotten the day wrong he’d have an entire weekend to not think about his first day of school.

The thought of Monday made sweat pool, clammy and moist, in the armpits of the blue Oxford shirt that Mom had ironed that morning. When he lifted his arms to air them out, a gust of wind snatched the papers from his grasp, scattering pages everywhere.

Spencer ran after them. Part of him thought it was pretty cool, like Harry Potter trying to catch his Hogwarts’ letter. But if he could do magic, he’d use Accio instead of chasing copies of his birth certificate, passport, name change certificate, letters from his doctor, and letters from his therapist across a parking lot.

Being transgender would be much simpler in the wizarding world.