Saturday, October 20, 2012

Spooktacular Pitch #10: ACE OF SHADES

Background came from this design.


Title: ACE OF SHADES
Genre: YA Fantasy Steampunk
Wordcount: 80,000 words


3 Line Pitch:

In Spirited Away meets Boardwalk Empire set in a magical version of Victorian London, seventeen-year-old Enne Alfero searches for her lost mother in the shadow world and flees from the city’s politicians who want her dead. Her only ally is Levi Glaisyer, the hot seventeen-year-old street lord and card dealer at a casino. When the owner of the casino tricks Enne into swearing an unbreakable vow to work as an assassin, both Enne and Levi must play against the politicians in a deadly game for their lives.




First 250 Words:


Lourdes always told me that if she went missing for two weeks, she was dead. It’s been four.

I try not to dwell on that as I pull on my black tights, leotard, and long-sleeve t-shirt for ballet class. She’ll be back. She always comes back.

Only I don’t know how to keep waiting. I don’t know how to keep going to school, and dance. and gymnastics, and pretending that nothing is wrong. That I haven’t eaten Easy Mac four times this week. That I don’t jump to the window every time headlights sweep past my room and then disappear down the street.

But Lourdes told me to wait. That’s her protocol: say nothing and wait for someone to make contact.

But I can’t, I can’t keep waiting for “someone.” And each day I feel a little bit smaller, a little bit quieter, and a lot more alone.

This isn’t the first time she’s gone missing. But only for a few days, a week maybe. Never this long. I always assumed she’s a secret agent or something, but I doubt the James Bond types are normal, the kind of people who can’t function in the morning without coffee and wear the same nylons three days in a row, like she did.

Like she does, I mean.

And when she comes home, no more secrets. James Bond or not, my mother cannot go missing for a month and pretend that this is normal and la-tee-da. No more avoiding my questions, no more changing the topic. I deserve some answers.

1 comment: