Saturday, October 25, 2014

NoQS Minion 11: THE GIRL WHO WAS ORDINARY, UNTIL SHE WASN'T, MG Light Sci-Fi

Title: THE GIRL WHO WAS ORDINARY, UNTIL SHE WASN'T
Genre: MG Light Sci-Fi
Word Count: 75,000

My Main Character's Most Fearsome Obstacle:

Despite spending most of her time hanging out with video game addicts and online villains, Jane's biggest fear has always been her parents. Oh, they're not cruel or hateful, or anything like that. But they won't rest until they see their daughter change from a shy, ordinary girl to... something extraordinary. When Jane was a child, they terrorized her with blue hair dye, live exotic animals and unwanted piano lessons. As a teenager, they're taking her out of her comfortable private school and throwing her into the horrors of public school. And that's plenty scary.

Query:

Fifteen-year-old Jane Hale has two hundred and eighty three days left to do something extraordinary, or she’ll need to find herself a new set of parents. She doesn't have to save the world or anything, mind you, but if she doesn't give the Hales at least one interesting story to share with their relatives, they’re cutting their losses and trading her in for a less-boring daughter.

Luckily for Jane, "interesting" is what her new friend Billy does best. He’s an awkward hug away from admitting he’s her boyfriend; unfortunately, he’s also addicted to a virtual reality world that’s being terrorized by a villain run amok. It’s simple, really; all Jane has to do is infiltrate the virtual world as Billy's spy, to help him apprehend the fiend. In exchange, Billy promises a much-needed new identity.

Things get considerably less simple when Jane fails in her task . . . and accidentally starts a virtual war in the process. She needs Billy’s help to set things straight, which is rather inconvenient, as he’s managed to disappear from both worlds when things are at their worst. Desperate, Jane must go offline, teaming up with the hated villain on an international mission to bring Billy home. Along the way, they discover a chilling secret about the virtual world she’s come to love. 


And she’ll have just one chance to rescue her boyfriend, save her world, and figure out if being ordinary is really so bad after all. 





First 250 Words:

There was absolutely nothing special about Jane.

Jane Hale was as ordinary as could be, from her mouse-brown hair to the toes of her plain canvas shoes. She never took home an A+ from school, never scored the winning goal, never went to the big parties and never even tried to disobey her parents. Of course, the Hales were always there, from her not-so-terrible twos, right up to her not-so-troublesome pre-teen years, reminding her of what a special little girl she was. Mr. and Mrs. Hale beamed and coaxed and fussed, and they always claimed to take pride in their daughter’s overwhelmingly dull life.

They lied.

For years, Mr. and Mrs. Hale fought off tears of boredom every time they thought about Jane. And so they tried desperately to change their daughter’s ways. They signed her up for music lessons (she could almost play the piano), bought her exotic pets (she was afraid of all of them) and even enrolled her in private school (the addition of a school uniform only made her more difficult to locate in a crowd). It was no use. Jane’s blandness defied them year after year.

But this year was going to be different.

At precisely 8:00 AM on the morning of September the 4th, Jane’s bedroom door swung open and Jane skidded out into the hallway, tugging at her pleated skirt and pulling up her knee-high socks. Can’t be late, she thought to herself as she raced across the purple hardwood floor toward the stairs. Oh no, oh, no, oh no.

3 comments:

  1. Shiver! Please send the pages, synopsis and query to chquery@mcintoshandotis.com, and please put Nightmare on Query Street request in the subject line.

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  2. SCREAM
    Please feel free to send the full manuscript as a word document to met at andrea@harveyklinger.com, and please put NoQS in the subject line. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shiver! Please send me the pages in Word doc format, as well as the pitch and your bio, to my email address at Clelia@martinliterarymanagement.com. #NoQs in the subject line will help me recognize it.

    ReplyDelete