QK Agent Round 1: The Nose Knows, Adult Cont Fantasy Ownvoices

Title: The End of the World as We Know it

Entry Nickname: The Nose Knows

Word Count: 69k

Genre: Adult contemporary fantasy. Ownvoice--Latino (two of the multiple POVs)

QK Agent Round 2: Stands By Until He Doesn't, Literary Thriller

Title: The Henchman

Entry Nickname:  Stands By Until He Doesn't

Word count: 97,700

Genre:  Literary Thriller

QK Agent Round 3: She's Fast, He's Furious, Contemporary Sports Romance

Title: Circuit of Attraction

Entry Nickname: She’s Fast, He’s Furious

Word count: 87K

Genre: Adult Contemporary Sports Romance

QK Agent Round 4: Hero by Default, YA Urban Fantasy

Title: The Mortal Coil

Entry Nickname: Hero by Default

Word count: 80K

Genre: Young Adult Urban Fantasy

QK Agent Round 5: Book Boys Gone Wild, YA Contemporary Fantasy

Title: Paper Seeds

Entry Nickname: Book Boys Gone Wild!

Word count: 109k

Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy

QK Agent Round 6: Boy Band Ninja Assassins, YA Adventure Comedy

Title: LETH5L: DEEP CUTS

Entry Nickname: Boy Band Ninja Assassins

Word Count: 80K

Genre: YA Adventure Comedy

QK Agent Round 7: We Kinda Destroyed Paris, YA Contemporary Fantasy OwnVoices

Title: THE BONES OF PARIS

Entry Nickname: We kinda destroyed Paris

Word count: 72K

Genre: YA contemporary fantasy
It's OWN VOICES as Skye's gay (I identify as queer due to being physically attracted to men but bi-romantic)

QK Agent Round 8: Dogs and Chickens and Dragons, Oh My!, MG Contemporary Fantasy

Title: Flecka Wivern and Her Two Pet Dragons

Entry Nickname: Dogs and Chickens and Dragons, Oh My!

Word Count: 43,000

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary Fantasy

QK Agent Round 9: Perfectly Imperfect Princess, MG Fantasy

Title: Penelope Charming and the Poisoned Glass Slippers

Entry Nickname: Perfectly Imperfect Princess

Word Count: 53K

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

QK Agent Round 10: Alabama Witch Hunters, MG Horror

Title: Bubba T. Jones: Southern Fried Witch Hunter

Entry Nickname: Alabama Witch Hunters

Word Count: 45,000

Genre: MG Horror 

Guest Post from Sandi Ward on Creating an Unconventional Narrator

Using an Unconventional Narrator to Tell A One-Of-A-Kind Story

Choosing a point of view (POV) for your novel may come naturally to you, rather than being a conscious choice. I imagine most authors simply start thinking of a story either from inside a character’s head (“I started to shake as the vampire opened his eyes…”), or they see it from outside (“The vampire’s eyes clicked open, and Jeremy shuddered”). A story organically grows from this key decision, which must be one of the very first choices a writer makes as a story idea unfolds.

Writing in first person

I always write from a first person point of view, because I like to get very close with my protagonist. I need to know everything about the character—her thoughts, feelings, background, friends and family—in order to have her tell a compelling story. First person allows me to totally inhabit a character. It’s an intimate form of story-telling, one where you are getting a specific viewpoint.

Voice

Once you’ve decided on first person, it’s important to think about voice. Rather than being omniscient, a first-person narrative demands an opinionated point of view and a unique way of thinking. Your character’s background and experiences means that she will make judgments and choices that reflect her own POV, not that of the author. Her family, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education and other factors influence who she is.

Unexpected voices: 3 examples

Sometimes, an author takes a leap and sees the world from inside the head of a character you might not expect to tell such a tale, with fantastic results. For example, the classic The Boy in the Striped Pajamas tells a story of the Holocaust—from the point of view of a young boy in a Nazi family. The reader only slowly learns the truth of what’s happening in the story, and the reader has a better understanding of the big picture than the young boy ever does. It’s a truly unique read.

Another example is The Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. This story is told from the POV of an autistic teenager who wants to solve a mystery: who murdered his neighbor’s dog? As a reader, we marvel at the main character’s observations and quirks (including numbering the chapters with only prime numbers), chuckle empathetically at his misunderstandings (although we are able to see what he missed), and ultimately feel his pain at the changes going on in his life.

As a last example, in my debut novel, The Astonishing Thing, I present a story about a troubled family from the point of view of the family cat. Our pets are witnesses to our private moments; they hear our confessions and are the keepers of our secrets. My protagonist, Boo, doesn’t understand everything going on in her family. Like a smart little girl, she isn’t completely familiar with concepts like mental illness and divorce. But she wants her family to be happy and safe, and provides a unique way of looking at the world.

The unreliable narrator

Sometimes an author goes a step further and tells a story using an unreliable narrator; examples include the hit novels The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Especially in a murder mystery, you can create fantastic twists and turns if narrators lie, omit information, or can’t remember events due to alcoholic blackouts. It can make for a thrilling reader experience.

Advantages and disadvantages

One disadvantage of using first person is that you can never leave that character’s head. The main character can only guess at what others are thinking—but sometimes that can lead to interesting misunderstandings or assumptions, creating further drama. So you may be able to turn that disadvantage into an effective narrative device.

Using an unconventional narrator can be a great way to experiment, get creative, and pull more drama out of a traditional story. Have fun with it and happy writing!

BIO

Sandi Ward grew up in Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts. She went to Tufts University, and then received her MA in Creative Writing at New York University.  She now lives on the Jersey Shore with her husband, teenagers, dog and a large black cat named Winnie. Sandi is a medical writer at an advertising agency. The Astonishing Thing is her debut novel.

 

         

www.sandiwardbooks.com

Twitter/Instagram @sandiwardbooks

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sandiwardbooks/

Pre-order THE ASTONISHING THING, the story of a troubled family seen through the eyes of their cat, on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2mK6KoS

Query Kombat First Round Winners

This is a list of the winners from this blog only. These winners had their first round matchups on this blog.

Be Grateful for Cookies
Switcher
Girl of your Nightmares
Estella + Aryon
Three Men and an Actuary
I Fell for a Convicted Felon
From Gutters to Galleries
Nowhere Land
Delicous Vicious Cycles
Alternate Facts
Life as a Dumpster Fire
Asteroid Snacks

Congrats! Please return your revised entry for the agent round by 8:00 am on Tuesday. Use the exact same format and the contest email address. You may put REVISED in your subject line.

Winning on this blog does not mean you will assigned here for the agent round. 

I hope the feedback from judges and contestants is helpful to everyone! Best of luck to all! 

Query Kombat 2017 First Round

Get that thick skin in place because here we go! Round 1

Hop on over to Mike's and Laura's blogs to see the rest of the match-ups and entries! They are spread all over the place. Some here, some there. We've got a little bit of everything: Adult/NA, YA, and MG! This round lasts until June 5th at 8 pm.

On the last day the hosts will call out for extra judges to come and break ties, or in case of extra close votes to try and get a more decisive margin. In the event a tie remains, the blog host will provide the tie breaker.

The entry with the most votes for Victory moves forward to the agent round on June 7th! Kombatants will have a chance to revise at that time. Hosts will also pick one eliminated entry to "save" that will be featured in the agent round but not move ahead to Round 2.

Winning entries must be revised and returned to QueryKombat (at) gmail (dot) com by Tuesday, June 6th at 8:00 am Eastern. Follow the exact same format in the original post. If you don't submit a revised entry by 8 am, we'll post the original in the agent round.

Now before we begin:

Read this post again to remind yourselves of the rules and guidelines of commenting and judging. Below I've reposted the main ideas:

Reminders for the Entrants:

You may comment on your own entries after voting has ended to offer thanks or congrats. Do not otherwise respond to or explain feedback. If there is a problem with your entry, shout out to us on twitter as soon as you can. (@Michelle9Hauck) If you don't have Twitter, you may comment on your entry telling us the mistake. Also, we tried our hardest to make the match-ups as fair as possible and against as similar stories as possible. But, obviously, this is impossible to do perfectly and some match-ups may seen very random. We apologize for this but it's an evil of the system.

Kombatants should comment on 6 other match-ups to help share the love around! But Kombatants do not cast votes. Please do not comment until after the blog host leaves a comment for the judge votes.

Reminders for the Judges:

Wait until after one of us hosts comments on each entry first and reply to that comment to cast your votes. Try making your votes objective instead of subjective (but if you really love an entry subjectively, don't even feel bad about saying it was a subjective vote - subjectivity rules!). Be sure to point out the good as well as what needs work. Post under your nicknames! If you forget, just delete and repost. And judges: seriously, thank you for doing this. It's a very tough job and isn't for the faint-hearted.

Reminders for Everyone:

Try not to comment until after one of us hosts have made the first comment, then go ahead and offer your feedback. We ask everyone who entered Query Kombat to leave at least one comment.

NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!! GO GO GO!!! We'll be Tweeting under #QueryKombat!

And may the odds be ever in your favor!