The Writer's Voice

Hi All! 
I was fortunate enough to land a spot in an online writing contest called (you guessed it) "The Writer's Voice" organized by Kimberly Chase and hosted by Cupid from Cupid's Literary Connection, Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.), Monica B.W. of Love YA and Brenda Drake, who writes ...under the influence of coffee.  Many thanks to these ladies for their philanthropic nature and willingness to offer such a great opportunity to wanna-be MG and YA authors everywhere.
The contest involves posting a query and manuscript snippet on my blog so please pardon me while I use my blog to bare my query and the first 250 of my MG fantasy novel Dreamwalker: The Isle of Glass.  (Cue the trumpets, please.)

Crickets chirping...

Ahem.  I'll keep you posted.

~Just Jill

Title:  DREAMWALKER: THE ISLE OF GLASS
Genre: MG Fantasy
Word count: 65,000
(Query)
 

Dear Writer’s Voice Agents,

       Twelve-year old Gia Harding didn’t know exactly what she saw that night on the Tor, but she did know two things: It scared her enough to make her run away, and-- she had dreamed it all the night before.

      Before Gia was required to give up everything she loved and move to Glastonbury, England for a whole year, she could only dream of real adventure. But once there, she gets to live at her funky Aunt Bethany’s B&B called the Pink Palace, nestled right at the foot of that mystical hill called the Tor, a place otherwise known as The Isle of Avalon: Fairy Central, and soon, her dreams become her reality.
        Through a series of ominous dreams, a dusty tome of a book and a mysterious mentor masquerading as the garbage man, Gia discovers she is a dreamwalker, and is being asked to travel back in time through her dreams to the nineteenth century to save her fourteen year-old thrice-great-grandmother Georgina from certain destruction at the hands of an evil, creepy Fey with a nasty agenda.  Somehow, Gia must rise to the challenge and throw herself into a battle she’s not sure she can even find, much less win.  Only then can she save herself, her beloved family, and secure her own crazy destiny as one of Morgan le Fey’s chosen prophets in a group of Goddesses called “The Sisters of the Nine".  And she thought these types of things only happened in books.

Dreamwalker: The Isle of Glass  is an M.G. fantasy book of 65,000 words; the first book in the Gia Harding:  Dreamwalker series. 

      I am a graduate of Sonoma State University in California with an MFA in English. Several of my short stories and poems have been published in my alma mater’s literary review, Zaum (1998,1999).   I also maintain a blog called “I had a little nut-tree…” where I have interviewed other writers, posted reviews and commiserate with my blog-mates about the writerly life. More recently I have been honing my craft, hammering out a few hard-won words between sinkloads of wishes and trying not to drive my family off the next cliff-hanger. 

Many thanks for your consideration,

Jill Haugh (pronounced “Hawk”)

 

Title: DREAMWALKER: THE ISLE OF GLASS
Genre: MG  Fantasy
Word count: 65,000
(first 250 below)

 

            “Leah looked behind herself --horrified!  There were wings sprouting from her back!”
             Gia Harding slammed shut the book she was reading.
             “Horrified!”  She thought.  Seriously? Why were crazy book characters always freaking out because they got to do something fabulous-- like sprout wings, or find out they were half-fairy, or discover they were the key to an important plot to save the world from total destruction?  Gia wouldn’t be horrified.  She would love it, adore it, gladly rise to the occasion and save the world with grace and style. But she could only dream about such things. 
            She tossed the book onto the seat and caught her mother’s eyes watching her from the rear-view mirror.
           “Something wrong?”
            “No,” said Gia.  “I just don’t feel like reading is all.”
            Gia’s mother Fran was a writer—an author actually, of fantasy books for teens and Gia did not feel like getting embroiled in a conversation about story arcs or literary devices or anything else with her mom at the moment. Fran said Gia was the best book critic she knew, since Gia was the “target market” age of twelve for Middle Grade or “M.G.” fiction as it was called.  But to Gia, this was less of a compliment and more of a burden.  Her mother was always grilling her about books, but sometimes Gia just wanted to read without thinking about red herrings, or narrative voice or any of the other techno-weanie-gear-head things her mom was always so interested in.  Reading should be like breathing.  You shouldn’t have to think about it so much.