I've got a bit of a sticky wicket in the yarn I'm spinning. It is a YA with thriller/SciFi elements but set in present day. But it isn't SciFi. In the vein of classic SciFi, that element is only the milieu used to convey the overarching theme. Sort of the way Crichton uses his sci-fi elements. So the milieu is important since it is a part of the story, but it isn't the most important part of the story. So the question is: I'm writing this for kids and using an opening that will suck them in. And it does. It does. But it seems to turn agents off, and I can understand why. It is a generation gap issue. The SciFi milieu I'm using is video games. But it isn't one of those "Final Fantasy" type stories where the story IS the game. (In all candor, I hate those stories.) If the agent(or editor) can get past that part, which is very important to setting up the story, and dive into the meat of the struggles of a young man who's just lost his father to the war in Iraq, I think they would get hooked.
What is a way around this? Submit with a false front end, then when/if they accept it, lobby for the other front end? Or explain in the query/synopsis that as the story goes on, the game actually takes a back seat to things that are happening in the real world.
Thanks too much,
-MM
What is a way around this? Submit with a false front end, then when/if they accept it, lobby for the other front end? Or explain in the query/synopsis that as the story goes on, the game actually takes a back seat to things that are happening in the real world.
Thanks too much,
-MM
