Brenda Drake . . . under the influence of coffee

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Writers Voice Contest Entries for Team Brenda ... here we go!

“The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Mónica B.W. of Love YA, and Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat). We based the contest on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us selected projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages and coached the talented writers who wrote them as they polished their entries.

And TODAY we get to post our team members’ finished entries on our blogs!

Thirteen amazing agents are going to read these queries and first pages, then vote for their favorites this Thursday and Friday, May 23 and 24. Each vote will count as a partial or full request depending on how many votes the entry receives. If an entry receives 1 or 2 votes, those votes will count as partial requests. If an entry receives 3 or more votes, those votes will count as full requests.

Our thirteen amazing agents:

Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency

Catherine Drayton of InkWell Management
Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary + Media
Christa Heschke of McIntosh & Otis

Holly McGhee and Elena Mechlin of Pippin Properties

Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency
John Rudolph of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management

Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary

Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary & Media

Monika Verma of Levine Greenberg Literary Agency

Tina Wexler of ICM Partners

Caryn Wiseman of Andrea Brown Literary Agency

To read the other teams' entries, please use the following links:

Team Cupid
Team Krista
Team Monica

Lastly, cheerleading is allowed, but only until Wednesday! We want to leave the comments free for the agents to vote on Thursday and Friday. (Also, we will only allow, well, cheerleading and/or positive feedback. Please don’t critique the entries before the agents vote. On the flip side, please don’t try to convince the agents that they want to vote for one of your favorites or, you know, threaten to douse the agents in silly string if they don’t vote for your critique partner. This is a silly-string-free site.)

Check all 150 entries from round one here.

And don't forget I'm giving away a stack of signed books here, and two eBooks here!

Happy reading!

3 comments

The Writer's Voice: Team Brenda #1 - REFRACTION

Genre: YA Thriller

Word count: 54,000

Query:

Pretending to be someone else has its difficulties. Seventeen-year-old Prism Chase thought it would be fun until the game turns deadly. She has exactly forty-eight hours to stop her charades and come clean about who she really is or people will die.

After she witnesses the murder of a government official, Prism goes into the witness protection program. Still scared that she isn’t safe, she comes up with a brilliant plan. She secretly switches places with another girl in the program who is on the run from a crazed bounty hunter. Instead of hiding, though, Prism steps right into the hands of the man who murdered the official.

As hours dwindle, Prism must figure out how to escape from the enemy, who is playing the part of protector and thinks she is someone else. Deeper secrets surface when Prism discovers her fake hideout is the battlegrounds for a pending war and the girl she swapped places with is the reason for the battle. Now, Prism must prove she’s not the girl she’s pretending to be, but in doing so, she risks not only her life, but the life of the girl she traded identities with, who has secrets of her own.

Excerpt:

Kallie Jenson’s obit brought tears to my eyes. The funeral was closed casket and the family recited a poem Kallie wrote the day she died. My tears were fake, though. Not because I’m cold-hearted, but because I was Kallie Jenson. Before her, I was Kimberly Jones. Now, I go by Prism Chase. No one knows me, the real me. I've been someone else for so long, I'm not sure I'd recognize myself.

This meant I was moving again. I folded the newspaper and slid it into my carryon bag. The dark clouds hinted at rain, and I snuck glances over my shoulder while I crossed the street.

I couldn’t tell people my real name. I haven’t gone by that name since junior high when I was freshly introduced to the witness protection program. I thought it would be fun and exciting. An adventure, my mama told me. I‘d be a new person. New clothes, new friends, new home, new identity. A new me.

A lot of new me's.

The airport doors slid open and I paused. Maybe I could just stop running and be me again. An older man swinging a closed umbrella mumbled something under his breath, but I couldn’t hear him and I didn’t answer.

Over time, I’ve learned never to talk to strangers, never trust anyone, especially friends, and to be suspicious of my neighbor, the librarian, and the bus driver. I couldn’t give my number to my boyfriend. Heck. I wasn’t allowed to have a boyfriend.

12 comments