Manuscript Status: Finished
Mentor Name: Kelly deVos
Mentee Name: Melissa Hed
Title: THE OTHER SIDE OF NORMAL
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Supernatural
Word Count: 50,000 words
Pitch:
Dead Jewish teen comes back to life to become her school’s first plus-sized homecoming queen. But the competition against her ex-best friend risks damning her soul.
Excerpt:
It was a balmy night for late September, one we probably wouldn’t feel again until Spring.
“Let’s go topless,” I suggested.
“Hell, yes.” Macey flashed me a wicked grin then pressed the button to lower the roof on her old Cabriolet. “Time to party! I’m so sick of filling out college applications and writing essays, aren’t you?”
“Party! Woo!” I pretended I didn’t hear that last part.
“Bethany?”
“Let’s go! I’m ready!”
Macey put her foot on the brake. Next, she’d probably kick me to the curb. “Please, tell me you started the Common App.”
I rooted through my bag of jellybeans, popped one in my mouth to avoid answering. Grape.
“If you need help filling out your applications, ask.” Macey was my twin, but sometimes she didn’t get me at all.
Colleges wanted normal kids to write about what made them remarkable applicants. I wasn’t normal, I was FAT. From freshman to senior year I burgeoned from a size six to a size twenty. That was the only remarkable thing about me. I never saw photos of fat kids in college brochures. Or students without limbs. Or anyone bald. Imagine, a plus-sized bald girl with a robotic leg on the cover of a college brochure? Where was that college? I would totally go there.
The road bisecting the country club, a long, dark, straight shot – everything my short, white, curvy ass was not. The new Killers CD in the sound system. Bass thrumming. Wind in my hair. Freedom. Life. Another jellybean in my mouth, tangerine this time. Head back. Star-studded sky.
Speed bump.
The jellybean lodged in my throat.
Couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t cough.
Clasped
throat.
2 Comments
Carrie Pestritto · November 3, 2017 at 10:41 am
I was super intrigued by your pitch and sample and definitely want to read more of this!! Please send me your query and first 50 pages, with the subject “PITCHWARS REQUEST,” to carrie(at)prospectagency(dot)com. Thank you and excited to see more!
Rena Rossner · November 6, 2017 at 4:33 pm
I’d love to take a closer look! Please send the first 100 pages attached as a word document to: rena@thedeborahharrisagency.com
Thanks!
– Rena
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