Title: Prom Theory
Word Count: 62,000
Genre: YA Contemporary
Query:
High school junior IRIS is tired of her paired-up classmates
hanging on each other like damp towels. She doesn’t get what the big deal is. Love is nothing more than chemistry,
the class everyone else wants to skip. When her friend, Esther decides to cash
in IQ points for cleavage and giggles to get a prom date. Iris sets out to
prove that love is a pointless misuse of science by setting up experiments
designed to make the hottest guy in school, fall in love with her.
Every mad scientist needs an assistant, so Iris drafts her
next-door-neighbor, SETH, commonly known as SQUEAK, to help her prove her
point. Squeak has been her best friend for as long as since grade school. After so many years their hormones and brains should
respond to each other as siblings.
Usually willing and eager to be Iris’s minion, Squeak suddenly seems preoccupied with something other
than her likely future Nobel Prize. Instead, he is strangely focused on
ensuring the academic success of the pom-pom squad’s most popular cheerleader. But something is different about Squeak these days…
something other than his increased height and a noticeable lack
of “squeak” when
he talks. As her experiments become more complicated, so do her inexplicable
feelings for the boy next door.
When Iris's hypothesis proves true, she finds herself trapped at
prom in a dark corner with an over-sexed hunk whose chiseled features and
muscular physique are suddenly intimidating and all too quickly bordering on
dangerous. In the end, it's up to unassuming, geeky Squeak to rescue her from
Theo's unwanted advances and prove that love -- real love -- has nothing to do
with synthetic pheromones and balanced equations.
First 250 words:
“You and your father blame Spinoza for everything,”
my mom said as we pulled up to the side entry of Hillcrest High.
“That’s
because Spinoza is usually to blame,” I
said.
Thanks to my mother’s
ferret, we were fifteen minutes late. Twenty-five minutes later than I’d planned. I needed to get to my locker early. Before the buses,
before the noise. I had to line my books up in my locker in the order of my
classes—it was lab day. She knew my routine.
“Spinoza is chaos in a tube.”
My mother gasped and glared at me. Curls pulled free from her
hasty attempt at a ponytail. “She is not a tube! She’s a free spirit.”
I was immediately ashamed. Bad enough I was going to be a hot
mess trying to get things under control all day. But that didn’t mean I had to be nasty and ruin my mother’s morning as well.
“Sorry, you’re
right. She’s a ferret. It’s her nature.”
Her frown ssoftened.
Spinoza hadn’t only made me late by
stealing the car keys but kept my mother from drinking her usual second and
third cup of coffee. That didn’t
bode well for anyone or anything, including my mother’s attention span.
We found the keys in her Georgia O’Keeffe tote bag, I could
never look at it for more than a few seconds. The painting on the bag looked
like a vagina, not an orchid. Some would say it was art, I say it was
unsettling.
Could I please see the first 50 pages as a Word document to queryjennifer [at] lizadawson [dot] com? Thank you! -Jennifer Johnson-Blalock
ReplyDeleteI would love to read more! Please send the first 50 pages (rounded to the nearest chapter's end) as a word document to whitley@inklingsliterary.com. And if you don't mind, could you also include your query letter on the first page of the word doc?
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Sounds interesting! Could you send the first 50 pages as a Word document to kyra@aplusbworks.com with New Agent in the subject line? I look forward to reading! Kyra
ReplyDeleteI'd love to read more! Can you please send a brief synopsis & the first three chapters to lowesqueries@thebentagency.com? Thank you!
ReplyDeletePlease send via email to alex@inklingsliterary.com with the synopsis in the body and the first two chapters attached. Make sure to put "#NewAgent" and the title in the subject line. Thanks!
ReplyDelete