YA Fantasy: INNATE

Author's Name: Jessica Goodsell

Category: YA

Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi

State of Completion: Work in Progress (Almost ready to query)

Preferred Critique Style: Straight to the Point

Cat Person or Dog Person: Dog person all the way!

Tea or Coffee: Tea (loose-leaf, of course)

Short Pitch

 Dawn and Skye have been raised as orphans, ignorant of the Ever-War between the gods. When they develop a rare magic crucial to victory, the warring sides separate and exploit the sisters’ new powers—putting Dawn in danger and twisting Skye’s sanity. Once reunited and hunted by both sides, the twins will face the wrath of the gods to divert a destiny that seeks to claim their lives.

Writing Sample

Dawn breathed in the stifling scent of earth and damp air seeping in from the open window. She tried to focus on the monkey calls and birdsong in the rainforest outside and not the shrieks of rage and fear from a man she barely knew still echoing in her mind.

“Are you done yet?” Adam asked. This was the fifth time in almost as many minutes. Dawn shook off her daydream and glared at him.

“Not yet.”

Adam slumped in the chair. “We leave for the temples in two days. Will you be done by then?”

“Not if you keep bothering her,” said Skye, Dawn’s twin.

The three of them sat in the makeshift, jungle-colored classroom in the main wing of the Central Sector’s Home for Orphaned Children. The virtual teacher, a projection at the front of the room with a camera that monitored movement and discussion, turned toward Adam and scanned him with mechanically pleasant smile and a tell-tale whirring noise. The boy responded with a resigned sigh.

“Proximity acceptable,” the virtual teacher said. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Thanks, Veetch,” Adam said. Veetch was the third nickname they’d given the virtual teacher, but the first to be considered “classroom appropriate.”