Trick or Treat With Agents 2013: The Agents Unmasked!

  

Velma Dinkley is:
Stacey Donaghy with Donaghy Literary Group

Ms. Harlequin is: 

Ammi-Joan Paquette with the Erin MurphyLiterary Agency.

Princess Leia is:

Hannah Bowman with Liza Dawson Associates.

Annie Oakley is:

Roseanne Wells with The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency. 

  

The Tardis is:

Natalie Lakosil with Bradford Literary Agency. 

Rose from Dr. Who is:

Jordy Albert with the Booker Albert Literary Agency.

Now, let's give a big thank you to our six fabulous agents, without whom this contest would never have happened. Thank you all for your participation and for picking such great costumes!

Happy Halloween!

*Participants- if you received a request, please email the contest address and wait for submission instructions.*

It's time to Trick or Treat 2013!

It's time to go trick or treating! Can we get our bags filled with treats?

Trick or Treat entrants, thank you for joining the fun! You guys seriously rocked our inbox. Your entries were PHENOMENAL and we had a very HARD time narrowing them down to 39. We even have a special surprise for you--we've added a Bobbing for Slush Save!! 

If you didn't make the cut, that doesn't mean we didn't love your pitch. Just ask Kim- she had to cut quite a few from her final list and that did not make her happy! We've tried to give our participating agents some great choices based on their wish lists and we're hoping to see lots of incredible matches made this week.  

Congratulations to our finalists and good luck! 

http://www.brenda-drake.com

http://kimberlypchase.blogspot.com/

http://dcmorin.blogspot.com/

* * * Reminders * * *

ONLY PARTICIPATING AGENTS MAY COMMENT IN THIS ROUND. We want our awesome costumed agents to be able to read through the entries with ease.

Agents will request "candy" in the comment section. Any kind of sugar candy (Skittles, Starbursts, etc) means you've gotten a partial request and chocolate candy (Snickers, M&Ms, etc) means you've gotten a full manuscript request. Agents can comment on as many entries as they like and multiple agents can request on the same pitch. So you just might find your bag full of treats!

Costumed agents will be revealed at 6PM EST on October 31st.

Anyone who receives candy should email into trickortreatwithanagent@gmail.com on October 31st for further submission instructions. You will then receive an email with the correct submission guidelines to follow. DO NOT contact the agent without getting the guidelines first.

If you are another amazing agent who has happened upon this contest and would like to make a request, we welcome you to take a look. Please email us after the contest has ended with requests. 

We'll be tweeting on #AgentTreat! @brendadrake @kpchase817 @Dannie_Morin

TRICK OR TREAT D1: FINDING OBENO

Title: FINDING OBENO

Category:  YA

Genre: Contemporary

Word count: 65,000

Pitch:

After witnessing the murder of his family, fourteen year-old Ricky is forced to fight on the front lines in Joseph Kony’s holy war against the Ugandan government. Twenty years later, Samuel, an eleven year-old recovering at the Friends of Orphans Center, fights to hide the truth behind his injury and his past with Kony’s LRA. Separated by two decades of war, Ricky and Samuel’s experiences as child soldiers weave together to prove that love lives on after death, hope exists in the darkest corners of hell, and one boy’s story can guide thousands home. 

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

Dressed in a dead man’s uniform with a machete at my belt and AK-47 on my back, I wear a costume every day, but I’m not pretending and I’m not a soldier. I am a child, who fears Joseph Kony and his army of killers and just wants to go home. 

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

My manuscript is based on the true story of Anywar Ricky Richard, one of the first children abducted into Joseph Kony’s LRA ranks and the founder of Friends of Orphans, an organization dedicated to the recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers. Ricky and I have been in communication throughout the writing process with the goal of giving a voice to the estimated 40,000 Ugandan children, whose lives and voices were stolen by the LRA.

First 250:

Sitting in the shade of the porch that embraces the Friends of Orphans Center, Samuel picked at the discolored bandage wrapped around his thigh. According to the doctor, the medicine was working, but his skin was tight with swelling and tender to the touch. A rust colored stain tinged the bone white bandage above the bullet wound, where the infection had taken hold. 

Samuel understood infection. In his eleven years, he had seen it burrow deep into the bodies of other children. Their feet. Their legs. Their chests. Their arms. Spreading like brush fire until it consumed them.

Laughter stole Samuel’s attention from his wound. A faded football arced high into the cloudless Ugandan sky before dropping in the midst of a group of smiling children. It bounced off the forehead of the tallest, a skinny teenage boy, who sent it soaring across the hard dirt field to the waiting chest of a teammate. The huddle of children squealed with delight and scrambled after the ball, kicking up clouds of red dust with their bare feet.

Biting down on his bottom lip, Samuel pressed on his injury with two trembling fingers until he could no longer endure the pain. Letting go, he squeezed his eyes shut until the inferno receded to its normal slow burn. When it did, he stared down at his leg. Wet seeped through the cloth, darkening the rust stain a blood red. Pain was good. It meant he could still feel.

It meant he was alive.

TRICK OR TREAT D2: TWICE BETRAYED

Title: TWICE BETRAYED

Category: MG

Genre: Historical Mystery

Word count: 63,000

Pitch:

With the spark of independence crackling in Colonial Philadelphia, three girls dress as boys and head to the river at night to put a perilous plan into action, but only two return and one of them, Perdy Rogers, is accused of treason. When the constable builds a case against the 13-year-old upholsters’s apprentice with circumstantial evidence, she must unravel the traitorous web woven around her that protects the real spy. With a grandmother so distraught she’s helpless and her best friend called to testify against her, assistance comes from the most unlikely sources—her 4-year-old sister, a Scottish cabin boy she barely knows and a general destined to lead the new country.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

I relate to Batgirl because during the day we both lead quiet, ordinary lives—

Batgirl as a librarian and I’m an upholsterer’s apprentice.  But by night she dons her mask and Batgirl costume and I dress in boys clothes to help friends, solve mysteries and protect the innocent.

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

The tasty treat – No proof exists that Betsy Ross made the first American flag. Twice Betrayed suggests her apprentice, my MC, made the flag as a quilt top for her sister and both boys and girls will be interested in crafting 5-pointed stars and decoding secret spy letters in the story.

First 250:

A shout rings out in the crowded street. “Help! My child! Help!

I glance up, drop the ascot I’m hemming and rush out the shop door, the doorbells overhead tinkling wildly.

A toddler, dressed in a pale-colored coat and bonnet waddles across the slippery cobblestones. The pouring rain makes it difficult to see her and a wagon bears down on the spot where she stops.

Her mother, on the far side of Arch Street, desperately clutches a baby to her breast, screaming for someone to save her child from certain harm.

Heedless of the rain, I quickly judge the distance the wagon must cover and dash out to the child, swooping her up in my arms. As I twirl away, the wagon passes so close my skirt ruffles in its breeze.

The child wails, not from the danger she was in, but from suddenly finding herself in a stranger’s arms. I cradle her head against my shoulder and rock her like I used to do with Abby when she was upset.

Her mother darts through the traffic to reach her. “Thank you. Thank you,” she cries, her tears mixing with raindrops trickling down her cheeks. 

Her baby stares wide-eyed at her big sister, also crying in my arms. 

“She just let go of my hand,” sobs the mother, “and when I turned around she was lost in the crowd.”

Shielding my eyes from the rain with my hand, I gaze at the traffic, heavier than usual. “Where is everyone going?”

TRICK OR TREAT D3: THE GEARS OF WAR

Title: THE GEARS OF WAR

Category:  Adult

Genre: Fantasy/LGBTQ

Word count:  73,000

Pitch:

After spending years pretending to be his dead sister in order to keep his grief-maddened mother stable, a gender-confused boy goes to war to learn how to be a man. His priorities change when an enemy soldier, a girl whose soul resides in a war golem, saves his life on the battlefield. They desert together, unaware that their friendship might just change the course of the war.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

I’m my own costumed character. Whether I dress as my dead sister or as my parents’ son, it’s all pretending. 

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

English-language Asian fantasies with elements of steampunk and alternate history (Second Sino-Japanese War) aren't all that common. Besides, there’s never enough SFF with genderqueer characters as protagonists. 

First 250:

Every morning, Kiyoshi rose from sleep as a boy with messy hair, a slim frame and, usually, an urge to pee.

Every morning, he folded his futon and knelt before the shrine honoring his sister’s memory, gazing at her sunny face and burning incense for her. Aiko, the name on the picture said. Aiko, meaning beloved. Beloved of an entire family, jewel in the eyes of her parents and role model in the eyes of her little brother.

Every morning, he brushed his long hair until it lay straight and still against his back, dipped fingertips into bowls of cosmetics to outline eyes and lips and slid into one of his sister’s kimono.

Every morning, Kiyoshi entered the kitchen as a dead girl.

“Aiko!” her mother said, waving her chopsticks. “You’ll be late for work again. Hurry and eat.”

“Yes, Mother. Sorry.” Aiko’s lips were always quick to smile with infectious cheer; they spread now in sheepish apology.

Kneeling at the low table across from her mother, Aiko began her assault on the feast spread before her: miso soup, steamed rice, a rolled omelet, a bowl of fermented soybeans, and various pickled vegetables. She ate as if to fill a bottomless hole, wielding her lacquered chopsticks like a weapon to slay her breakfast.

“Eat, eat,” her mother said. “You’re a growing girl and you have a day of hard work ahead.”

Her mother’s name was Hanako, flower child, a strange name for a woman born and raised in a city made of cogs and smog where flowers were rarely seen in any other state than dead and dried. 

TRICK OR TREAT D4: WHIRLED

Title: WHIRLED

Category:  YA

Genre: Time Travel/Romance

Word count: 95,000

Pitch:

When seventeen year-old Lu Dresden falls for a boy who accidentally slipped into her world from the year 1847, she’s forced to choose: her pretty awesome life, complete with indoor plumbing, or a chance at the kind of love that doesn’t come along every century. When Lu follows William back in time and halfway around the world, the harrowing time-slip is the least of her worries. William is funny, smart, and fiercely gallant, but the two have some serious coming-to-grips to do with the fact that his ideas about relationships—heck, about women in general!—seem downright archaic at times.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

Scarlet O’Hara had the right idea, not worrying about stuff until tomorrow. But no way will I do that corset thing…no matter how important it is to fit in with the cool girls of the mid-18^th century!

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

As if corsets weren’t bad enough, try chamber pots, stingrays, and fighting to escape a slaver’s ship—yikes! Still, what could be yummier than a transatlantic romp with a dreamy Australian boy and a love story that transcends time?

First 250:

Tommy cracked his gum and sent a waft of cinnamon-scented breath my way. I loved Big Red and had the sudden urge to put my mouth to his and see if he’d surrender his ABC-piece. Luckily, I wasn’t inclined to act on the stupider of the ideas that crept through my head.

We were gleaning the last of the summer vegetables, runty and stunted from shortening days and sporadic watering.

He reached for a fat zucchini vine and freed it with one sharp yank. I stared. When had his back changed? Tommy’s back—actually all of him but the stretch covered by his swim trunks—was generally on display all summer long.

Tommy, seventeen like me, has always been all long skinny arms and legs, sun-brown in defiance of his mom’s SPF 70. Out of nowhere, his shirt now revealed smooth lines of muscle, and a groove where his knobbly spine used to be.

“Hunh?” Had he said something? Warmth spread from my neck to my face.

 “Nothing.”  He tossed another armful of vegetation onto the Speedway, grabbed the handles, and headed off to the compost heap.

The bare plot was a little sad, now just torn up dirt where a month ago the profusion of green had been spewing out more bounty than we could keep up with.

“Lu!” Tommy rounded the corner with cupped hands.

I jogged over.

He stopped very close to me, his catch in the small space between us, and slowly lifted his top hand.

TRICK OR TREAT D5: DRAGONS ARE PEOPLE TOO

Title: DRAGONS ARE PEOPLE TOO

Category: YA

Genre:  Contemporary Fantasy

Word count: 60,000

Pitch:

Sixteen-year-old Kitty is a Chinese weredragon and an operative for the US government's Draconic Intelligence Command, or as she likes to call it, DIC. When her entire race is exposed to the public, the other dragons are imprisoned, and the President’s son is kidnapped, she sets off on a break-neck mission, uncovering betrayal at every turn. When she discovers the truth, Kitty must choose between obedience to her country and allegiance to dragonkind.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

Not that Commander Lung (aka Mom) has ever let me trick or treat, but I'm a big fan of Jubilee from the X-men - and not just because she's about the only Chinese superhero out there.

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

This book is X-MEN LAST STAND meets RUSH HOUR, but with dragon shapeshifters and more kissing.

First 250:

Well, crap. Mission Intelligence got it wrong. Again.

I mean, seriously? Heat sensors? When your operatives have a core body temperature of 142 degrees, that should be the first thing you check for. Deep breaths, Kitty. I daydream about ripping Simon a new one as I scale up the three stories of crumbling stone.

So now I cling to the east wall of the Lebanese embassy in DC with a diplomatic document pouch hanging from my belt.

I'm overly conscious of the two security cameras aimed at my back, despite the full-body black catsuit with matching ski-mask that Draconic Intelligence Command (or, as I like to call it, DIC) requires me to wear. Sirens blare, telling me security already knows we're here, but I still can't let them see my face. And, more importantly, I can't let them see me change.

Beside me, Wallace scrabbles, then loses his balance and falls twenty feet to the ground, hitting the wall at least twice in the process. Rookie. His breath comes fast, but he's uninjured. He could probably fall from three times that height without a scratch.

"Kitty." Even his whisper has a British accent. He lies sprawled on the immaculate walled lawn of the Embassy and slowly makes his way to his feet. "I can't make it without changing."

"No!" I yell, then catch myself and lower my voice to something more like a hiss. "Absolutely not. Do you have any idea how many cameras are on you right now? You can make it."

TRICK OR TREAT D6: TIM AND THE CAPED AVENGER

Title: TIM AND THE CAPED AVENGER

Category: MG

Genre: CONTEMPORARY

Word count: 40,000

Pitch:

In Tim and the Caped Avenger, an imaginative boy tells thrilling superhero stories to his little brother, stories that help them cope with the loss of their father, MIA in Afghanistan. When Captain Spencer is found, alive but badly injured, Tim vows to complete a book of Caped Avenger stories for his dad’s return. To fight his own tendency to procrastinate, overcome barriers, and conquer “storyteller’s block,” Tim adopts a mantra: “What would the Caped Avenger do?”

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

The Caped Avenger is my favorite superhero, and not just because I made him up. He has all these magical capes he uses to fight bad guys, like the Cape of Silence and the Cape of Invisibility and the Cape of Flight, and he's strong and brave, and he looks like my dad.

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

Since there will always be wars, there will always be kids with family members serving far from home, kids who need funny, high-energy books about kids like themselves who find innovative ways to cope, to carry on, and to rejoice when the separation is over. 

First 250:

Boris the Bomber chuckled over his evil design to destroy Washington, D.C. Little did he know that the Caped Avenger would soon foil his plan to blow up…

“Tim Spencer!”

Tim yanked himself back from the bomber’s lair to his fifth-grade classroom.

His teacher stood beside him with arms folded. He frowned. “Tim, you were daydreaming again. I asked about your favorite fictional character. Do you have one?”

“The Caped Avenger,” Tim blurted out. He clamped his hand over his mouth, as if he could stuff the words back in. His superhero was too private to talk about at school.

“The Caped Avenger?” Mr. Callen raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Tell us about him.”

Tim glanced around. Everyone stared at him, waiting. Someone tap-tapped a pencil as if counting seconds. Matt’s round face wore his “I know something you don’t know” grin.

Tim’s words tumbled out. “The Caped Avenger fights evil. Like the time Boris the Bomber threatened to blow up the Capitol with his humongous hidden laser gun.”

“Sounds serious,” his teacher said.  “What did the Caped Avenger do?”

“He hovered in his Cape of Flight and attached a special mirror to the Capitol dome. The mirror reflected the laser back at the bad guy,” Tim said. “He sizzled away in smoke.” 

Matt called, “I’d like to see that book.”  His eyes gleamed.

“Everyone would like to see it,” Mr. Callen said. “Bring it in tomorrow, Tim.”

Oh, no. A shiver went down Tim’s back. He knew why Matt had grinned.

TRICK OR TREAT D7: SHATTERED

Title: SHATTERED

Category: New Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Word count: 100,000

Pitch:

Eighteen-year-old Dawn’s no thief, yet she’ll have to be if she wants to save her sisters from becoming demon chow. She’s tasked with stealing a powerful charm capable of releasing an imprisoned succubus—but first she’ll have to slip past its steamy guardian, Kalan. Dawn discovers Kalan has his own agenda, though, and seducing her is the first step in his plan.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

Honestly, I’ve never really been into Halloween—humans are like, “Ooh, look, I’m a vampire,” and I’m like, “Guys, vampires are the scum of the immortal community.” But if I did dress up, I’d go as someone fictional, like Lara Croft ‘cause she’s a total badass.

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

Like in Game of Thrones, everyone in SHATTERED is motivated by their desires, whether it be saving their sisters from death or killing the man who betrayed their trust. My characters will stop at nothing to get what they want, no matter the consequence.

First 250:

Don’t look, Dawn. You know what happens when you look.

I looked up. It was inevitable. When you tell yourself not to do something, you usually do the exact opposite.

Crap.

The park vendors swarmed me like a pack of rabid dogs. Their voices tore into me, snarling off sales pitches.

“A beautiful necklace for a beautiful—”

“No.”

“Would you like a subscription to The Vigrith—?”

“No."

“Mini glow-in-the-dark helicopters for sale! Buy ‘em by the dozen."

“What? No. Why the hell would I want twelve glowing helicopters?”

I didn’t wait for a reply. I walked as fast as I could without drawing attention. Luckily, the tiny carts were only set up at one entrance to the park. Turning into a large clearing, I glanced around for Cassie before settling at an empty picnic table.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find one in the shade. The heat was bearable, but the sun had me worried. Ultraviolet rays plus pale girl equaled a sunburn no amount of aloe vera could soothe. Hey, at least I had a gorgeous view...

Who was I kidding?

One half of the park had a dried-up garden with a statue of the plump Lady Fredericton; the other side had a few trees, twice as many picnic tables and a pathetically empty sand pit—

Power washed over me, rushing into my lungs like water. I gasped, my vision blurring. Stupid. I’d been stupid. Letting my mental barriers down was the epitome of stupid. The intruder left almost as soon as they came, but I still sensed them.

TRICK OR TREAT D8: THE DYSLEXIC SPELL READER

Title: THE DYSLEXIC SPELL READER

Category: YA

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Word count: 70,000

Pitch:

When Aubrey, age sixteen, discovers her severe dyslexia is a trait of advanced spell readers, the only person who can help her is Seth-- her former best friend and current heckler. Unfortunately, the exclusive magical community constructs  “accidents” to end Aubrey’s life because they perceive her outsider status as a threat.  Although Seth claims he wants to keep her alive and that he can teach her the basics to spell reading, Aubrey must decide if she can trust him and if she can tolerate his tormenting.    

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

What’s the female equivalent of a hobo?

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

My main character is heavily dyslexic and is obsessed with all the spelling rules she’s memorized and this allows for very unique internal dialogue. Do you wish you had candy Scrabble letters so you could converse via sugar without digging out the leftover Valentine’s Day conversation hearts?

First 250:

They’re discussing my flaws. Again.

Usually math is the one place where I’m okay.

Or, at least, I thought I was. Now at this impromptu sister-teacher conference, I’m realizing that my capacity for failure is endless and that this classroom smells like stale dry erase markers, pencil shaving, and a fresh dose of disappointment.

I don’t understand why Nala is so obsessed with finding answers. It’s an impairment. A disability. A handicap. Something that transforms me from an average girl to a “slow learner.” I try so hard and never succeed. But I’ve memorized all the spelling and decoding rules, even if I can’t ever play by them.

There are six types of syllables.

1. Closed. Short vowel sound. Examples include hag, bitch, and many other derogatory terms, such as ass, that I’m internally chanting on a repeated loop as Mrs. Manilow politely tells us I’m an idiot. Nala acts like a bobblehead doll since it’s nothing we haven’t heard before.

“Do you think this is due to her dyslexia?” Nala asks Mrs. Manilow. Seriously? What isn’t?

2. Vowel-consonant-e. The “e” at the end turns bossy and forces the first vowel into submission, twisting its arm until it screams its name. Like in “grade,” “life,” or “hate.” My “wires” (“E”: “Say your name, letter ‘I,’ or I’ll end you!”) are crossed in my head and therefore I have a boatload of problems. 

“She isn’t asking for help, but that could be due to her speech and language issues,” Mrs. Manilow says as if she’s explaining something delicate and profound.

TRICK OR TREAT D9: PASSION OF THE DUKE

Title: PASSION OF THE DUKE

Category: Adult

Genre: Historical/Regency Romance

Word count: 98,000

Pitch:

Having lost his entire family to a fever, Tristan Moore suddenly finds himself the Duke of Avery at the age of sixteen, and survivors guilt drives him to a dissolute lifestyle.

Physically scarred by her abusive, opium addicted father, Lady Victoria Aldridge is fearful of the touch of any man, and resigns herself to a marriage with Viscount Grentham, the gay son of her father’s best friend.

Tristan and Victoria can’t fight the attraction that sparks whenever they meet, and when they learn Grentham’s father will be the one bedding her to get his heir, Tristan must find a way to put his demons behind him, to save the woman he loves.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

Lady Victoria: "I find myself to be a composite of the character Cinderella, as my father had tried to hide me from the ton, and diminish me, and the character Mulan, as I discover my strength and learn to fight for myself, my little sisters and my happiness."

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

My story is different and unique as it isn't simply about bonnets and ballrooms. I hope to help women learn they can rise above their pain and despair to find true love.

First 250:

Hope had yet to be beaten out of eighteen-year-old Lady Victoria Aldridge. She still believed true love floated in the whispers on the dance floors in overcrowded ballrooms of the ton. She dared to dream of her own, prayed- for happily ever after, like the ending of the fairy-tales she read to her sisters when they were younger.

Her hands shaking somewhat, she discreetly tugged at the skirts of her pale pink muslin ball gown, and checked the sweep of her hair over her brow as Viscount Fairley escorted her to the floor for their dance. All through the bowing and curtsying, the intricate steps and the sway
of the music, Victoria needed to believe this man might be the one who could carry her away and save her. Like the stories of old, she held
on to the notion that true love conquered all, no matter how often she’d been disappointed.

Tonight she’d made a special effort, willing herself to accept the viscount’s hands upon her waist and shoulder, to try and enjoy the dancing and not merely suffer the closeness of his body. To simply relax and dance.

Alas, nothing had changed for her.

No matter how brief the contact, when the viscount touched her during the dance moves, even through her satin gloves and his, it took all her strength not to flinch, or pull away. She could shriek with frustration.

How was she to meet a man and fall in love, if she couldn’t bear to have him touch her?

TRICK OR TREAT D10: COMFORT UNDESERVED

Title: COMFORT UNDESERVED

Category: YA

Genre: Literary

Word count: 73,000

Pitch:

Amidst the confusion of his teenage years, seventeen year old Thomas Hamilton’s life is exacerbated by the fact he cannot fully embrace his time at boarding school.  His heart and mind are elsewhere as he is continually drawn into the fray of domestic violence back home.  In a story about bravery, cowardice, pragmatism and stupidity, Thomas finds he has a role and responsibility to his family, no matter where he physically is.

Q1: In your MC's voice, what costumed character do you most relate to and why?

Costumed characters are stupid.  I would definitely be Batman.

Q2: As an author, what makes your manuscript a tasty treat (unique/marketable)?

My manuscript is more of a trick than a treat, as I am hiding behind the mask of my novel.  I was a student at a boarding school who lived in a house filled with domestic violence; I am currently a librarian and teacher at a boarding school.

First 250:

Do not call me Abraham.
Ever.
Please, call me Thomas.

Abraham is my father, but I am not Ishmael, nor Isaac.
I am not cast aside, the first, yet unwanted child.
I am not displayed upon the alter, with the blade rushing forth.
I am Abraham Thomas Hamilton, Jr., and I have a recurring nightmare.
I picture a young bride, sitting at her kitchen table.  

Blood, dripping from her nose, falls ever so delicately onto her light, sky blue skirt.  

She sits, well past crying anymore.  She just sits there and watches as the bright, red blood falls and immediately absorbs into the fabric, creating sickly brownish purple circles.
She shudders as two circles overlap, resembling a heart.
“Love,” she mouths.  “What a notion.”
Sniffling blood, she wonders: How could I let it happen again?

Glancing at the calendar across the room, she returns a glazed stare to her lap and mumbles, “Everything changed today…”
She startles.

His presence.

Looming.
Bracing, she realizes he is here to talk.
Excuses.
Drivel.
She might leave him, she thought.  That is, until today.
Looking up, blood continues to run.

Down her chin.
Nothing stops it.
No one stops it.
Her hands cradle her stomach.
Blood continues to drip.

Tears swell - for pain, fear, or joy is not known.
“Abraham,” she says.  “I’m pregnant.”
As her words float out into the universe, with the gravity of a black hole, she sits.
Trapped, in mind, body and space.
Imprisioned.
Now, with a life sentence.