Thursday, June 28, 2012

Colene Murphy's Current Query

Do you all know Colene? She's awesome, and she blogs at The Journey. Go on and follow her, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Now here's her query:

Dear Agent,

Sixteen-year-old Damaris may have the power to steal human souls, but she isn't happy about it. A direct descendant of Death, Damaris doesn't share her parents' beliefs that her kind, Ankou, are inherently evil. Or that the only way they can gain access to Heaven is by killing humans and stealing their souls. Worse, she's been shipped off to boarding school because of her rebellion, leaving her younger sister, Genie, alone under her parents' murderous influence.

But over summer break, Damaris has a chance to show Genie another way of life, put an end to all the senseless deaths, and, hopefully, start a chain reaction to change the rest of her kind. Her parents have other ideas, however. If Damaris doesn’t make a kill, they’ll disown her. Of course, that’s if somebody doesn’t get to Damaris and her family first.

Someone is stalking Damaris, car and mail bombs popping up at every turn. If she isn't able to find out his or her identity soon, more than Genie's future will be lost, and escaping back to boarding school will no longer be an option. With everything falling in around her, Damaris must decide: go against everything she believes about the value of life and use her powers to save her sister, or admit defeat and let her deadly heritage carry on. Seems the life of a daughter of Death has just gotten way too complicated.

CALLING DEATH is a 64,000 word YA paranormal with series potential. (more agenty-personalized stuff if I can place any.)

That's it.

Please remember to save your feedback for tomorrow, and thank Cole for sharing in the comments!

19 comments:

Sarah said...

Followed. And--this looks like a fantastic story (and a pretty good query, too)! I'll try to come back tomorrow with some constructive feedback.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Colene is awesome! Sorry I'll miss the critique tomorrow.

B.E. Sanderson said...

Yep, Colene is awesome. Thanks for helping her out with her query, Matthew.

Jess said...

Colene's great~ can't wait to see what you suggest with her query!

Sarah Ahiers said...

I'll be back tomorrow as usual. You can't get rid of me!!

Anonymous said...

Very interesting concept. I'll be back tomorrow.

Hart Johnson said...

I'm eager to see the feedback tomorrow! I think this is a fairly impressive query--I can spot room for improvement, but nothing so large it would keep me from requesting more... but then I've also read the book... (it's very good!)

Tonja said...

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.

Tasha Seegmiller said...

I'm intrigued. Looking forward to your feedback.

Colene Murphy said...

Eeek! Thanks everyone! I'm so anxious/nervous for the notes and feedback tomorrow. Can't wait to make it shiny and perfect! Thank you again, guys! ANd thank you Matthew (for the millionth time!) for having me!

Karen Baldwin said...

Yup, interesting story. I'll be back.

Christina Lee said...

YAY Colene--taking the Mega-Matt-Query-Plunge (I made that up, all by myself, AND you can tell)! :D

LTM said...

YAY!!! Colene is querying! I'm so excited! And I think this sounds like a great start. I love this idea of Damaris being rebellious for the good. Murderous parents--LOL!

I'll send over my notes now. j/k! <3

Donna K. Weaver said...

Love Colene! Can't wait to see the critique tomorrow.

What a story!

Kristin Rae said...

I adore Colene, and this story sounds super interesting! I'll be back maƱana :)

Kelly Polark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelly Polark said...

This sounds like a really cool, unique premise!

DL Hammons said...

I'll circle back around! Great premise! :)

farawayeyes said...

A day late a da dollar short as usual, so I'll. E back in a few hours