Tracey Neithercott's Current Query

Tracey is awesome. She's one of my co-authors at YA Confidential, and she's great with graphics like at The Kindness Project.

Here is her query:

Dear Agent TK,

[TK personalized introduction]

Seventeen-year-old Syna Karras knows there’s no such thing as murder. It’s 2055, and thanks to the software embedded in everybody’s minds, criminals are arrested before they commit a crime. Which is why Syna should believe her father died of natural causes.

But she doesn’t.

Not when the autopsy reveals his healthy heart abruptly stopped beating. Not when her father raised her on stories of serial killers of the past, slipping gruesome details into dinnertime conversation. And not when he left behind top-secret government files with blacked-out phrases and a warning of danger.

When a family friend dies in the same mysterious way as her father, Syna’s convinced murder is as real as the slice of a knife across soft flesh. She’ll do whatever’s necessary to take down the man who stole the most important person from her life—even team up with arrogant ex-best friend Linden Pearce to gain access to files his father, the Secretary of Defense, might have hidden. They have to work fast, because more people are dying, people who have a connection to her dad. And with the killer aware of her investigation, Syna could be next.

Complete at 79,000 words, ABERRATION is science fiction without the dystopia, set in a Minority Report–like world. It will appeal to fans of sci-fi mysteries such as Across the Universe by Beth Revis, All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, and The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. I’m a journalist with ten years of writing under my belt. My work has appeared in magazines such as Prevention, AARP, Capitol File, Philadelphia Style, and Diabetes Forecast.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

That's it!

Please thank Tracey in the comments, and save your feedback for tomorrow.

Happy President's Day

Amazingly, today is a company holiday. So I'm not actually here. I'm at home, playing Lego Lord of the Rings with my nephew, in my pajamas. You can be jealous, go ahead.

Anyway, my dear friend, author of Rouge and The Truth about Faking, and co-contributor to The Kindness Project, Leigh T. Moore interviewed me a few days ago, and she's putting the thing up today, at her blog. Please go check it out, and leave a comment there. It should be pretty funny.

Also, I'm announcing my assistants for the A to Z April Blogging Challenge today. Please go visit all these blogs, and make sure you're following my assistants. You'll be interacting with them quite a bit during the challenge, if you're taking part.

Jay Noel

Sheri Larsen

Melanie Shulz

Josh Le Nerd

Deniz Bevan

I'll be emailing you guys with some more info tomorrow, but don't worry, it's gonna be pretty easy. If you have any challenge related questions, or just want to thank these awesome volunteers, you can do that here.

TKP Has a Blog!

I wasn't going to even post today, but The Kindness Project Blog (link is also permanently in my sidebar, under Group Blogs) has launched, and I want all of you to go follow it, STAT. Sure, my Google Reader and the Blogs I Follow in my Blogger Dashboard still seem to be broken, but I'm sure they'll fix them eventually, so I haven't stopped following blogs.

You shouldn't either.

That is all.

The Kindness Project: Giving

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good. But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

Today I just want to highlight something I heard about on the radio. I know, it's kind of a cop-out in comparison to some of the other Kindness Project posts I've done, but I've been slammed at work lately, and even being on a hiatus from blogging hasn't helped much.

So anyway, I was listening to NPR on the way in this morning, as I am wont to do, and I heard this story, about literary giant Larry McMurtry, author of Terms of Endearment and Lonesome Dove, among others, who is holding an auction for 300,000 rare and used books.

His bookstore, Booked Up, is apparently a sprawling operation that takes up four buildings in his tiny town of Archer City, Texas. It's home to around half a million books, the majority of which will soon be going up for auction. In the interview, he said that he was concerned about his legacy, but wanted to unload some of the books because his son and his grandson are not book people.

This got me thinking about family, legacies, and giving. My dad died four years ago this October, and when my sisters and I went through his house, there was a lot of stuff to decide about. A lot of paintings, a lot of records, and a lot of books. Not nearly as many as Mr. McMurtry, of course, but a lot. We still have not had time to go through it all.

He died suddenly, and while he did have a will, it didn't specify what he wanted done with any particular items, so we've put most of it in storage until we have time to decide what to do with it. Someday I hope to have time to decide what I want to keep, and what I can give away, assuming someone somewhere wants it.

When I first heard about this auction, I was saddened and amazed (he's not giving the books away for free or anything, but still), but then I remembered my dad's stuff, and recalled what a burden it can be.

I don't know if I really have a point, but you should check out that story, it's pretty interesting. And here are the rest of today's Kindness Project posts:

The Kindness Project: Forgiveness

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good. But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

If you read this blog a lot, you know that my kid sister got married last week. It was a lovely wedding, and for the most part, a wonderful time. What I didn't tell you is that it was the first time I'd seen my aunt and uncle, and one of my cousins, in twenty years.

I'm not going to go into all the details why, but if you know me well, you can probably guess. Anyway, the point is, it was a difficult reunion for me to face. I stressed about it for months before the trip - pretty much ever since I heard the wedding was going to happen.

The last time I saw these people, I was basically a boy. A lot had changed since then, but the same feelings remained. The same feelings many young people feel toward people in positions of authority over them, whether they are their natural parents or not. Sure, I was much more rebellious than most teenagers, but I had plenty of reason to feel the way I felt.

However, justified or not, my feelings and old resentments, were not going to serve the purpose of the trip: to celebrate my sister's union with the person she'd decided to spend her life with. In other words: it wasn't about me.

So I sent my aunt and uncle an email ahead of time, asking them for forgiveness, and implying I forgave them, without mentioning any specific grievances. I didn't expect a reply, and I didn't get one, but what I did get, which was a nice surprise, was a hug from each of them, when I happened to answer the door at the rental house, when they arrived in town the day before the wedding.

We're not best friends again or anything, but we did agree to start writing to each other, and I hope that things will go well. Even if we didn't always see eye to eye back in the day, there's no denying what they did for my sister, so I made sure to thank them for that when I gave my toast after dinner.

Even if forgiveness isn't going to make a huge difference to the people you need to forgive, sometimes forgiving yourself, or even acknowledging that you need to seek forgiveness, can lift a heavy burden from your shoulders. Letting go can be extremely liberating. I highly recommend it.

NOTE: On another kindness related point, Natalie Aguirre is interviewing one of the kindest bloggers I know today on Literary Rambles. Please stop by, and say hello to Lenny Lee!

The Kindness Project: Prayers and Apologies

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good. But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

I have to apologize. I had something really special planned for today, but it fell through, because I didn't plan it far enough ahead. But that's not really why I didn't post until so late in the day.

Last night we had a family medical emergency. My ten-year-old, Madi, went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. They diagnosed her with severe strep throat, and mononucleosis at the same time. But it didn't seem that serious, so they sent her home with a prescription for antobiotics, and orders to rest and hydrate. Then, last night, her throat swelled up so badly she couldn't swallow.

We took her to the hospital, and she got some shots and an IV to re-hydrate, and now she's okay. Still in a lot of pain, and still running a high fever, but okay. So it was a rough night last night, and I stayed home from work today, just in case, and all my plans for an awesome Kindness Project post were shot.

I'm sure you all will understand.

But it did bring something to mind. I have some friends whose kids are struggling with their health as well. In fact, I have two in particular whose health is worse than Madison's. SH and LBM could both use our prayers and positive energy. And for that matter, I'm sure Lenny Lee's health probably isn't out of the woods yet.

So let's do this: if you're religious, say a prayer and ask God to help these kids, or help all sick kids, really. If you're a Buddhist, when next you meditate, send some healthy Oms their way. If you're neither, maybe you could just send some positive vibes their way? I know these poor kids sure deserve to feel better.

And the meantime, please visit these other Kindness Project blogs, the ones who actually did their job today:

Elizabeth Davis

Christa Desir

Sarah Fine

Elana Johnson

Liza Kane

Amie Kaufman

Alina Klein

Sara Larson

Jessica Corra

Sara McClung

Gretchen McNeil

Tracey Neithercott

Lola Sharp

Michele Shaw

Meagan Spooner

Carolina Valdez Miller
Sophia Chang
Erica Chapman
Leigh Moore
Claire Hennessy
Katharine Owen
Elizabeth Poole

I promise to have something more concrete for you next month. 

The Kindness Project

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good. But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

So I've teamed up with some amazing bloggers, as I am wont to do. Whenever I get invited to these things, I think, do I really have time for one more thing? And sometimes I don't, but this time I do.

To me, kindness and compassion are part of who I am. If you follow this blog, and you know me, you know I jump at the chance to help others. Especially other writers. I've been given a lot of help in my life, and the only way I know how to pay it back is to pay it forward. But this idea, this Kindness Project is supposed to be more than just that.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do yet. I mean it's been a long time since I worked in a soup kitchen in downtown Atlanta as a teenager, and it's been a long time since I volunteered for an animal rescue service in Saint Paul, and I don't know that with a family, a full time job, and a desire to be an author, that I have a lot of time for things like that anymore, but I do have time for something. I just have to figure out what it's going to be.

For today (this was actually already scheduled, and just happened to fall into place nicely) I've written what I think is an awesome guest post for my friend Jessica Salyer. It's a summary on query letters, my journey through the trenches (still going on) and lists a ton of great resources for getting to know the art of the query better. If you know anyone planning on querying soon, or if you're just curious to know more about how I (supposedly) got good at them. Please visit Jessica's blog, and read my post.

So I'll be thinking about what I want to do, but for now, please visit all the other wonderful bloggers involved in The Kindness Project:

Elizabeth Davis

Sarah Fine

Liza Kane

Amie Kaufman

Sara Larson

Sara McClung

Gretchen McNeil

Tracey Neithercott

Lola Sharp

Michele Shaw

Meagan Spooner

Carolina Valdez Miller

Be sure to check them out :D We post the second Wednesday of every month. Want to join us? Grab our button and spread a little kindness.