Post by wschneider412 on May 13, 2017 9:24:35 GMT -5
Didn't realize this was going on until now! Hope I'm not too late to post my query. Thanks!!
Dear XXX,
Please consider FOLLOW THE SUN, coming-of-age historical YA with a romantic subplot and strong crossover appeal, complete at 78,000 words.
In 1969, Millicent Jackson (Jackie) hides out among the crowds of the Woodstock music festival, reeling in the aftermath of her agonizing decision to run away from her hometown of Everton, West Virginia. She can’t go back, not after discovering the cruel plan her parents have in store for her four-year-old sister, Evie, who suffers from an unknown disability. If Evie isn’t in Everton, then Jackie can’t be either. It’s not as if she really fit in there anyway. Her family is the only interracial one she’s ever heard of. She has a tiny bit of a problem with her temper. She’s constantly butting heads with her June Cleaver-ish mother and older sister. And, she can’t shake her growing attraction to Eddie, who happens to be the boyfriend of one of her friends. Unfortunately, screwing up and pissing people off aren’t acceptable post-graduation goals–and that’s exactly where she excels–so, unlike the rest of her friends, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life after their upcoming senior year. In fact, the only goal that’s consumed Jackie’s mind for the past six months is to locate someone with an explanation for the ailments plaguing Evie, the one person she feels truly “gets” her.
Her parents accept their small town doctor’s generic, “I dunno,” diagnosis that Evie was born with physical and mental impairments and will remain “slow” her entire life, but Jackie doesn’t buy it. Evie wasn’t born that way; she changed a couple of years back. Unbeknownst to her parents, Jackie spends months secretly mailing letters to various doctors around the country, convinced that if she can find one expert with a possible explanation for Evie’s regression, it will force her parents to choose a path toward finding a cure rather than blind acceptance. That’s a lot to handle for a seventeen-year-old, though, and no amount of getting drunk with her flower child friends or flirting herself deeper into the expanding Eddie-hole keeps Evie’s troubles from constantly gnawing away at the back of her mind. That is, until a reclusive old lady who moved to their neighborhood from Europe reveals that she knows of a doctor in Austria who might have an answer to the riddle that is Evie, and Jackie’s world begins to brighten. But, Evie’s disability becomes too much for her mother and father to handle, and they make plans to remove her from Jackie’s life.
As Woodstock ends, Jackie’s time runs out. She must decide to either find a new life elsewhere or return home to be an advocate for her sister and fight against her parents in a decision that she knows is not hers to make.
Set against the backdrop of the turmoil in our country during the Vietnam War, FOLLOW THE SUN brings attention to Rett syndrome, a debilitating genetic neurological disorder discovered in 1966 that affects one in every 10,000 girls. My manuscript focuses on how the frustration of not knowing the truth affects every single member of a family. This is a frustration I know all too well, as my own daughter, originally misdiagnosed with autism, was finally correctly diagnosed with Rett syndrome when she was three. This is also an #ownvoices manuscript, as Jackie is biracial, with a white mother and black father, and so am I.
I am currently in my eighth year of teaching sixth grade literacy and social studies to classes that include students with disabilities, providing me with the opportunity to be around these amazing children in every aspect of my life.
I have included the first ten pages of my manuscript below, per your submission guidelines. A full manuscript is available upon request.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Dear XXX,
Please consider FOLLOW THE SUN, coming-of-age historical YA with a romantic subplot and strong crossover appeal, complete at 78,000 words.
In 1969, Millicent Jackson (Jackie) hides out among the crowds of the Woodstock music festival, reeling in the aftermath of her agonizing decision to run away from her hometown of Everton, West Virginia. She can’t go back, not after discovering the cruel plan her parents have in store for her four-year-old sister, Evie, who suffers from an unknown disability. If Evie isn’t in Everton, then Jackie can’t be either. It’s not as if she really fit in there anyway. Her family is the only interracial one she’s ever heard of. She has a tiny bit of a problem with her temper. She’s constantly butting heads with her June Cleaver-ish mother and older sister. And, she can’t shake her growing attraction to Eddie, who happens to be the boyfriend of one of her friends. Unfortunately, screwing up and pissing people off aren’t acceptable post-graduation goals–and that’s exactly where she excels–so, unlike the rest of her friends, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life after their upcoming senior year. In fact, the only goal that’s consumed Jackie’s mind for the past six months is to locate someone with an explanation for the ailments plaguing Evie, the one person she feels truly “gets” her.
Her parents accept their small town doctor’s generic, “I dunno,” diagnosis that Evie was born with physical and mental impairments and will remain “slow” her entire life, but Jackie doesn’t buy it. Evie wasn’t born that way; she changed a couple of years back. Unbeknownst to her parents, Jackie spends months secretly mailing letters to various doctors around the country, convinced that if she can find one expert with a possible explanation for Evie’s regression, it will force her parents to choose a path toward finding a cure rather than blind acceptance. That’s a lot to handle for a seventeen-year-old, though, and no amount of getting drunk with her flower child friends or flirting herself deeper into the expanding Eddie-hole keeps Evie’s troubles from constantly gnawing away at the back of her mind. That is, until a reclusive old lady who moved to their neighborhood from Europe reveals that she knows of a doctor in Austria who might have an answer to the riddle that is Evie, and Jackie’s world begins to brighten. But, Evie’s disability becomes too much for her mother and father to handle, and they make plans to remove her from Jackie’s life.
As Woodstock ends, Jackie’s time runs out. She must decide to either find a new life elsewhere or return home to be an advocate for her sister and fight against her parents in a decision that she knows is not hers to make.
Set against the backdrop of the turmoil in our country during the Vietnam War, FOLLOW THE SUN brings attention to Rett syndrome, a debilitating genetic neurological disorder discovered in 1966 that affects one in every 10,000 girls. My manuscript focuses on how the frustration of not knowing the truth affects every single member of a family. This is a frustration I know all too well, as my own daughter, originally misdiagnosed with autism, was finally correctly diagnosed with Rett syndrome when she was three. This is also an #ownvoices manuscript, as Jackie is biracial, with a white mother and black father, and so am I.
I am currently in my eighth year of teaching sixth grade literacy and social studies to classes that include students with disabilities, providing me with the opportunity to be around these amazing children in every aspect of my life.
I have included the first ten pages of my manuscript below, per your submission guidelines. A full manuscript is available upon request.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
) What her friends don’t know, however, is that she has no intention of returning home with them when it’s over. But, how can she just split and leave the one person who truly “gets” her behind? (This is the only thing that strongly stands out to me at this point, because agents don't like rhetorical questions in queries. Make it more about Jackie and her deeply personal quandry.) As Woodstock ends, Jackie’s time runs out. She must decide to either find a new life elsewhere or return home to be an advocate for her sister and fight against her parents in a decision that she knows is not hers to make. 
