Post by ajvan on Apr 30, 2018 18:31:03 GMT -5
Things seem a little quiet, but maybe I can get things started. Here's my QL, and all feedback is welcome. If anyone else speaks up I'll be more than happy to swap crits. 
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[personalized agent bit]
Eleven-year-old Casey Grimes lives where he doesn’t belong and belongs where he’s not quite living. Despite his stubborn friendliness, kids at Vintage Woods Middle School look right through him—and they’re not faking. Casey doesn’t know why he’s mostly-invisible until he climbs a colossal oak, all the way to a secret fortress, and finds he’s been living on the safe, ordinary side of an unseen border.
Desperate for a change, Casey infiltrates Sylvan Woods, a hidden forest society devoted to old and wild things. Sworn enemies to the monsters trying to invade suburbia. Even more shocking, people here can actually see him. Posing as a Sylvan girl’s cousin, Casey sneaks into Trickery School—a dangerous academy where classes are life-threatening, teachers are treacherous, and battles are as common as breakfast. For the first time in his life, he makes friends. But kids at Trickery have lost touch with the people they’re sworn to defend. Protection has become pretension and civilians like Casey are despised. If anyone finds out he’s an illegal, he could end up with more holes than a rotten rope bridge.
Keeping his identity hidden—while fighting to prove he belongs—is hard enough, but the clock is ticking. A vicious breed of monster swarms Trickery. Casey deciphers a cryptic message and discovers the truth: Sylvan Woods will be wiped off the map and he’ll return to a life of being see-through…unless he can use his climbing knack to wake the magical Sentry Trees. But that will be difficult since in Trickery, magic is so last century—and Casey Grimes doesn’t officially exist.
CASEY GRIMES AND THE SENTRY OAK is a 60,000-word dark MG fantasy where WILDWOOD meets THE UNWANTEDS with notes of LEMONY SNICKET. It’s a standalone book with series potential.
My short story, “Leviathan’s Hook,” was published in Midnight Times. I’m a SCBWI member and Pitch Wars alum. I spend much of my time wrangling kids in our hundred-year-old house, so like Sylvan Woods, I too am devoted to old and wild things.
- -
[personalized agent bit]
Eleven-year-old Casey Grimes lives where he doesn’t belong and belongs where he’s not quite living. Despite his stubborn friendliness, kids at Vintage Woods Middle School look right through him—and they’re not faking. Casey doesn’t know why he’s mostly-invisible until he climbs a colossal oak, all the way to a secret fortress, and finds he’s been living on the safe, ordinary side of an unseen border.
Desperate for a change, Casey infiltrates Sylvan Woods, a hidden forest society devoted to old and wild things. Sworn enemies to the monsters trying to invade suburbia. Even more shocking, people here can actually see him. Posing as a Sylvan girl’s cousin, Casey sneaks into Trickery School—a dangerous academy where classes are life-threatening, teachers are treacherous, and battles are as common as breakfast. For the first time in his life, he makes friends. But kids at Trickery have lost touch with the people they’re sworn to defend. Protection has become pretension and civilians like Casey are despised. If anyone finds out he’s an illegal, he could end up with more holes than a rotten rope bridge.
Keeping his identity hidden—while fighting to prove he belongs—is hard enough, but the clock is ticking. A vicious breed of monster swarms Trickery. Casey deciphers a cryptic message and discovers the truth: Sylvan Woods will be wiped off the map and he’ll return to a life of being see-through…unless he can use his climbing knack to wake the magical Sentry Trees. But that will be difficult since in Trickery, magic is so last century—and Casey Grimes doesn’t officially exist.
CASEY GRIMES AND THE SENTRY OAK is a 60,000-word dark MG fantasy where WILDWOOD meets THE UNWANTEDS with notes of LEMONY SNICKET. It’s a standalone book with series potential.
My short story, “Leviathan’s Hook,” was published in Midnight Times. I’m a SCBWI member and Pitch Wars alum. I spend much of my time wrangling kids in our hundred-year-old house, so like Sylvan Woods, I too am devoted to old and wild things.
