Thursday, October 27, 2016

NoQS Minion 7: SIX MEANS FORTUNE, YA Dark Fantasy

TITLE: SIX MEANS FORTUNE
GENRE: YA, Dark Fantasy
WORD COUNT: 90,000

My Main Character's Most Stressful Relationship:

Ben's struggle is with his new leader, Fortune. The boy is absolutely obsessed with dice and numbers and demands to have 'order and balance.' However, that order comes from a whimsical roll of the die and often times leads to some of Ben's friend's deaths. Ben tries to find a way to freedom but Fortune really is the only one to save the land from invasion, so now Ben has to find a way to save himself.


QUERY: 

The children in Ben’s world watch for the Dark Carriage, because wherever it goes young people vanish and never return.

When the Dark Carriage comes for seventeen-year-old Ben, he’s thrown into a secret society of abducted children–– called the Six Sections, headed by a psychopathic fifteen-year-old who goes by the name of Fortune. The rules, courses of action, and even a member’s rank is determined by the roll of the dice in Fortune’s hand. At first Ben searches for a way to escape his living nightmare of reckless teens, but he soon discovers the truth: the Six Sections are the last garrison between his home and a rising, destructive power. 

North of the commune, Fortune’s sister, the wild Criminal Princess, is planning to destroy Ben’s homeland with her armies. The only thing between her and domination is the Six Sections. But while Fortune braces himself for war, rebellion simmers in his ranks. Ben is torn. If he rebels with his fellow victims against Fortune, he’ll be free. But then no one is left to stop the Criminal Princess from destroying everything Ben loves. To save his homeland, Ben has to stay in the society and fight with them. But Fortune is as unpredictable as the dice in his hand, and friends become enemies as the Six Sections crumble. 


250 words:

It was summer; it should not have been snowing.

Ben swallowed. He craned his neck to stare up at the bruised sky, watching the white dots dance. The ice-coated cobblestones rolled out before him, every crack in the road filling with snow. The winds shrieked in front of his face and numbed his hands. His breath vaporized on the icy air.

Ben shivered, huddling in his coat. He rushed through the square on his wobbly legs. His ears rang and cold lungs burned.

Silence shattered as the winds screamed against the houses, where everyone had taken refuge, echoing and shuddering through the earth. Nothing alive moved except his scuffing feet on the street and the unnatural weather. If only the courthouse hadn’t kept him so late.

The city of Yri was dead.

His heartbeat raced and his breath strained from the summer snowstorm, adding to his stress.

Something behind him stirred.

Ben squinted in the winter veils, looking over his shoulder. Nothing moved; the city’s corpse spread miles beyond him and the dim streetlights cast angry shadows on the ground.

Ben fought the wind throwing his balance off to get home to his family and new fiancée Risha.

A set of hooves rang in his ears.

He stopped. Perhaps his father, the Baron, had come to save him.

A shadow moved up the town’s buildings.

Ben swayed in the wind, reaching and clinging the city square’s fountain-rim, blinking flakes from his stinging eyes. He prepared his voice to call out to his father.

5 comments:

  1. Alec Shane, Writers House

    Sounds awesome - 50 pages please

    ashane@writershouse.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. *Shiver* I would like to see the first ten pages! Please include the query and synopsis in the body of the email, attach pages, and send to alex@inklingsliterary.com with Subject line "#NoQS Request: [YOUR TITLE]." Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scream! Please send the full as a word doc with query and synopsis in the body of your email, NoQs in the subj line to spquery@mcintoshandotis.com Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shiver! Please include query + pitch in the body of your email. Send to clelia@martinliterarymanagement.com including #NoQs in the subject line. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Screaming at this - SEND THE FULL.

    uwe@triadaus.com

    ReplyDelete