And this happened for Dream Crafters.
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Connie's Other Dimension
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
BrainZ (Writers Voice Entry)
Title: BrainZ
Author: Connie MacElroy
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Wordcount: 60,000
Query
Jill (16) has been disguised as a zombie since second grade. It’s the only way she can stay with her transformed family, since living/zombie families are not accepted. Keeping her secret while growing up in an all-zombie community hasn’t been easy, but things get tougher when she’s admitted into a newly formed integrated high school.
Author: Connie MacElroy
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Wordcount: 60,000
Query
Jill (16) has been disguised as a zombie since second grade. It’s the only way she can stay with her transformed family, since living/zombie families are not accepted. Keeping her secret while growing up in an all-zombie community hasn’t been easy, but things get tougher when she’s admitted into a newly formed integrated high school.
She’s caught off guard by the temptations of real food (instead of brainchow) and living boys. Dave, the football team’s
quarterback, stuns her with athletic grace no zombie can match. And, since his
team is integrated, he doesn’t have the prejudices most of the living do…
including the school’s administration.
Even the zombies on staff treat “zits” as
second-class citizens. But, if the football team is mixed, shouldn’t there be
zombie cheerleaders? Jill decides if she can form a squad, it can be a step
toward equal rights for zombies.
Getting permission is tough. Finding routines
for shambling zombies is harder. Dealing with the insults and dirty tricks from
the living girls is toughest of all. It would be impossible without the help of
Dave and other sympathetic “pumpers.”
But every success makes Jill more conspicuous
and raising the chance that she’ll be torn away from her family and they will
become outcasts. And her biggest challenge is her longing to be herself, a
living girl.
BrainZ is a 60,000-word YA paranormal
romance. Thank you for considering it.
First 250 words
Jill sat on the edge
of her bed and fingered the tray of prosthetics. A cheek with a gouge. Part of
a lip. The shoulder scar she’d hated since fifth grade.
She snatched up the
ragged, scarred nose and placed it in front of her own small nose. She looked
in the mirror. Most of one nostril had been torn free.
Ugh.
“I’m not wearing
this,” she told her mom. Not on the first day of junior year. Not when living
boys were there to gawk at her.
She dropped the nose
back onto the tray.
Her mother aimed her
good eye at her. “Then you’ll have to stay home.”
“I’ll wear last
year’s nose, okay?” It was a fair compromise. If her mom wanted more
decomposition – and she would – she could do it with make-up.
“I recycled it.”
Jill twisted her face
into a scowl. She stood and strode over to the makeup chair, but she couldn’t
get herself to sit down.
“Fine,” her mom said.
“I still have the old molds. I’ll make a replacement nose. It will be ready in
three days.”
Three days was a
lifetime. She hadn’t seen Betsy all summer. Worse, she’d have to wait to meet
the living boys she’d been dreaming about.
Impossible.
Jill threw herself
into the chair, slumped, and folded her arms.
Her mother went right
to work, her hands practiced at turning her daughter into a zombie.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
KNOCKED OFF BALANCE - Pitcharama
Title: KNOCKED OFF BALANCE
Author: Connie MacElroy
Genre: Contemporary
Word count: 50,000
Synopsis:
Author: Connie MacElroy
Genre: Contemporary
Word count: 50,000
Synopsis:
Ever since a school shooting, security has been tight at Patrick Henry High School. When SARA QUINN (16) gets into trouble for her dress-code-breaking T-shirt, transfer student JAKE BARTELL, a gangly 16-year-old with mad juggling skills, comes to her rescue, only to be punished for breaking the rules. Jake is a free spirit who has just transferred into the school, but, Sara, having lost her brother to a school shooting, is obsessed with safety. Jake is fine with sensible rules, but believes fear has driven the high school to insane levels, making school life intolerable. He has suffered his own loss (his father) and thinks the town should “just get over it.”
He finds that his circus arts --juggling, parkour (a stuntman discipline with Jackie Chan-like moves), and tumbling -- is a good way to connect. Even Sara appreciates something fresh and new, especially the beauty of contact juggling. She pushes him to put together a troupe to perform at the annual school show, Illusion.
Despite the obstacles thrown up by Dean of Boys FRANK BRADY and the taunts of BOBO, (17) a leader of the school's risk takers -- who hates Illusion but loves circus arts -- Sara and Jake pull together enough people to perform. Holding them together is another matter.
http://aussieownedandread.com
http://aussieownedandread.com
Friday, June 13, 2014
KNOCKED OFF BALANCE (formerly REVERSE CASCADE)
Title: KNOCKED OFF BALANCE
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Word Count: 50,000
Pitch
Ever
since a school shooting, security has been tight at Patrick Henry High School.
When SARA QUINN (16) gets into trouble for her dress-code-breaking T-shirt,
transfer student JAKE BARTELL, a gangly 16-year-old with mad juggling skills,
comes to her rescue, only to be punished for breaking the rules. Jake is a free
spirit who has just transferred into the school, but, Sara, having lost her
brother to a school shooting, is obsessed with safety. Jake is fine with
sensible rules, but believes fear has driven the high school to insane levels,
making school life intolerable. He has suffered his own loss (his father) and
thinks the town should “just get over it.”
He finds that his circus arts
--juggling, parkour (a stuntman discipline with Jackie Chan-like moves), and
tumbling -- is a good way to connect. Even Sara appreciates something fresh and
new, especially the beauty of contact juggling. She pushes him to put together
a troupe to perform at the annual school show, Illusion.
Despite the obstacles thrown
up by Dean of Boys FRANK BRADY and the taunts of BOBO, (17) a leader of the
school's risk takers -- who hates Illusion but loves circus arts -- Sara and
Jake pull together enough people to perform. Holding them together is another
matter.
First 250
words
Unicycles make people
laugh. They smile and clap their hands. They watch to see if you’ll fall.
That’s why I skipped
the cheese wagon and pedaled off for my first day at Patrick Henry High School.
I wanted to hear some cheers, and I wanted everyone to know when I arrived.
I needed the boost
after the crappy way the day had started. For the first time since third grade,
Mom made me pass wardrobe inspection. “It’s a new school, and they have
guidelines.”
Yeah. We’re not in
Baltimore anymore. Those Rocky Mountains? My first clue my friends were a
millions of miles away. And guidelines? Strictures. Orders. Commandments. There
had been a shooting at the school a year ago. National news. Now an inch-thick
book of rules covered everything from “Jokes and Appropriate Humor” to “Manner
of Dress.” Which is why I wore a plain red sweatshirt and jeans that had been
ironed. This was a compromise from the button-down shirt and khakis she wanted.
And marked me as a total loser.
So riding a unicycle
was plain survival.
INGENIOUS DAUGHTER
Genre: YA Historical Romance
Title: Ingenious Daughter
Word Count: 50,000.
35-Word pitch: Ben Franklin dared to say it. Jane’s a better scientist than her father. Dad fights back, curtailing research and multiplying chores. Hungry for knowledge, she’s too wily for him. It’s time to marry her off.
JANE COLDEN (17) lives on the edge of civilization--pre-Revolutionary upstate New York, where natives still roam the lands. She’s hungry for knowledge, but her fate is domesticity. If her father didn’t need her to manage the household and bring in cash through her cheese business, he’d have already married her off to local widower. Since CADWALLADER COLDEN is eager to make his name as a botanist, he insists his daughter gather specimens in her “idle time.” With so many chores, she’s reluctant at first, but comes to love the work until it threatens her safety.
BURKE (19), the nephew of a local landowner, saves her from a thief and begins to woo her. After having had a series of respectfully dull middle-aged suitors, Jane gets her first kiss from the man her father dismisses as “the landless scoundrel.” Jane, however, is more concerned by Burke’s belief that scientific work damages female minds. He makes it clear, were they ever to marry, such nonsense would be forbidden. Jane will need all her intelligence to change these two stubborn men’s minds.
First 250
The
curd begins to bubble. I sing three verses of “Milk and Butter,” and pull
it off the fire. I’ll trade this batch for a tempering hook, and Poppa will
never know.
Cheese
fascinates me. There’s a universe to discover in texture, color, smell, and
taste. And the profits from sales save me from household work.
I
leave the curd and move to my test batch.
9
April 1742. The Thornton cheese has ripened three days.
I
unfold a tea towel, set out my tools – a ladle, three knives, and two pike
probes -- and tear the cheesecloth off the tun. I sniff.
The
sour smell has sweeter notes. Accents of lilac.
I
scoop up some of the soft cheese, and pour it onto a dish.
Kate
clatters a pile of plates. “Miss Jane. Mr. Lewis? He told me to double the
order.”
I hate interruptions, but I stop, look up, and force a smile. Kate means well.
“Did he give you a note of payment?”
“No,
Miss.”
Scoundrel. “I’ll speak to him when I’m in town.”
I select the smallest knife. As I slice the cheese, Kate places a tray next to
me.
“Have you had any breakfast?” She is forever reminding me to eat. I’m not a
baby. I’m almost seventeen.
“Later,” I say. Inside the cheese, a surprise. Tiny air bubbles. I pull my
reading lens from my pocket to get a better look.
“And,
Miss? Your father says he wants to see you. He says now.”
Friday, May 2, 2014
HOLLYWOOD REMAKE - #TheWVoice
Title: HOLLYWOOD REMAKE
Genre: Science Fiction (Adult, but PG)
Word Count: 70,000
Author: Connie MacElroy
MAGGIE SPEER, a junior exec at a
consulting firm, must go back to the 30s and retrieve the creative journal of
MGM's Irving Thalberg. Such tests are initiation rites for entering top
management, and failure is not an option. But the timestream she enters has no
theatrical films, no Hollywood as we know it. She's stuck in the wrong
1930 and facing a Plan B assignment, entering Hitler’s inner circle and coming
back with his management secrets. Repelled by this, she pulls together
the talent and creates her own Hollywood. But, once she gets things going,
Spencer Tracy, Frank Capra, Joan Crawford, and other icons of the era have
their own ideas.
Maggie followed Henry into the meat
locker. Chilled. She could see her breath. The amber light gave everything a
buttercup look. The white tile walls had been hosed down after the accident.
Maggie checked the drains. No signs of blood.
“You ready?”
She took a deep breath and shivered. She
opened her bag and surrendered her keys and her phone. Digging into her wallet,
she removed her drivers license and credit cards.
Henry claimed the wallet. It would pass. Vintage,
with the image of an ocean liner pressed into the leather. He nodded and handed
it back. Then he slowly began to circle her, scrutinizing every aspect of her
appearance.
Maggie shifted her weight and felt the
odd ways the clothes hung. They were custom-tailored and she’d worn 30s styles
all week, but it still felt like Halloween.
“That pin has to go,” Henry said. He
reached for it, and Maggie dodged away.
“It’s not authentic, Maggie.”
“This belonged to my great grandmother.”
Henry took out his smartphone and tapped.
“I don’t have anything like it.”
“She lived in Germany. It will be okay.”
“Hmm.” His face was noncommittal. “What about your stockings. Are
they silk?”
“Pantyhose. But they have a faux seam in
back. They should pass.” Maggie
had four pairs packed. She wasn’t going to mess with garters unless it became
absolutely necessary.
“Don’t let anyone see you in your
underwear.”
“I’m not planning to, Henry.”
He stepped back for one final review.
Then he smiled. “You’re perfect.”
Friday, April 18, 2014
Getting to Know You
1. How do you remember your first kiss?
At age six, I walked my heartthrob home. Suddenly, I was in a big hug. Lips touched mine. I broke loose and ran like hell. I told my older sister, and she teased me mercilessly.
2. What was your first favorite love song?
Actually, the first song I ever bought on a record - "You'll Never Get to Heaven (if You Break My Heart)" sung by Dionne Warwick.
3. What’s the first thing you do when you begin writing for the day?
Set a timer.
4. Who’s the first writer who truly inspired you to become a writer?
Thanks to the encouragement of a teacher, I did Tolkienesque fantasy for my first few works, so probably JRRT should get the credit (or blame).
5. Did the final revision of your first book have the same first chapter it started with?
No, and that's despite meticulous planning before I wrote word one. That scene lingered for a while in a later chapter before hitting the cutting room floor. But I still love it.
6. For your first book, which came first: major characters, plot or setting?
The setting came into my brain with no warning. Soon characters started talking to me. But, when I picked up a pencil the first time, I was completely in plotting mode.
7. What’s the first word you want to roll off the tip of someone’s tongue when they think of your writing?
Wow!
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