Manuscript Status: FINISHED
Mentor Name: Lindsey Frydman
Mentee Name: Kristy F. Gillespie
Title: LUCY COUNTING STARS
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Word Count: 91,000
Pitch:
After teen artist suicides rock a small town, Lucy is sent to a sinister mental hospital where they believe creativity causes mental illness. She’s force-fed an experimental drug which “cures” her OCD but threatens to unmake everything she is.
Excerpt:
The funeral home restroom smells like shit-covered roses. As much as I’d like to leave, I have to finish drawing a flock of birds on pieces of toilet paper. Then I’ll feel less shaky, more in control. At least I hope so.
After a moment, high heels click-clack across the linoleum floor. “Lucy, the service is about to start,” Heather Marshall says.
“I’ll be right out.” I flush the paper and watch the birds drown in discolored water. I count to lucky number seven, tuck the pen into the side compartment of my purse, and smooth my wrinkled dress before exiting the stall.
Heather leans against the sink, inspecting her sparkly nails. Before I can wash my hands, she flings her arms around me. “I’m so sorry.”
She’s the sixth person to say this, which is an unlucky number for me. Even numbers are too perfect—just like Heather. When she lets go, I’m surprised to see tears pooling in her brown eyes. Heather barely spoke to Janice and me, even though we’ve been classmates since kindergarten, and now she’s hugging me and crying. What the hell?
Unsure of how to respond, I say, “We should probably go.”
“Yeah, it smells horrid in here.” She slips her hand into mine and leads me out of the restroom. I’m so taken aback by her kindness, I forget to wash my hands. I hadn’t peed or anything; I only drew while hiding in the stall. But I did touch the restroom door, the stall door, and the toilet handle…
4 Comments
Annie Bomke · November 3, 2017 at 12:13 pm
Yes!!! I love the voice! I’d love it if you could send me the full manuscript to submissions@abliterary.com!
Roseanne Wells · November 5, 2017 at 6:10 pm
I’d love to read more! Please use the guidelines on jdlit.com to send 30pp (instead of the normal 20), and include #Pitchwars in the subject line. I can’t wait to dive in!
Roseanne Wells
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency
Naomi Davis · November 6, 2017 at 10:13 am
Hi! I’m Naomi Davis with Inklings Literary Agency. Can I please see this full manuscript as a Word Doc, with the pitch and any relevant info you would like me to have in the body of the email? Thanks so much!
Naomi@inklingsliterary.com
Lucy Cleland · November 9, 2017 at 2:20 pm
Wow, Kristy, this sounds dark and interesting– I love Lucy’s voice on the page and the striking imagery in the sample. I would be intrigued to see where you are going. If you’re game, I’d love to see the first 50 pages. You can send them as an email attachment to me at lucy@kwlit.com (subject line PitchWars + your name / title), and I’d love to see a synopsis and query letter as well. Thanks so much,
Lucy
Comments are closed.