PW #345: Young Adult Science Fiction: ALL OF US STARS

Manuscript Status: 2 weeks delivery

Mentor Name: Lyndsay Ely

Mentee Name: Anna Mercier

Title: ALL OF US STARS

Category: Young Adult

Genre: Science Fiction

Word Count: 87,000 words

Pitch:

FIREFLY meets Mindee Arnett’s AVALON. Space pirate Solitude Pierce only wants to find her missing sister. But when a corrupt senator blackmails her misfit crew into recovering a secret weapon, she’s forced to make an agonizing choice—rebel alongside her crewmates or forever lose her sister. That is, if the senator’s deadly contingency plan doesn’t kill Sol first.

Excerpt:

Chapter One

Sol

Solitude Pierce knew pain in a thousand different melodies. The dull ache of bruises thrummed deep in the muscles. Splintered bones stabbed a fast and hot percussion. Other agonies, like the one wrenching her from unconsciousness, wove elegant cadences through every limb.

She blinked, sluggish and heavy, the tune ricocheting through her like Klim’s obnoxious garbage music.

Pain prickled up Sol’s fingers and across her palm. It coursed like frayed threads into her forearm and up to her shoulder. Maybe Captain Radomir was right—she couldn’t come out of every scrap unscathed. He’d lecture her with a dozen proverbs about arrogance biting you in the ass as soon as she got out of here.

But first she had to figure out where ‘here’ was. When she opened her eyes, the ceiling blurred in a blast of white light. Wincing, she tried again. This time her vision focused on the mirror-like ceiling. Her sturdy body lay beneath a white hospital sheet, her short, dark hair splayed on the pillow like a vermin nest. She was a stain on the flawless medical bed—a smudge of rough edges and taut muscles.

Klim had warned her about making a deal this deep in the Coalition’s territory.

Memories floated back, hazy as smoke. The thick beat of the music melted into bright lights. She remembered arguing with that crook, Jabari, about the information she’d spent years looking for.

Then the club had exploded.