Twice Affected

This is my entry for The Writer's Voice.

Twice Affected

Prologue

I was six the first time the glowing happened. It was at a birthday party for a girl on my block. Everything was pink. I didn't like it.

My fingers started glowing. I put my hands underneath my t-shirt and I could still see the glowing.

I’d just met a neighbor’s kid, and the girl wasn't very nice.

The voice started up in my head:

Go home, kid. Your fingers aren't going to stop glowing.

I’d looked around, thinking that maybe someone was playing a joke. I hid under a shrub.

"Who are you?" I asked, trying hard not to cry.

I’m Harold, the voice said, from inside my head. Don’t be afraid. I’ll help you. I’ll be with you always.

"But who are you?"

Your Guardian.

He said it like it started with a big G, like he was an adult. Guardian. Important.

"Are you an adult?"

I’m not human. Think of me as a purple frog, kid. Your friend.

We kept talking, and that was where my mother found me. I’d ruined the party because everyone thought that I had run away. Harold stuck around, and had a more permanent approach. The glowing would reappear eventually.

Present

The day had been gloomy and humid, with a thick stillness about it. Now, at dusk, the most exciting thing that was happening was that I was precariously hanging out of a window. This was not my idea of a good time, but it was the only option I had.


Query:

Since she was a child, Lottie has had glowing powers and a snarky voice in her head. Just before her seventeenth birthday, when she thinks that she’ll never figure out what both are meant for, she meets a boy named Charlie. He has similar glowing powers as Lottie, and he can maybe give her the answers that she’s been searching for. As they explore the truth behind their powers, Lottie and Charlie discover that it is up to them to save Earth from a malevolent enchantress that threatens utter destruction and slavery upon humankind. However, they also must save another world, Karnock, and its inhabitants, whose fate has been forever linked to Earth’s. Transported to Karnock, Lottie and Charlie see how the Atomic Bomb, Chernoybl, and global warming have all affected Karnock even more severely than they have affected Earth.

Can Lottie figure out how Earth’s past disasters fit into her current reality, gain control of her powers before she loses them completely, and embrace her destiny on Karnock to defeat the enchantress, before the enchantress seizes power over both worlds?

I am seeking representation for my completed 90,000 word YA science fantasy novel. Twice Affected is A Wrinkle in Time with a dash of An Inconvenient Truth.

I worked on this manuscript during the Fall 2013 semester at Simmons College with Amy Cherrix of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as a project toward the completion of my Writing for Children Master of Fine Arts degree, which I will receive on May 9, 2014.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Clarissa Hadge