Wednesday, June 8, 2016

QK 2016 Agent Round 2: DEFINITELY NOT ABOUT DONALD DRUMPF, Political Thriller

Title: Nineteen Hours
Entry Nickname: Definitely NOT About Donald Drumpf
Word count: 80K
Genre: Political Thriller


Query:

Libby Little has given up her dream of Olympic glory for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be the personal aide to Catherine ‘Cat’ Jefferson, the first black, female presidential nominee. 

When she arrives at work on the morning of Election Day, Libby expects to enjoy the relative calm before the exciting storm of results. But before the first hour is through, she discovers powerful Party donors are blackmailing Cat with a secret that could decide everything in this neck-and-neck race.

Unless she agrees to nominate their cronies to Cabinet posts, the donors will tell the world that Cat had an affair with an Iraqi informant during the first Gulf War that led to an illegal abortion on a military base. They want a “partner” in the White House and if Cat won’t play ball, they can wait four years for a candidate who will.

Libby supports Cat’s unpopular decision to expose the secret herself. But the minute it's out, the campaign is rocked to its foundations. Amidst the chaos, Libby uncovers a campaign leak that if exposed, will ruin any chance she has with the special agent she loves.

Over nineteen hours, Libby faces irate supporters, violent protestors, the barrel of a gun and her own broken heart. She must decide how much to sacrifice for her candidate and her country. 

First 250:

5:14 a.m.

I was fourteen minutes late on the day that changed the country. With my head buried in briefing notes, I stumbled out of taxi in front of Senator Catherine Jefferson’s brick mansion. At the wrought iron gate, I reached up to press the intercom, but froze before I touched the button.

Two matching, silver Bentleys idled at the end of the driveway, intimately close to the front door. My mouth dropped open and I fumbled for the phone in my pocket, then watched the agonizingly slow rotation of its rainbow-colored logo while I waited for the finalized Election Day schedule to load. When at last it did, it confirmed what I already knew – the senator wasn’t planning to meet with the Roche brothers. Certainly not at five-fourteen in the morning. Shit.

I wracked my brain, trying to remember if anyone had mentioned Statler and Waldorf, as the biggest of the big donors were unaffectionately known to our campaign. Had I missed something at the briefing last night? I took a deep breath and pressed the intercom.

“Come on in, Big Red.” The muffled voice that answered belonged to our campaign manager, Carter James. 

Carter loved nicknames. Prided himself on them. But Big Red was too obvious – drawn from my alma mater Cornell and the fact that I am six foot two.

6 comments:

  1. WILD CARD
    I would love a chance to take a look. Please feel free to send the full and query along with the synopsis to acquisitions@curiosityquills.com #QueryKombat Requested Materials" in the subject line. Thanks! And good luck :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much - I really appreciate the request!

      Delete
  2. I would like to see more! Please include the query and synopsis in the body of the email, attach pages, and send to alex@inklingsliterary.com with Subject line "Query Kombat Request: [YOUR TITLE]." Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Drats! I couldn't comment earlier today, and now Alex's beat me to this one.

    If Alex ends up passing though, please send your query and synopsis in the email body and pages as a word doc to whitley@inklingsliterary.com. And if you wouldn't mind, please include your query letter on the first page of the doc as well.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you so much for the request!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'd love to see more! Please send pages to query@newleafliterary.com with "QUERY KOMBAT Request" and "Jackie" in the subject line.

    ReplyDelete