YA Fantasy: I AM DRAGON

Author's Name: Elizabeth Gibson

Category: YA

Genre: Fantasy

Stage of completion: Work in Progress

Preferred Critique Style: A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down

Cat or Dog Person: Dog person

Tea or Coffee: Good days – tea,  bad days – coffee

Short Pitch

            After accidentally turning her parents into piles of ash, sixteen-year-old, Chinese-American, Sara Suyin vows to die before ever using her dragon magic again. Until a soul-stealing Sorceress kidnaps her little sister as ransom for a magical gourd, to a land where Chinese folktales are real. Now all bets are off.

Writing Sample

CHAPTER ONE

SARA

"A heavenly spirit rides on the back of the white crane, carrying secret messages from the world beyond dreams." ~ Apoism #28

The island of Oahu, present day

For five years, I waited for a message from my dead mother. Now that I had it, I wished to God I could send it back.

The red numbers on the clock changed to 6:33. I’d been up for three long, long hours waiting for the sun to chase away any ghosts hiding in the shadows. I clicked the flashlight on and off to the steady beat of the rain plinking on the bedroom window.

The early morning hours were the worst. That’s when the nightmares came. They started the day after my parents died. I’d wake crazed and wild-eyed, huddling over my sketchbook with the stub of my pencil, gouging deep black lines into the paper to exorcise the demons. 

But this time it was different. When I opened my sketchbook, I found Mom’s indecipherable message. It was a holy moly, bite me quick, freaking out moment. I couldn’t breathe. Like my lungs forgot how to work. I knew it was from her because of her chop, her signature stamp in Chinese characters. The chop bloomed in blood red ink on the bottom left corner of the page. I fingered Mom’s name, wanting a do over of that day five years ago when I turned my parents into piles of ash.