Author's Name: Amanda Kelley-Goodhew
Category: YA
Genre: Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Stage of completion: (2) work in progress, (1) rough
draft, (1) Mostly polished
Preferred critique style: All the faults with a spoonful of
sugar
Cat or dog person? Both. Currently own a dog but would
have a cat if my lifestyle allowed it.
Tea or coffee? Also both. Limit myself to 2 cups
of either a day.
Short Pitch
I have
been writing my whole life, but seriously for only the past 5 years or so.
Finally feel like I know enough about how to write to actually put my work out
there. I have one critique partner so far, but she’s my mom. I really think I
need someone who isn’t personally invested in me, at least to start, to look at
my work. I’m hoping to find a few people who I can exchange work with as I
would love to do some “giving back” as well.
Writing Sample
“Are you listening to me?”
Joana starts in surprise. The car is
stopped in front of a single-story tan brick building. We’re here, she crooned
to herself.
“Of course I was listening,” she
replied. She grabbed her back pack from the floor between her feet. “Be good,
make friends, stay out of trouble.” Blah, blah, blah. Her mother had been
giving her the same lecture for a week now.
Her mother snorted. “Don’t forget to
go to the office first.”
Joanna got out of the car and stood
staring around at her new school. It wasn’t half the size of her last one.
She’d have to work to get lost here.
“You’re taking the bus home tonight.”
Joanna slammed the car door behind
her.
“Have a good day,” her mother called
through the open car window.
“Yeah, right,” Joanna mumbled.
Make friends? With these nerds.
Joanna stared around her as she headed towards the school entrance. Was her
mother insane? Girls sat on benches in dresses and skirts. Boys lounged around
them in khakis and button-downs. It was like being in the twilight zone. Had
they gone back in time to the 50’s? Or was the school, and probably the whole
town, stuck there? Joanne wondered which stood out more – her pink hair or the
hand-painted heavy metal icons on her jean jacket. She was certainly getting
enough stares.
Sure enough, just inside the doors of
the school Joanna saw the sign for the office. Time to check in. She had barely
stepped into the quiet office when someone called her name.
“Joanna King?” A tall, bone-thin
woman with long mousy brown hair cocked an eyebrow at her from behind the
counter.
Sometimes I'm a dork and don't pay attention. So here's the real short pitch of the story above:
ReplyDeleteJoanna King has just moved to a hick town in the middle of nowhere, her parents’ idea of a second chance; Joanna’s last chance to leave the past behind.
Christian is the school bully. All Joanna has to do is keep her head down, stay out of his way, and she’ll be fine. She can’t even do that right.
When she saves another girl from one of Christian’s bullying sessions, Joanna makes a new best friend. On the flip side, Christian focuses all his bullying on her. So much for staying out of his way.
Then Joanna finds out she’s a Dreamer, tasked with keeping the power lines flowing between the worlds. Her dreams become a refuge from her life of bullying. Soon her dreams are more real to her than her real life.
Too real.
An evil sorcerer uses Joanna to break out of his prison in the dreamscape. His plan - take over all the worlds, starting with Earth.
Can Joanna learn to use her Dream power to find the sorcerer before he becomes too powerful to stop? Can she convince Christian to help her fight the biggest bully ever? If they can learn to work together they might have a chance to save the world.
Amanda I enjoyed your writing. I too share my writing with my mom. I am currently editing a contemporary romance ms entitled Today, Tomorrow, Forever. If you are interested in exchanging chapters my email address is kristirad4d@gmail.com
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