YA Fantasy: FLESH AND INK

Author's Name: Morgan Hazelwood

Category: YA
Genre: Fantasy
Stage of Completion: Mostly Polished and Looking to Query
Preferred Critique Style: A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down
Cat Person or Dog Person: My lifestyle is all about the cats, but I'm allergic! :-(
Tea or Coffee: Neither! I mostly subsist on water, with Sunkist in an emergency. I can handle vanilla chai, but only because it's 90% sugar and milk. 

Short Pitch

     Lilyan loves her apprenticeship as a holy inker-of-flesh, even if it's nothing compared to her little sister's prestigious scholarship. Until Lilyan's father spots her demon-stains. The blue demonic letters are only supposed to appear on those who've consorted with demons. If the church finds out, it's death for her, twenty years hard service for her family, and the end of her over-achieving sister Naoma's future. Lilyan flees her home before anyone else finds out, desperately following rumors, in search of the stained exiles.

Writing Sample

I forgot to be careful.

I'd grown careless since they'd first appeared two years ago and hadn't freshened the dye recently. I should have permanently inked over them.

When I raised my arms to put dishes away, my ill-fitting shirt exposed my stomach.

“Oh Holy Mother Below! Demon-stains, Lilygirl?” Dad's face paled as he spotted the secret I'd worked so hard to keep.

“Dad, I didn't do anything. I swear, by Goddess Nelopai Herself!” My heart raced. No matter what the church said, the blue patterns on my belly had arrived like acne, not because I'd dealt with demons.

I trembled, fearing he'd think me possessed. So far, my devotion to Domina Earth had kept me safe, but the Goddess hadn't chosen to remove my stains. Maybe that was something I needed to earn.

“Say something?” I whimpered.

“Of course." Dad looked me straight in the face. "There is nothing demonic about you."

I swayed with relief.

“But if your mother hears us say anything about the stains, the church could hear it and they'll cleanse you." He seemed more worried about Mom’s church oath than demons. "Like they did your aunt.”

“I don’t have an aunt.” I blinked. Dad was confusing me. Besides, no one actually knew anyone who'd been cleansed.

Dad's eyes brimmed with tears. Trapped by his eyes and his hands, he whispered the words that chilled me to my core. “Like my sister, you will be imprisoned. You will be tortured. And they will kill you..."