Post by bronniesway on May 10, 2017 7:56:47 GMT -5
(Thanks in advance, gang!)
EDIT 3: Latest version is here: querykombat.boards.net/post/405/thread
ORIGINAL:
Dear [QK judges],
IN HER OWN SKIN is a 70,000 word YA contemporary fantasy with a f/f romance subplot.
Emily doesn't know the legend of the selkies, seal people who mate with humans only to abandon their half-breed children. Everyone says her mother died in a car crash, but that doesn’t explain Emily’s childhood memory: watching her mother walk into the sea, never to return.
At sixteen, Emily is a varsity swimmer, fast enough to be at the Olympic level, until one day the chlorine burns her skin and she nearly drowns. Unable to swim again and facing another family holiday without her mother, she goes digging for the truth of her mother’s disappearance. She uncovers a bundle of her mother’s old letters, all with the same return address: an island in Nova Scotia. Not only does Emily have family there that her father never told her about, her mother appears to have had a lover. When her father refuses to give her answers, Emily resolves to go to Canada—alone.
But Emily finds no welcome among her supposed family. They won’t tell her about her mother, themselves, or why Emily is hearing voices calling her to the sea. They want to send her home. Her only help comes from Fiona, a local whose friendship forms the intimacy Emily has always wanted. Fiona wants to help Emily, the only other girl she’s met like herself, and reveals the secret: they’re daughters of selkies, a species hiding from the human world. Emily must fight for her right to her selkie heritage, and to know the truth about whether her mother is really dead, or if she willingly abandoned her. When Emily's mistake puts her new family in danger, she must choose between an ordinary human life with a father who loves her, or the lonely magic of swimming as a seal.
I have a bachelor’s degree with a concentration in Creative Writing from Eugene Lang, The New School for Liberal Arts, where I studied under Albert Mobilio of Bookforum. I have twice been admitted to the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Conference where I workshopped my fiction with an agent mentor. I am a member of SCBWI, and have acted as the Organizer of the Princeton Writing Group and as a National Novel Writing Month Municipal Liaison.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
EDIT 3: Latest version is here: querykombat.boards.net/post/405/thread
ORIGINAL:
IN HER OWN SKIN is a 70,000 word YA contemporary fantasy with a f/f romance subplot.
Emily doesn't know the legend of the selkies, seal people who mate with humans only to abandon their half-breed children. Everyone says her mother died in a car crash, but that doesn’t explain Emily’s childhood memory: watching her mother walk into the sea, never to return.
At sixteen, Emily is a varsity swimmer, fast enough to be at the Olympic level, until one day the chlorine burns her skin and she nearly drowns. Unable to swim again and facing another family holiday without her mother, she goes digging for the truth of her mother’s disappearance. She uncovers a bundle of her mother’s old letters, all with the same return address: an island in Nova Scotia. Not only does Emily have family there that her father never told her about, her mother appears to have had a lover. When her father refuses to give her answers, Emily resolves to go to Canada—alone.
But Emily finds no welcome among her supposed family. They won’t tell her about her mother, themselves, or why Emily is hearing voices calling her to the sea. They want to send her home. Her only help comes from Fiona, a local whose friendship forms the intimacy Emily has always wanted. Fiona wants to help Emily, the only other girl she’s met like herself, and reveals the secret: they’re daughters of selkies, a species hiding from the human world. Emily must fight for her right to her selkie heritage, and to know the truth about whether her mother is really dead, or if she willingly abandoned her. When Emily's mistake puts her new family in danger, she must choose between an ordinary human life with a father who loves her, or the lonely magic of swimming as a seal.
I have a bachelor’s degree with a concentration in Creative Writing from Eugene Lang, The New School for Liberal Arts, where I studied under Albert Mobilio of Bookforum. I have twice been admitted to the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature One-on-One Conference where I workshopped my fiction with an agent mentor. I am a member of SCBWI, and have acted as the Organizer of the Princeton Writing Group and as a National Novel Writing Month Municipal Liaison.
Thank you for your time and consideration,