+
Krystal Wade +
Sharon Bayliss =
Sharon Bayliss is hosting a contest with Krystal Wade from Curiosity Quills. Each entrant posts their query and first 500 words on 5/25, then we go around giving helpful suggestions to other brave contestants. On 5/28 we email our revised entries to Sharon for Krystal's consideration. Click HERE to find out more about how to enter.
So... here goes it...
My Query:
Fourteen-year-old Eri sprints into the night seeking a beast
that wants nothing more than to feast on her flesh.
She knows this is suicide, but she can't deny the pull. The
Calling is too strong. As the beast’s claws reach for her throat, a Protector
slices off its head, saving Eri from a bloody death.
The Protectors are River Island’s only defense against the
monsters roaming the darkness. The clandestine guardians use the Calling—the
internal link to the man-eating beasts—to watch over the village. Being a Protector is an honorable, secretive
position, and one only fit for men.
While the link grows within Eri, she finds herself
repeatedly drawn beyond the safety borders, hoping to satiate the rage flooding her
veins. But without proper training, the beasts will destroy her. And as a girl,
Eri’s not allowed the education to become one of the Protectors.
Beast encounters increase. Villager deaths rise. Eri must secretly learn the skills to fight
before there's nothing left to fight for.
MY PROTECTOR: THE CALLING is a young adult post apocalyptic
novel complete at 65,000 words. Readers of Kimberly Derting's THE BODY FINDER and
Maggie Stiefvater's THE SCORPIO RACES will connect with Eri’s journey—a girl shunned
from the only trade that can give her the tools to control her inexplicable
connection to seek evil.
My First 500:
Going to the river
was forbidden.
I knew this, yet I
stepped of the gravel path and walked into the field. With teeth clenched, I sucked in rapid breaths, enough to nearly taste
the crisp grass beneath my feet.
The thudding inside my ribcage screamed at me to turn
around. Stop, Eri!
Early moonlight
sparkled off the few remaining patches of snow. I should have paid attention to nature’s signal. Even the winter knew better than to dwell this close to the
safety border.
A gong sang out across the village, ringing through my
insides. The warning bell.
I glanced over my shoulder at the hazy silhouettes of people
fleeing for refuge, their shouts dying in the distance. I should have turned
back. But the charcoal sky and inky river pulled me forward.
Adrenaline flooded my veins, propelling my legs
faster. My brain searched for one sane thought to stop my muscles from carrying
me out there.
Suicide. This
is suicide!
Conflicting thoughts swirled through my head. I squeezed my eyes
shut against the confusion and pressed my hands over my ears, begging
the pounding inside to leave me alone. “Please stop, please stop, please stop,
please stop, please stop—”
Something broke
through the tree line, blurry with speed, eerily dark, features impossible to
decipher.
Logic told me to
turn and run for my life, but my feet rooted to the frosty ground. From somewhere deep inside the fibers
of my being, I knew I belonged there. Waiting for it.
A blanket of anger draped over my world, muffling
sound, wrapping me in rage. I crouched into an aggressive stance, primed
and eager to spring forward. Ready.
The nightmare sped
toward me, moving more like water than animal, swift and fluid in the gloom. Seconds
separated us.
As if descending
from flight, the beast crashed into the ground like a meteorite falling to
Earth, digging an elongated hole as it slid to a halt inches from where I stood.
The creature’s head no longer connected to its body, rolled past my dirt
covered feet, coming to rest somewhere behind me.
The it that only moments ago bore down on me with
the sole intent of feeding on my flesh, lie dead before me.
How am I still alive?
My eyes devoured
every feature of the evil at my feet, relishing each detail: its enormity, the
dark sheen of its hide, the absence of fur, four powerful legs, thin tail, no
wings though it seemed to fly a second ago.
I turned away from
its body in search of the head and found the inside of its skull facing me. Blood
and gore held together by a ring of thick, leathery skin. Its grisly expression
fixed, eyes staring toward the village. I stepped over the beast’s crater to
get a better look at the atrocity when I caught the whisper of movement.
Dread fluttered
through me for the first time.
What do you think? I am looking forward to any and ALL suggestions :)
Good luck to those of you who entered and I'll be stopping by your blog soon!
