Pitch Madness B-5: YA: THE FAN GENE

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Word Count: 80,000

Pitch:

What happens when a sixteen-year-old superfan and the eighteen-year-old actor she’s obsessed with meet in a New York City psychiatrist’s office? He’s a patient. She’s the afternoon receptionist. Her mother is the psychiatrist.

Excerpt:

The clock read 3:15 but the 3:00 still hadn’t shown – a woman in her thirties who’s been Mom’s patient for more than a year to deal with her chronic lateness. I’ve been thinking she should ask for her money back.

I looked at the white door just past my desk with the large DR. FOX: NOT IN SESSION sign. Those words meant that Mom could wander out at any moment, looking to chat or spy.

I missed the old days, the pre-Leia-watches-too-much-TV-and-spends-too-much-time-chatting-online days. As soon as Mom got it in her head that I needed to be more productive, I was drafted into service as her after school receptionist. It wasn’t the worst job in the world – the money was good, and it’s always fun to try to guess what’s going on in her sessions, to make up stories behind the red eyes and nervous fidgets.

The downside, though, was the severe lack of privacy. Luckily, I’d learned to keep my real online life secret, only bringing it out when she was safely in session. I only let her see whatever I Googled for homework. Whenever that happened, she’d get this proud, kind of smug smile, like she’d saved me from myself.

But it was Tuesday – show day – and I’d already missed the first 15 minutes. I had to risk it.

I opened two browsers, one for the Russian Moon Quest live feed, the other for the fan site I set up the day I first laid eyes on Oliver Hunt.