Manuscript Status: Finished
Mentor Name: Kim Long
Mentee Name: Taylor B. Gardner
Title: THE SOCIETY OF FLYERS
Category: Middle Grade
Genre: Light Science Fiction
Word Count: 51,000
Pitch:
Twelve-year-old Nicole will do whatever it takes to join the Society of Flyers—a secret club that relies on ancient, mystical science to travel the skies. But passing its impossible entrance exam while balancing her best friends and their poi spinning team proves harder than flying through an electric storm blindfolded. If Nicole can’t navigate through, she’ll end up without friends or wings.
Excerpt:
A purple blur whirled over Nicole’s head like a helicopter propeller. She tightened her grip on the strings maneuvering the two spiraling balls. She hadn’t even heard of spinning poi last year, but now it was hard to imagine her life without it.
On a grey, cushy couch a few feet away, sat the two best friends she’d ever had. Sabine’s feet bounced, and Sam’s eyes grew wide. Now or never. With the slightest movement, Nicole cast the rotating balls behind her back in alternating motions, under her leg, and up again with the skill of a puppeteer. She danced with grace she only felt while spinning.
Sam jumped up. “Amazing!”
“Nah,” Nicole replied, shifting the balls in front of her. “It’s not hard. I’ll teach you.”
She glanced out the window. Glimmers sparkled over a moldy green roof a couple of houses away. Strange.
Her hold on her right string slipped.
No, no. Concentrate.
She jerked to recover, and the right armband protecting her elbow shimmied down to her wrist.
Mayday! Mayday!
Last time the armband came undone and exposed Nicole’s freaky elbows, someone called an ambulance before her mom convinced them everything was fine.
She anchored her elbows to her sides. Once secure, she reeled in the two purple tennis-sized balls like fish on a fishing line until they rested in her hands. She exhaled. Disaster averted.
4 Comments
Melissa Edwards · November 4, 2016 at 11:43 am
I’d love to take a look! Please email the first 50 pp as a double-spaced .doc with your title + Pitch Wars in the subject. Thank you!
Hillary Jacobson · November 4, 2016 at 2:05 pm
What a fun idea, I’d love to see more! Please send the full manuscript to hjacobson@icmpartners.com. Thank you!
Patricia Nelson · November 4, 2016 at 5:31 pm
I can’t wait to see more of this! Please send a query (in the body of the email) plus the full manuscript as a Word doc attachment to patricia@marsallyonliteraryagency.com, and make sure to put “Pitch Wars Request” and the title in the subject line.
Looking forward to reading!
Andrew Buckley (@abuckley23) · November 10, 2016 at 4:36 pm
We’re intrigued! Please send a query with the first 3 chapters to acquisitions@curiosityquills.com with ‘Pitch Wars’ in the subject line.
Comments are closed.