The contest instructions ask that I share my query and first 250 words of my YA Contemporary Fantasy THE GLASS PRINCE, here on my blog. So, here it is ~ I hope you enjoy it!
Query:
Dear Writer's Voice Coaches of Awesomeness:
Clara Knight wants nothing more than to perfect her baking skills, enjoy her seventeenth birthday party with friends, and go to Prom with her super-popular boyfriend. But then Rion rolls into town, complete with golden-boy good looks and a sexy British accent. When he kisses her in front of her party guests, all social-hell breaks loose.
Clara flees to upstate New York, accepting her estranged Grandma’s invitation to spend the summer with her. Grandma did promise to unveil some secret family tradition, after all. What Clara actually learns is that she shares a curse with Rion, and that he is an immortal fairy-tale prince her family is bound to help. Too bad he seems more interested in kissing Clara than breaking curses.
When a family heirloom and moonlight whoosh her away to the prince’s hometown of Elysia, five-hundred years in the past, Clara finds a cryptic riddle – her first clue to breaking the curse. As she digs deeper into her family’s past, she realizes that Dad’s death, always thought to be an accident, might have actually been murder. And when she starts to suspect that Grandma is working against her, she realizes that working with the boy she loves to hate is her only chance for survival.
THE GLASS PRINCE is complete at 72,500 words and I’m happy to send sample pages, if you’d like to read them. I have a BA in English, am a member of SCBWI, the League of Utah Writer’s and the Pied Pipers online critique group. I also try to attend at least one writing conference every year. And, of course, I’m always reading. I truly appreciate your time and consideration. .
First 250:
Someone rang my doorbell as if he’d accidentally super-glued his finger to the button. My neck muscles tightened with every annoying ding. A small window of time existed between taking hot cinnamon buns out of the oven and cooling them off just enough for the perfect glazing. If this idiot made me miss my window, heads were gonna roll.
I whipped the door open with dramatic flair and glared. I found a random delivery guy standing there. My eyes softened as I took in his golden waves of hair. He wore sunglasses. A curious tiara-sporting apple emblem stood out on his shirt pocket and his entire outfit, really, was head-to-toe crap, but somehow he managed to pull it off. At least, my heart thought so. Its beat quickened as I noticed all that muscle definition rippling the fabric of his uniform. And his tan? Heck. Who needed Tylenol for a stiff neck? Bring me a cute boy and “Cured!” Did ‘cute’ even do this guy justice, though? The tension in my face melted like ice cream on an oven-warm brownie.
“Can,” I paused to clear my throat. “Sorry. Can I help you?”
The boy chuckled and smiled. Or did he smirk?
“I’m here to wish you a happy seventeenth birthday, Clara,” he said, in a cool accent that made my whole body tingle. He held a large silvery envelope, so shiny I could almost see my reflection in it. “And to give you this.”
My hand crept up to my hair.
And that's it! Thanks to all who stop by and best of luck to all of the Writer's Voice contest participants!! :)
