Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Query for CLOSER THAN SISTERS

Get out the red pens! This is query version number... ack, I hate to think of it. The query has been making the rounds, but I can't leave it alone because it hasn't produced the expected result! Any and all (especially detailed) comments greatly appreciated. Looking forward to reading yours.

Dear M. Nificent:

Teen astrological time twins become closer than sisters until ghosts, guardian angels, and the charms of a boy force them to choose between bonds that unite and faith that divide.

Sixteen-year-old Laynie McAllister thinks her ditzy mom's paranormal beliefs are cracked. Then she meets Gwynne Rath, a newcomer born on the same day... at the same minute. The time twins share creepy, amazing life parallels. With this supernatural gift of the sister she's always wanted, her mom's New Age beliefs suddenly make sense.

Gwynne adores her new BFF, but not Laynie's weird supernatural theories. She doesn't know who or what to believe when haunting incidents uncover the truth about her parents' deaths years before. Confused, she writes off her remaining family and clings to the sisterhood. But still she falls for Declan Lake, the boy Laynie has loved forever. The love triangle tears the twins apart.

Laynie summons her guardian angel for counsel, but two show up. Laynie believes the lost one is Gwynne's. To restore their friendship, the twins need to confront Declan and reconcile the angels. Laynie insists transferring the lost angel will seal their sisterhood forever. Gwynne has adopted twinship, wondered about ghosts, and felt the feathers -- but she isn't sure a guardian angel is her thing. When Laynie talks her into a paranormal meditation, it becomes a dangerous showdown. Gwynne must decide if she can accept the beliefs that are not her own -- or lose the closest family she's ever claimed.

Thank you for considering CLOSER THAN SISTERS, Contemporary YA in alternating first person. The manuscript is 65,000 words. The opening is below.

Happy reading,
Lori Ehrman Tinkey

Friday, February 25, 2011

Testing, testing... is this thing on?

Hello everyone and yes, I'm aware 'everyone' is pretty much... um, me. Well, there's always the proverbial 'myself and I' to add, but why would I want to be clever just for me?

The other day I posted on Facebook, wherein I've invested a good deal of my momentary social time without leaving my computer or saying a word, "I'm officially rejoining society." Why? All my Facebook friends know, having lovingly commented their cheers through each chapter until the final middle-of-night announcement of a completed second novel. As my kids used to say an eternal couple of years ago, yay for me! Jk, as they say now.

But then I got to thinking -- am I ready to rejoin society, the kind with the ordinary leisurely pursuits and time-sucking rationalizations? For one, I wrote this book to read -- for other people to read, that is. That takes some doing, and all these crowding ideas for more stories seek the light, too. Secondly, is it the physical society I'm looking to rejoin, or an existential band of like-minded folks in similar pursuits (as mind-bending as those pursuits may get?).

I remember how much fun it was last time around, blogging for fitness and tweeting in connection with the writerly world until The Novel usurped the air for even a solitary chirp. It was a mountain-top experience, all of it. No regrets. And now on this second rotation of the wheel, indeed the society I wish to rejoin has altered from the one I left behind... and it's better than ever.