CONTEST IS CLOSED!
If you missed this month's contest, another is coming August 1! Like us on Facebook, follow the blog, or follow us individually so you won't miss the announcement.
Don't forget to come back for the Mystery Agent and winner reveal!
It's time for our July Mystery Agent contest with a twist -- FIRST LINES!
Here's a quick reminder of what our awesome Mystery Agent is looking for:
Middle grade and YA novels, especially contemporary, historical, fantasy, and reinvented fairy tale.
The rules:
1) Entries must be left in the comments section of today's post (please
don't email us your entries!) -- don't pay attention to the comment
numbers. We'll close the contest when we've reached our limit.
2) You must have a completed manuscript that's ready to send upon request.
3) You can only enter once today (only one project). If you participated
or won previous MA contests, you can enter this one as well.
4) Please include TITLE and GENRE along with your first line.
5) Include your FIRST SENTENCE. The exact word count is up to you, but please remember to make it sing!
6) The contest will close when we receive 50 entries.
7) The winner will receive a FULL manuscript request! The Mystery Agent will request 10 pages and query from THREE RUNNERS UP.
8) If the rules aren't followed, your entry will be disqualified. Please read the guidelines and follow them.
Good luck to all who enter!
56 comments:
Gail N.
Ex-Drama Queen
Middle Grade Contemporary
Wednesday, September 6th is the day my life will change.
Heather Hawke
RAVEN’S WING
YA fantasy
My mother pulled me by the hand so I hung suspended for a moment before my toes touched down.
Author: Tonja Drecker
Title: MUSIC BOXES
Genre: Middle-grade fantasy /fairy tale
Momma and Papa insisted that the move to New York was the best thing for all of them, but when Lindsey stared up at the dismal apartment house, she knew they were wrong.
Title: Diamond Tears
Genre: YA Fantasy
First Sentence: When my left temple slammed into the refrigerator door, I knew I’d have to get up extra early the next morning.
Author: Jenny Kaczorowski
Title: THE ALTERAE
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
First Sentence: Alex eased his body into the kitchen and closed the door behind his back.
Author: A W Exley
Title: OBSIDIAN EYES
Genre: YA Steampunk
First Sentence: Allie glared out the thick glass window at the giant elm, its skeletal form turned to bleached bone by the snow and ice.
UNFAMILIAR SPELLINGS
YA Fantasy
It was way too early to be awake, and this idea was stupid.
Name: Bethany Smith
Title: Restless
Genre: YA ghost story
First Sentence: I fiddled with the tassel on my graduation cap and thought about all the things leaving high school would not change.
Stacy Stokes
THE STAIRS AND THE FLY
YA Magical Realism
I thought about death at least twice the week before I died, but it wasn’t my death I was obsessed with.
Author: Christine L. Arnold
Title: In Genevieve’s Grotto
Genre: YA Fantasy
I drowned my last school.
Author: Danielle DeVor
Title: Constructing Matthew
Genre: YA Paranormal
First Line: There’s just something about looking at a cardboard box.
Jaye Robin Brown
SING TO THE WIND
YA Contempoary
The man talking on the local news has it out for me.
Author: Jamie Grey
Title: Time Bound
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
First Sentence: There was nothing quite like the smell of tuna to set the mood for a first date.
Author: Ava Jae
Title: REAPER
Genre: YA Paranormal
First Sentence: I don’t usually think much when making out with my girlfriend, but right now I think I might be dying.
Name: Jessica Leake
Title: SYLVAN LEGACY
Genre: YA historical fantasy
First Sentence: The horse's hooves thunder across the hillside, and my heart pounds with each bunching of his muscles.
Author: Ilima Todd
Title: REMAKE
Genre: futuristic YA
First Sentence: Male or female—my finger hesitates over the touch screen, unsure.
NAME: Jessica Lawson
TITLE: The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher
GENRE: MG Retelling (of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
FIRST SENTENCE:
Creeping back over our white picket fence, I twitched at the tickle of a nightboy on my throat.
Author: Triona Murphy
Title: THE LONG-TIMERS
Genre: YA sci-fi thriller
My uncle was only 152 when he died, but five hundred people showed up for his funeral anyway.
Author - Kimberly Ann Miller
Title - TRUSTING TRINITY
Genre - Middle Grade Adventure
First Sentence - If I heard the words “anal probe” one more time, I was going to explode.
Amber Clites
AWAKENINGS
YA fantasy
A chilling breeze swept through the treeline, teasing and swirling the ends of my hair, while assailing my senses with the rich, tangy scent of the earth washed clean from the constant downpour of rain.
Title: IT'S ALL GEEK TO ME
Genre: Contemporary MG
First Sentence:
My dad’s been trying to turn me into a computer geek my whole life.
Thunderbird Dreams
MG Historical Fantasy
Not that I’m afraid or anything, ‘cause I’m not, but when a high-pitched wail rises in the chilly night, I pull the quilt up to my eyeballs and scooch closer to my sisters.
Title: THE HALO
Genre: YA fantasy
First sentence: Plants I get; they have guidelines.
Stephanie Cardel
MISSING CERULEAN BLUE
YA Fantasy
First Sentence:
Grief hovered over us like a third passenger with arctic breath and fingers of ice that stabbed our hearts with each reminder of her.
Author: Nikki Urang
Title: BROKEN
Genre: YA Dark Contemporary
Red and blue lights dance off the roof of my mother’s car.
Elaine Vickers
DISCOVERING ISAAC
Contemporary Middle Grade
I'd rather have my nose hairs yanked out one by one in front of the whole sixth grade while wearing only yesterday’s underwear than play a baseball game, because that would be less painful and a lot less embarrassing.
A.H. Shaver
Pimps and Promiscuous Root Vegetables
YA Contemporary
The deluge of vomit began amassing into pools within the folds of my pants and we both stared numbly, hypnotized by the mudslides of her upheaval.
Author: Audrey T. Carroll
Title: On the Outskirts
Genre: YA Fantasy
First Sentence: The horses rode in, their hooves striking the ground in a unified heartbeat.
Author: Mandie Baxter
Title: DREAM MAKER
Genre: YA Modern Fantasy
First Sentence: He looms over me, eyes tight, lips pulled into a thin line.
Vicki Tremper
The Transparents
MG Magical Mystery
Sometimes I wish I could disappear like my hero, Houdini.
Author: L. L. McKinney
Title: COVETED
Genre: YA urban fantasy
First sentence: Caleb learned long ago being friends with Martin MacMurtry required two things, inhuman patience, and a tolerance for impromptu fashion shows.
Author: Michelle F Goddard
Title: Adventures With Auntie Mischief
Genre: MG Fantasy
First Sentence: Jonah took the carrot stick out of his mouth and jabbed his brother.
Lucas Hargis
FREEBORN
YA Sci-Fi
The pulse in Katia’s temples thumped four times faster than the clacking of her cane.
Jenni Enzor
PINK FORTUNE
YA Reinvented Fairy Tale
It was the day before Papa was to leave for Versailles, and I was still filled with hope.
Author: Rena J. Traxel
Title: Death of Sleeping Beauty
Genre: MG. Fantasy. Novel/Graphic Novel Hybrid
Sleeping Beauty doesn’t die, stupid book!
Summer Heacock
The Imagining of Isadora Velvet
YA/Fantasy
Isadora didn't know how the mirror fell, but it now lay shattered into thousands of unfriendly looking shards on the carpet.
Janice Sperry
SHE CAME FROM THE HILL
YA Gothic Fantasy
Nothing thrived at the far end of the park.
Name: M.M.Brooks
Title: Now You Know
Genre: YA Ghost Story/Romance
First Sentence: I tried to get out of going to the party all day--homework, cramps, a headache--none of it worked.
Kelly Allan
Fade Into You
YA Contemporary
Blood thumped in my veins as I fled.
DAUGHTER OF THE MOON
YA UF
As far as Selina knew, she was the only seventeen-year-old with her own burial plot.
Author: Wendy Knight
Title: Feudlings
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
A blue flame erupted from the Carules spell and shot toward the Edren warrior, twisting and transforming into a giant skeletal hand.
Franziska Green
BOUNCE!
Middle grade adventure
I thought that being the human equivalent of a rubber ball would be tickletastic, and it was pretty funny... right up until I bounced on top of that double-decker bus.
Author: Leiann Bynum
Title: Jewel Angels
Genre: YA Fantasy
Despite how many times she’d been in here, there was something about this time that made goose bumps pop up on her skin.
Six more slots!
Rachel Horwitz
Havoc's Knot
YA/Fantasy
Popped right out of the sky didn't you dear?
Author: Mindy Alyse Weiss
Title: Mom Wars
Genre: MG, contemporary
First Sentence: Hope bubbles float around me as I wait to hear Mom’s surprise.
Author: Jenna Lehne
Title: Washed Up
Genre: Contemporary YA
First Sentence: My parents first had me committed when I was six years old.
Three more! Great lines -- keep them coming!
Christina Ferko
christinaferko(at)gmail(dot)com
Title: VERITAS : YA sci-fi
The only time I feel an ounce of freedom is when running, muscles clenching, legs pumping, fire burning my lungs with each breath.
Title: Minotaur
Author: Alexandra Singer
Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction
Line: Ikki couldn't have asked for a better day.
One more!
Author: Jennifer Clark Estes
Title: STILL LIFE IN A GRAVEYARD
Genre: MG, mystery
The musty, dirty house would have been perfect, except for the fireplace.
title: Soulspark
genre: Contemporary Romance
The scent of lilies always reminded me of her, and every month I placed fresh ones in front of the headstone.
Contest closed! Thanks for your entries!
TITLE: MONSTROUS
AUTHOR: MarcyKate
GENRE: YA Fantasy
LINE: I will never forget my first breath
Post a Comment