Heya! Thanks for stopping by.
Recently finished my YA Dieselpunk manuscript and finished editing the first 3 chapters. It is graphic, brushing on horror. Lots of tough themes, so not really suitable for sensitive readers.
As I said in the title, I don't really want LBLs. I've already run it past my primary beta reader, so it should be in pretty good shape. My preference when getting a beta, or betaing for others is to try as much as possible to read it as a story first. If anything really jumps out as wrong, then by all means mention it, but in general I don't want a granular approach, just overall broad strokes, what's working, if anything stands out as problematic, etc.
In addition, I usually ask my beta readers to pause after page 1, and again at 3 to rate it overall from 1-10 on a scale of how engaging the story is so far since I understand those are usually break points for agents.
Willing to swap with others, you can see my critiques in SYW.
Query:
17 year-old Ruby is sentenced to prison, but it wasn’t her fault. Sure she knocked her foreman out cold, but maybe he should keep his hands to himself if he can’t take a punch. It was a little her fault she stole his money, but what was she going to do, just leave it there? One thing she won’t argue about, she was 100% at fault for the deaths of her father and the crew of his airship a year prior, an incident that still haunts her.
When Mist – a mysterious vapor that turns adults into Draggers, psychotic killing machines – rolls in, trapping them for days, she and her cellmates decide to escape. After fighting and running from Draggers in the Mist they skip town in an abandoned airship, forming the nucleus of a diverse crew of displaced teens. None of them had a place they truly belonged before, and though they are often at odds – mostly working together only to accomplish their own ulterior motives – they somehow form a tight-knit crew, stronger than the sum of its pieces.
After their airship gets stolen, Ruby and co decide to steal it back. In the process she finds clues to the source of the Mist, a secret the world’s most powerful will kill to keep buried. And, unknown to Ruby, one of her crew is working for those same people.
Ruby’s outward confidence holds the crew together, but her fear of repeating past mistakes threatens to tear them apart. If they can’t band together, overcome their differences, and help each other cope with the trauma of their tragic pasts they’ll never stay a step ahead of their enemies long enough to unravel the mysteries that could save their lives and alter the fate of the world.
TITLE TBD is a 75,000 word, Young Adult, dieselpunk thriller premised partly Joss Whedon’s pitch for Firefly, “[it’s about] nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things.”
With it’s high-flying hijinx, strong female protagonist, fantastical elements, diverse characters, and thrilling action, TITLE TBD will appeal to readers of Brandon Sanderson’s SKYWARD and Jonathan Stroud’s THE OUTLAWS SCARLETT AND BROWNE.
Recently finished my YA Dieselpunk manuscript and finished editing the first 3 chapters. It is graphic, brushing on horror. Lots of tough themes, so not really suitable for sensitive readers.
As I said in the title, I don't really want LBLs. I've already run it past my primary beta reader, so it should be in pretty good shape. My preference when getting a beta, or betaing for others is to try as much as possible to read it as a story first. If anything really jumps out as wrong, then by all means mention it, but in general I don't want a granular approach, just overall broad strokes, what's working, if anything stands out as problematic, etc.
In addition, I usually ask my beta readers to pause after page 1, and again at 3 to rate it overall from 1-10 on a scale of how engaging the story is so far since I understand those are usually break points for agents.
Willing to swap with others, you can see my critiques in SYW.
Query:
17 year-old Ruby is sentenced to prison, but it wasn’t her fault. Sure she knocked her foreman out cold, but maybe he should keep his hands to himself if he can’t take a punch. It was a little her fault she stole his money, but what was she going to do, just leave it there? One thing she won’t argue about, she was 100% at fault for the deaths of her father and the crew of his airship a year prior, an incident that still haunts her.
When Mist – a mysterious vapor that turns adults into Draggers, psychotic killing machines – rolls in, trapping them for days, she and her cellmates decide to escape. After fighting and running from Draggers in the Mist they skip town in an abandoned airship, forming the nucleus of a diverse crew of displaced teens. None of them had a place they truly belonged before, and though they are often at odds – mostly working together only to accomplish their own ulterior motives – they somehow form a tight-knit crew, stronger than the sum of its pieces.
After their airship gets stolen, Ruby and co decide to steal it back. In the process she finds clues to the source of the Mist, a secret the world’s most powerful will kill to keep buried. And, unknown to Ruby, one of her crew is working for those same people.
Ruby’s outward confidence holds the crew together, but her fear of repeating past mistakes threatens to tear them apart. If they can’t band together, overcome their differences, and help each other cope with the trauma of their tragic pasts they’ll never stay a step ahead of their enemies long enough to unravel the mysteries that could save their lives and alter the fate of the world.
TITLE TBD is a 75,000 word, Young Adult, dieselpunk thriller premised partly Joss Whedon’s pitch for Firefly, “[it’s about] nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things.”
With it’s high-flying hijinx, strong female protagonist, fantastical elements, diverse characters, and thrilling action, TITLE TBD will appeal to readers of Brandon Sanderson’s SKYWARD and Jonathan Stroud’s THE OUTLAWS SCARLETT AND BROWNE.